More germs can be found in men's beards than in dogs' fur, as to a new research shows.
Researchers at Switzerland's Hirslanden Clinic took swabs from the beards of 18 men and found that every beard contained bacteria.
A team was testing whether it was hygienic to let dogs into the same MRI machines as humans and compared the beard samples to swabs taken from the necks of thirty dogs.
All the bearded men, aged between 18-76, showed high microbial counts, while just 23 out of 30 dogs had the same. The rest had moderate levels.
7 beards harbored germs which could be harmful to human health.
"Our study shows that bearded men harbor a significantly higher burden of microbes and more human-pathogenic strains than dogs," said Andreas Gutzeit.
"On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men," he added.
Beard hair is coarser and more curly and, therefore, traps dirt more easily, with hair around the nostrils and mouth the prime hotbed for bacteria.
Keith Flett, the founder of the Beard Liberation Front, was relaxed about the findings: "I think it's possible to find all sorts of unpleasant things if you took swabs from people's hair and hands and then tested them," he said.
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