Men With Beards Are S*xier & Healthier Than Clean-Shaven Chaps

You might own a beard, or you might have strong opinions on how attractive people with beards are, but science has made some recent discoveries that suggest having a beard is good for you in more ways than one.

In 2018 the Journal of Evolutionary Biology asked a group of women to rate men. Each dude was photographed clean shaven, with five days growth, ten days worth of facial hair and then four weeks of beard.

According to the study all the women preferred men with facial hair.


Beards, the study said, may be more attractive to women who are considering long-term relationships. Something about competing socially for resources, the paper suggested.

But then it gets even better for the beard owner, because it turns out that a nice bushy crumb catcher also offers protection from the sun's damaging UV rays. According to recent research a good beard offers an equivalent of UPF 21.

That means it blocks out around 90-95 per cent of UV radiation.

That doesn't mean you can ditch the sunscreen, but having a beard offers some real protection against the sun's harmful rays. Keeping your skin healthy and protected from the sun is one of the largest factors in looking young.

That could mean the bearded man - or those using sunscreen every day - would have fewer wrinkles and blemishes like liver spots.

Apparently the same is true of men with good head hair, offering good scalp protection from potential UV damage, like skin cancers.

So while some will no doubt claim that men with beards are lazy those men will at least be able to pretend it's for health reasons.