Is Your Boyfriend’s Hipster Beard Full Of Poo? It Might Be…

Hipster or Victorian?

With the rise in facial fixtures like beards (apparently peak beard is subject to the laws of Darwinian selection according to an Australian study, and when there are too many, we start fancying the clean-shaven more) comes this worrying bit of news: microbiologist John Golobic, of Quest Diagnostics in New Mexico, swabbed a number of beards for, erm, research purposes, and didn’t like what he found.

Specifically, poo. Fecal matter was found in disturbingly high degrees in the beards he examined (thanks for taking one for the team, John) and while none was at levels that’d make you sick, he did say this: “There would be a degree of uncleanliness that would be somewhat disturbing.”

Rather.

So how did this crappy matter come about? Lack of handwashing seems the likely culprit. Bearded gents nip off to to the loo for a quick bit of necessary, forget to finish with a wash with soap and hot water. Then they touch their faces. Euuw.

But before we all get too smug, let’s not forget that poo tends to be on pretty much everything: it’s often swabbed off phones (‘fess up, if you take yours into the bathroom) and other personal care items too. #yuck

• beards
• men
• omg
• poo