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Are beards as dirty as toilets? False alarm!

This article is more than 12 months old

If you are averse to facial hair and the over-cultivated chins and jaws of pretentious hipsters, this news would have been a ray of hope.

A recent "study" had warned that facial hair could be dirtier than a toilet bowl.

However, sites like The Guardian and Washington Post have poked holes at the credibility of the study.

So unfortunately, bearded hipsters are safe.

A group of microbiologists said they willingly put themselves in the company of these bearded hipsters – all in the name of science – to find that these beards are rancid.

 

 

Based in New Mexico, the researchers said they swabbed a number of beards.

What they discovered was that some of the bacteria are "the kind of things that you find in feces".

 

 

Microbiologist John Golobic, of Quest Diagnosistics, said: "I'm usually not surprised, but I was surprised by this.

"There would be a degree of uncleanliness that would be somewhat disturbing," he said.

If all this has yet to make you reach for a razor, Dr Golobic added that the matter found in some of the beards he examined was comparable to that of a toilet.

The Guardian then reported that this wasn't really a scientific study in the first place. The "study" was in fact done for a TV news network in New Mexico.

In this segment, a reporter swabbed a handful of men's beards and then sent send the swabs to Dr Golobic, who then identified a few of the bacteria as "enterics", which normally live in the intestines. 

It was also reported that it's not accurate to describe those bacteria on their own as faeces.

So there you have it folks - hipster beards are here to stay. 

Source: Metro, New York Post

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