Have We Reached ‘Peak Beard?’
Beards. Beards are for men. Manly men. That’s well-established. And as I sit here typing this at you from the wilds of eastern Kentucky I am in proud possession of a glorious, bushy, hillbilly beard. But now science comes along to harsh on my mellow, as it always eventually does to us hillfolk. Scientists in Australia say that it isn’t beards that are inherently sexy, it’s that they’re more sexy when they stand out in a crowd of clean-shaven guys. In a society where everyone is bearded, the clean-shaven guy stands out and is more sexy. The scientists introduce the concept of “peak beard,” the point where too many beardos are running around and the sexiness swings back to clean-shaven guys. I knew ironically-bearded hipsters would ruin things. In the study 1,453 women and 213 men were asked to rate the level of attractiveness of different samples of men’s faces. According to an article about the study on the BBC’s website: Some were shown mostly “full” beards. Others were shown mostly