Scientists have revealed some of the reasons why men might want to grow beards.
Love them or hate them, a study from 2017 found that around 33 percent of men in America have beards.
But what actually motivates men to grow facial hair? Is it simply a fashion trend, or is there more to it?
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Well, scientists think they may have found the answers.
Beards can help a person to be perceived differently
Researchers from the University of Silesia in Poland, and University of Padova in Italy, found that men with beards are perceived differently to men without.
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They looked at 414 men between the ages of 18 and 40, who completed surveys about their facial hair, including questions regarding why they chose to grow their beards and how willing they were to buy hair-enhancing products.
They were also asked to rate how they perceive the importance of health, status, self-protection and how they seek a partner.
“Studies conducted so far have shown that people give different characteristics related to fundamental social motives to men with different types of facial hair”, researchers wrote.
“However, research on perceptions of men's facial hair provides mixed findings and there is a need for more research on the topic to help clarify this ambiguity.”
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Beards look 'healthy' and 'trustworthy'
According to the research, men with beards are viewed as healthier and more trustworthy.
However, they are also considered to be more dominant and more efficient when it comes to 'self-protection', as well as being better fathers.
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“We hypothesized that men’s striving to realize fundamental social motives might manifest through increased interest in facial hair enhancement," said the study.
"Therefore, we predicted positive correlations between facial hair enhancement motivation and orientation on such fundamental social motives as self-protection, status-seeking, mate-seeking, and kin care related to children.”
Valuing long-term relationships and family
They also found that those with facial hair valued long-term relationships and were more family orientated.
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“Previous findings indicated that observers tend to perceive bearded men as having more parenting skills,” they explain.
“Therefore, having more facial hair may be used by men to inform other people that their social motives shift from focusing on mating market to focusing on long-term romantic relationships and family.
“In addition, we found that among clean-shaven men mate-seeking motive was linked with a higher motivation to enhance their facial hair, which further supports this thesis.”
Despite the findings, authors recognised that more work is needed to fully understand the motivations around facial hair, but it's certainly an interesting start.
Lucy Devine