I am writing this from what I believe is the most rugged state in the United States – Alaska. As someone who proudly sports a decent gray-and-white beard, some people seem concerned about the cleanliness of having facial hair. As a biologist, I can confidently say that there is really nothing to fret about.
The concern regarding beards as potential breeding grounds for diseases originated around sixty years ago. A study conducted in 1967 by microbiologist Manuel S. Barbeito and his team involved spraying bacteria onto the participants’ beards. They discovered that even after washing with soap and water, the bacteria remained.
The idea resurfaced years later — but this time, comparing bacteria in beards to those found in toilets — and has remained pervasive online.
Our skin is teeming with microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In fact, we coexist with mites that inhabit our eyelashes. Shari Lipner, an associate professor of clinical dermatology at Weill Cornell Medicine, reassures us by mentioning that not all microorganisms found on our skin are harmful.
“There are bacteria all over our bodies, so there are bacteria in beards, too,” said Kimberly Davis, an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Here’s the thing, and it’s something a lot of folks don’t know about: We’re all perambulating ecosystems. We have, as this article notes, bacteria, viruses, and fungi in our hair and on our skin, and we have mites in our eyelashes. Everyone does. And that’s not all; we have bacteria in our digestive systems, and in fact, our guts wouldn’t properly process food without them. Our intestinal fauna helps us break down foods like cellulose, which we wouldn’t be able to digest otherwise. Wiping out that intestinal fauna can make one very sick indeed.
Besides, beards are cool. They radiate masculinity. Our own Vice President JD Vance gets it, and he’s the first bearded dude to hold our nation’s #2 chair in a long time. What’s more, if he keeps the chin-curtain up and runs successfully for president, he will be the first bearded chief executive since Benjamin Harrison, who served from 1889 to 1893. There have been mustachioed presidents since, including most notably Theodore Roosevelt, but Harrison was the last to sport a full-on Grizzly Adams.
Tim “Great Walz of China” may disagree, of course, but his track record of “masculinity” is shaky at best, his claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
