For anyone who was planning to go bare-faced this year, it’s
time you reconsider your decision and keep that razor away. Apart from making
you look insanely hot, beards, as it turns out, are your key to a
younger-looking and cancer-free life. Don’t believe me? Here’s science to back
up these claims. Beards have some rather surprising health benefits and here’s
why you should sport them all the more!
1.Protect your face from the sun's damaging rays
1.Protect your face from the sun's damaging rays
As Jonha Revesencio mentioned in her HuffPost blog,
"Science Explains Why a Beard Makes You Look Hotter," beards are able
to block up to 95 percent of the sun's harmful UV rays. Citing researchers from
the University of Southern Queensland, Revesencio explained that a beard can
mitigate sun damage and even reduce a man's risk of contracting skin cancer.
2.Beards Can Prevent Throat Disease
Dense facial hair can trap allergens and airborne bacteria
and help them keep out of your mouth, and thus, your throat. There cannot be
the least doubt that the beard, and the hairs that grow in the nostrils, were
designed by nature to guard the lungs from the invasion of these deleterious
particles. Such being the use of the beard, individuals engaged in employments
where the air is constantly filled with particles of fine dust should never
shave.
3.Keeps you warm
If you have never gone outside in sub-zero weather and touched your bearded face, you are missing out. You can’t feel a thing. It is such a good insulator that sometimes you can put an icepack on your face and not feel anything. A beard is a prime resource for working outside in the winter!
4. A beard can assist those with asthma.
Similar to the prevention of throat disease, beards provide another barrier between your body and toxic exposures. If your asthma gets triggered by pollen grains or dust, you can find solace by growing beards. Your moustache that is around your nasal area stops allergens going up the nose and being inhaled by the lungs. Your beard acts as an additional barrier between your body and these toxics.
5.Can help express personality:
With its customizability comes the chance to help express
your personality. Just as with clothes, beards help define a person and help to
give good (or bad) first impressions to people.
6. A beard can reduce the chances of bacterial infection.
According to the book The Acne Cure, by Terry J. Dubrow and
Brenda D. Adderly, shaving can bring on acne breakouts, worsen existing acne
and contribute to acne-related skin infections. People who shave more often
than not suffer from a host of skin-related issues—blemishes, in-grown hair,
cuts and nicks that bring in bacteria and lead to infections and worsen the
already-existing acne. Beards add a layer of protection from these infections.
7. Not shaving can clear up your schedule for more important things.
In 1972, Dr. Herbert Mescon, then professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine, told The Spartanburg Herald that the average man will spend an estimated 3,350 hours of his life shaving. That's 139 days! Nearly five months! Growing a beard can save you so much time.
8. A beard can improve your sex life.
An anonymous 1970s study, quoted in the book The Dependent Gene, found a correlation between beard growth and the potential for sex. "The stimulus for increased beard growth is related to the resumption of sexual activity," the author of the experiment found, after spending extensive periods in isolation. When the likelihood of a sexual encounter increases so does testosterone secretion, which may impact beard growth, the book analyzes.
9. Beards Keep Your Skin Moisturized
Your skin secretes natural oils that keep it moisturized, so when you shave, this layer of moisture gets eroded. If you have a beard, the natural moisture of your skin will remain intact. Similarly, if you shave, your skin is exposed to the sun in hot weathers and the cold air in winters—elements that can dry out your skin. Beards, therefore, protect your skin and keep it moisturized.
10. Beards Keep You Young
This one is ironic considering beards make men look more mature and give them gravitas but by protecting your skin from sun damage, blemishes and wrinkles, your beard is automatically keeping your skin much younger.
11. Makes you look older
Don’t confuse by looking older and feeling younger. Beards make all men in their twenties look older as long as it is thick enough and even. Looking older comes with looking wiser and more experienced. Also, it can help mitigate other aesthetic problems that make us look younger. For example, I almost twenty and, when shaved, people often guess I am 2-3 years younger than I actually am.