25 Amazing Facts About Beards
25.
Pogonophobia- This means the fear of beards, this is a pretty odd phobia, but if you do
have this you’ll experience symptoms like nausea, feelings of dread, irregular heartbeat,
and sweating.
It’s an irrational fear.
Mothers often warn their daughters to never trust a man with a beard unless he is Santa
Claus.
The United States has not yet had a president with a beard since the 1800s.
The most famous bearded president in the U.S was Abraham Lincoln.
The fear of facial hair on other people can cause a lot of anxiety someone who has this
phobia.
It might be a past traumatic experience with someone in the past who had facial hair or
thinking that someone with a long beard is unclean.
Some cultures force men to keep facial hair, mostly middle eastern areas.
It might seem unreal, but this is a real fear.
Who knew a soft fuzzy beard could be such a traumatic experience.
24.
Abraham Lincoln- He was the first U.S president to sport a beard in 1860.
But the historical moment happened when an eleven-year-old girl named Grace Bedell wrote
a message to President Lincoln.
Her message said, “You would look a great deal better, for your face is so thin.”
So he took the little girls advice and continued to grow and grow his beard, and people definitely
noticed, and so did the press and tabloids.
23.
Male compliments- The most compliments a man gets after growing out his beard will be from
other men.
The majority of females aren’t a fan of a lot of facial hair, but men look at it as
a manly accomplishment and show wisdom.
This also makes other men wonder if they would be able to grow a beard of their own and see
it a masculine challenge within themselves.
A full beard is considered to be an alpha trait.
So guys that can’t grow a thick beard will be envious.
22.
Save time- A beard will save you almost five months of your life.
The average man spends 4.5 months or 139 full days of their life shaving.
Imagine what you could do instead with all that spare time.
So I guess some guys look at it like they could be doing so many other things other
than shaving and spending time in the bathroom and shower every day.
Instead of shaving, they can travel, exercise, practice something, go hiking, spend more
time with loved ones.
There's plenty to keep a man busy.
21.
Longest beard in history- Hans Langseth holds the records for the longest beard in the world,
with his beard being seventeen feet six inches long.
Now that’s impressive!
Hans died in North Dakota in 1927, and he left his children with a final request.
His wish was that after his funeral he wanted to have his beard cut off and stored away
for a museum to display it.
His son cut off his beard and kept it in an attic for decades before his other son Russell
donated it to the Smithsonian.
Turns out it's the perfect place for it to be kept because according to the Guinness
Book of World Records, Hans has still set the record for the longest beard to this day.
20.
They protect against bacteria- A study was done on 408 bearded men that worked in hospitals
and revealed that clean-shaven men were three times more likely to carry harmful bacteria
on their faces than men with beards.
The facial hair acts as a filter to block out and catch bacteria and particles that
float in the air, so it goes on the facial hair instead of inside your nose or mouth.
A fuzzy face also protects against sun damage and skin cancer.
Beards add an extra layer of protection from infections.
Bacteria usually exist on the skin and shaving can make openings that make it easier to bring
bacteria to infections and ingrown hairs.
By not shaving this can also improve skin and acne flare-ups.
A lot of the time shaving can make acne worse and bring on breakouts.
19.
Dominant and aggressive- Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, but a nice face
mane can go a long way with the ladies.
Men with a heavy beard were thought to be the most attractive to women.
In a study, women rated men who had a full beard to have better parenting skills than
men without facial hair, solely based on photos.
In the study men with a light stubble on their face scored lower in all categories, even
compared to clean-shaven men.
A full beard shows masculinity and dominance.
A woman probably views a man with a lot of facial hair to be in control, and manly, and
able to fix things, and is probably great for nature activities and survival.
Which in return makes women comfortable in the fact of having children and being protected.
18.
Women can grow beards too- About twenty American women remove their facial hair at least once
a week.
Everyone has a tiny bit of hair on their face; we call it peach fuzz.
But too much hair growth on the face in women can be a side effect of aging or hormone imbalances.
But when puberty hits changes in hormones can lead to dark coarse hair growing in many
different parts of the body.
These changes can be embarrassing, but everyone women experience them with age.
Menopause can also increase estrogen levels to decline at this stage in a women’s life,
which causes excess hair growth on the face.
It’s nothing abnormal, and some ethnic groups naturally have more facial hair than the other
which makes this completely normal for many families.
The longest female beard goes to Vivian Wheeler; she grew a beard after her mother passed away
and had four failed marriages in 1993.
Her beard was slightly over ten inches long.
But luckily there are simple and inexpensive ways to handle this, like shaving and waxing.
So, guys, you're not the only ones capable of growing a beard!
17.
They can grow four times a man’s height- Its estimated that around fifty-five percent
of men all around the world have some type of facial hair, whether it be a full-on beard,
a light mustache or a simple five o clock shadow.
