The most beautiful, the longest and the most creative - bearded people regularly compete against each other in competitions. World Beard Day is celebrated on Saturday (September 3rd). A few hairy facts on this occasion:
Who has the prettiest?
For many, running a show is part of being a passionate beard wearer. At the "World Beard and Mustache Championships" in Burghausen, Bavaria, the stateliest specimens will again be chosen next year - in the mustache, full and partial beard categories.
Anyone who, like the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, wears a mustache with upturned ends must ensure that the tips do not protrude above the level of the eyebrows. In the "Musketeer" section, on the other hand, the accurate editing is particularly important.
For some, however, it is not about the beauty at all, but only about the length: According to the Guinness Book of Records, the full beard of the Norwegian Hans Langseth is said to have measured 5.33 meters. However, he only received the award after his death in 1927. Another record holder does not even reach half: With a length of almost two and a half meters, Sarwan Singh received the title "Longest beard on a living male person" in 2011.
And what is more attractive?
Hollywood star George Clooney, singer Alvaro Soler or Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck all have a beard or stubble (from time to time). But does that make them more attractive than men who prefer to go topless? In 1871, the British naturalist and bearded Charles Darwin wrote: "It seems that for our ape-like ancestors the beard was an ornament with which the males tried to charm or excite the females."
Modern studies on the attractiveness of beards, on the other hand, do not come to any clear conclusions. In 2012, researchers at the University of Queensland presented almost 230 women from New Zealand and Samoa with photos of men with and without facial hair and different facial expressions. The shaved men were perceived as more attractive.
A 2014 study published in Biology Letters found that men and women who had previously only been shown pictures of bearded men found them less attractive than men without a beard. On the other hand, subjects who had previously seen only shaved faces found the shots of bearded people more appealing. In general, stubble was more popular with the more than 1,600 test participants than a full beard or a clean shave.
women with beard
The hair is usually more developed in men than in women. In boys, it usually begins during puberty, triggered by the hormone metabolite dihydrotestosterone.
But women also have beards: the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, for example, painted herself in pictures with a visible fuzz. And women with the hormone disorder polycystic ovary syndrome can also have stronger hair growth and thus a more noticeable beard. The British woman Harnaam Kaur, for example, says she has the syndrome and in 2015 at the age of 24 she set the record in the Guinness Book as the youngest woman with a full beard.
Failed repair
When you hear the words beard and accident, you might first think of a failed shave - but for eight men from Egypt, a breakdown in 2014 even ended before a disciplinary court. Ironically, the goatee of the golden death mask of the pharaoh Tutankhamun broke off when they tried to heave the 3,300-year-old piece back onto a pedestal after repairing a light bulb. Despite the rapid use of glue, the mishap did not go unnoticed. Finally, the famous mask was expertly restored in Germany.
