Despite the booming popularity of hipster beards, a new study has found that 43 per cent of women would refuse to date a dude who wasn’t clean shaven.
The survey of 2,000 Brits, conducted by bathroomtakeaway.co.uk, found that although many men are self-conscious about their ability to grow face fuzz, 61 per cent of women aren’t fussed about the feature.
“It’s clear that people are spending lots of time and money following strict skincare and grooming regimes,” said Julian Smith, managing director at bathroomtake-away.co.uk. “It’s important that people maintain their appearance for themselves rather than being hellbent on following the latest fad.”
But these stats go against other research published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, which revealed that having a beard enhanced a man’s long-term attractiveness to women.
Harking back to caveman days, researchers suggest that beards could be considered attractive to women as they signal “intrasexual formidability” and “the potential to provide direct benefits to females” such as enhanced fertility or survival.
To each their own, we say.
This article originally appeared on Women’s Health Australia.
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