The average beard grows five and a half inches each year and is made up of around thirty
thousand whiskers.
If the average man were to never trim his beard, he would end up with a twenty-seven
and a half foot beard by the time he reached his death.
16.
Hair came with a price- In the late seventeenth century, Peter the Great, believed that beards
were a thing of the past.
He imposed a tax on all beards so if men wanted to have a beard they had to pay the price
to have it and Noblemen sporting them had to carry a license in order to have one.
15.
Social standing- In ancient Egypt, facial hair was a sign of a weak social standing.
But in religion and art beards were associated with a god-like status.
For special occasions, a pharaoh would wear a fake beard to convey his god status.
Even with high-powered women, they are shown sporting facial hair in royal paintings.
14.
Beer drinkers- For those beer lovers who savor every last drop of their beer, facial hair
might not be for you.
Guinness researchers found that 162,719 pints of beer are lost across 92,370 mustache and
bearded drinkers each year!
That’s a lot of beer wasted and not the most attractive thing to think about leftover
alcohol in men’s facial hair.
13.
Hair transplants- In Turkey especially, facial hair is associated with a high social status
and masculinity.
In this country having a patchy or non-existent mustache or beard won't get you very far in
your love life or professional life.
As a matter of fact, it can seriously affect it.
So this explains why facial hair transplants and hair transplant tour packages are becoming
so popular.
They even include four days of medical and overnight charges all included if you want
to travel here from another country to get your transplant done.
They have many wise doctors who are great at creating mustaches, stubble, and beards
for patients using hair from other parts of their body.
12.
Different shades- It’s very common for facial hair to be a different shade than the hair
on your head.
From sun exposure and stress, or malnutrition can all contribute to the affect and shade
of the hair, it mostly comes down to the levels of pigmentation in your hair follicles.
Each hair follicle contains a mixture of brown or black color and red and yellow color.
All of these different combinations are responsible for some random dark or red patches that sometimes
appear on our bearded friends.
11.
Disadvantage at war- Having a long beard is a major disadvantage in a battle or a war
because they can be grabbed easily.
The beard kind of speaks for itself because it makes it tempting for the enemy to grab
it.
This is why almost everyone in the army is clean shaven, so that doesn’t become an
issue.
10.
Block out the rays- Facial hair can block up to ninety-five percent of the sun’s harmful
UV rays.
So beards can go a long way when it comes to protecting you from things skin cancer.
Not to mention another big plus is it helps prevent signs of aging around your neck, head
and face.
9.
Stop acne- If you want to stop acne in its tracks and have blemish free skin, it’s
pretty simple, just stop shaving.
Shaving can spread bacteria around your face and cause hair follicles to turn into an infection
and irritate your skin with razor rash.
8.
Forbes list- ninety-eight percent of men on the Forbes 100 list of the world’s wealthiest
men are clean shaven.
7.
Deck of cards- The only king without a mustache in a deck of cards is the king of hearts.
6.
Whiskers- Most beards consist of up to around thirty thousand hairs!
5.
Gold Egyptian beard- Back in ancient Egyptian times, if you wanted anyone to take you seriously,
you would dye your beard gold.
Having a gold beard was a symbol of someone who had a high ranking position and a high
social status.
And you definitely didn’t go without your gold beard if you were a king, queen or other
royalty during special occasions.
Even royal cows were seen with a fake gold beard!
4.
Save months of your life- The average man spends 4.5 months or 139 full days of their
lives shaving.
Imagine all you could do with that time instead!
That’s a lot of days of your life wasted standing in the bathroom or shower shaving
your face.
Then again, most people, in general, spend a lot of time shaving or waxing.
Women spend an average 72 days of their lives just shaving their legs!
Not to mention, girls absolutely dread shaving their legs.
3.
Fidel Castro- An operation known as The Cuban Project was a plan to contaminate Fidel Castro’s
clothing with thallium salts, which would eventually make his beard fall out.
The project was full of plans, including spraying hallucinogens into the booth before Fidel
would give a speech, putting explosive sea salts at the places he would hangout the most,
and coating his cigars with toxins.
2.
Win a staring contest- If you want to win a staring contest and you have a beard, you're
almost guaranteed to win.
A beard is a distraction and maybe sometimes intimidating, so when someone is trying to
look you in the eyes, it’s hard not to look down at the beard.
Men with beards are 63% more likely to win a staring contest.
1.
Beards and baldness- If your hair is thinning on top of your head, your beard could be part
of the reason.
Some men lose the hair on their scalp because of additional heat retention from their beard.
Women lose more heat through their lips, chin, neck, and cheeks and less hair on their head.
Men who grow a beard lose 40% less heat through their face and create more sweat from their
scalp.