Guys, put the razor down and step away from the sink. You’ll thank me for it later.
Just when you think beards are about to go out of fashion a memo drops: ‘Nah, they’re still cool, let it be. Everyone loves beards’ – I’d imagine it would read if it existed.
But fictional beard related memoranda aside, a scientific study has proven blokes with a bit of bush on their faces are more attractive to women, and who can argue with science when it’s telling you something, right.
I mean look at these fine specimens above. Don’t you just wanna take them all home? That pic got me almost 20 likes. That’s banging social content in my books.
Back to the science and a study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology discovered men with beards are universally more attractive than those without.
8,520 women were asked to rate men, both with and without facial hair, on a spectrum of ‘relationship longevity’ in a study entitled ‘The Masculinity Paradox’.
Guess how many preferred the beards? Have a think about it.
All of them, 8,520 women preferred their men unshaven. You haven’t seen a success rate like that since I last logged into Tinder.
It doesn’t all come down to looks either. You should obviously never judge a book by its cover – I hate shallow people too – but the research also found men with beards are seen as more mature and better long term partners – which is something my ex would probably disagree with very strongly.
The research found:
Male-typical facial features such as a pronounced brow ridge and a more robust jawline may signal underlying health, whereas beards may signal men’s age and masculine social dominance.
However, masculine faces are judged as more attractive for short-term relationships over less masculine faces, whereas beards are judged as more attractive than clean-shaven faces for long-term relationships.
Beards actually blur the lines between masculinity and femininity, which is a sentence I never expected to write.
The research also found an angular jaw is an indicator of high testosterone levels, which isn’t necessarily attractive for women looking for a longer-term relationship.
A note you may want to keep on a piece of card with your phone number on the back:
Our findings suggest that beardedness may be attractive when judging long‐term relationships as a signal of intrasexual formidability and the potential to provide direct benefits to females.
I can hear myself blurting that out in ‘Spoons now: ‘Hey Toots, I can give you some direct benefits.’
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Tim Horner is a sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated with a BA Journalism from University College Falmouth before most his colleagues were born. A previous editor of adult mags, he now enjoys bringing the tone down in the viral news sector.