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Women Are More Attracted to Men With Beards, According to Science
If in the past, wearing a beard was associated with messiness and being ungroomed, today, beards are swiftly working their way to the Olympus of the fashion world. Nowadays, beards are considered an attribute of stylishness and even chicness. Don’t believe us? Take a look at your Instagram feed to see a variety of handsome guys showing off “secondary sexual characteristics” on their faces.
Bright Side carefully combed through all the beard-related studies around and found one that will appease all your basic instincts toward bearded men.
Men who shave their faces spend, on average, 3,350 hours of their lifetime in the bathroom according to statistics. Perhaps that’s the reason why wearing a beard has become a big trend within recent years. The good news is that not only does it save a man’s time, but it also attracts more women, leaving those beardless, clean-shaven guys in the dust.
As surprising as it might sound, women find bearded men better looking which increases the chances of the latter to find a lifetime romantic partner sooner. Not to mention the fact that beards help men stand out from the crowd, overshadowing those without beards in the dating pool.
Scientists from several Australian universities as well as the University of Turku in Finland grew interested in this tendency and decided to find out how beardedness influences women’s attitudes toward this masculine feature and learn the reasons behind such preferences.
About 8,500 women were invited to take part in the experiment and were shown sets of photos of the same men: in each set there was one photo of a clean-shaven man, a photo showing the man with light stubble, and a full beard in the last photo. The participants were asked to assess these men’s attractiveness and whether they would consider getting into a relationship (long-term or short-term) with them.
Most women noted that they found men with beards better looking and wanted to have a long-term relationship with them, while clean-shaven faces were chosen more for short-term relationships. A possible explanation for this could be that beardedness might be considered “a signal of intrasexual formidability and the potential to provide direct benefits to females.”
Moreover, beards tend to soften features that are considered too masculine or even feminine, making men look more attractive.
Overall, not only are beards another fashionable trend, but they’re also a tool that balances out faces of men who look too masculine. Beards add more charm to those who are perceived as eternally serious because beards show a person has a willingness to let loose and have some fun. And last but not least, beards favor those who want to get into a serious game known as a long-term relationship.
So, if you’re looking for a long-term, stable relationship, it’s high time you ditched the razor and let your facial hair grow free. After all, we’re all subjects to our basic instincts, aren’t we?
Let’s make our own experiment! What do you like more: bearded men or clean-shaven ones?
Preview photo credit Legends of the Fall / TriStar Pictures
