I have not shaved since high school; yes, I’ve had a beard for more than 40 years. I don’t think about my beard or shaving it or almost anything else about it. Well, maybe I should.
According to a study out of Switzerland, men have more bacteria in their beards then dogs have on their fur!
Now, this was a very limited study – 18 men and 30 dogs – and presumably, these were Swiss men and dogs (though I have no idea why that would be relevant).
The study revealed that every single bearded man, aged 18 to 76, had high counts of bacteria in their beards while only 23 of the 30 dogs tested had the same results.
So 100% of the men and 77% of the dogs had high counts of bacteria, which, frankly, doesn’t sound so good for either group.
But 7 of the men had bacteria that put them at risk of getting sick while none of the dogs had such bacteria. So score one for the dogs? But what do these limited results even mean?
- Do dog lovers have a rebuttal to those germophobes in relationships with men with beards who ask “how can you snuggle with that dog?” Come on, there must be at least 5 of those people out there.
- Do dogs have a rebuttal to pet parents with beards who complain about drool or food on the face of their dogs? (I’m guilty of this one).
- Is this just one more stupid study that allows people to write blogs about topics that most of us would have been just fine never thinking about?
- Are the razor manufacturers so concerned about the hipster trend to grow beards that they paid for this ridiculous study?
Honestly, we have no idea why this study was undertaken, what it could possibly mean or how it will impact those with beards, those with dogs, or those involved with those with beards and/or dogs.
And of course, why didn’t they study dogs with beards?
All I can tell you is that one study of 18 men and 30 dogs are not going to convince me to start shaving.
Thanks for reading.
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