Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie
Speaker 1: named for me. Your favorite beards. And in the world
Speaker 1: out there of bearded faces, which which one's called you
Speaker 1: the most? You mean the wearer of it? No, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, like beards that you I mean. I guess
Speaker 1: it's harder. How do you separate the wearer from the beard?
Speaker 1: How do you separate the beard from the bearded? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm staring at our producer right now, Noel,
Speaker 1: who has a wonderful beard. It's a good beard. It's
Speaker 1: a friendly beard. It's it's a coron. That was an
Speaker 1: awful pronunciation of very current. Um, it's a good it's
Speaker 1: a solid beard. But you know one of my favorite
Speaker 1: beerds of all time, a pretty gray Yes, this is
Speaker 1: the biogere intelligence. Yes, he has a straight, straight up
Speaker 1: wizard beard, a long beer that you look at it
Speaker 1: and you're like, this is a man with with wisdom.
Speaker 1: This is a man um of experience that I can
Speaker 1: trust to help me live forever. Yeah, And you know
Speaker 1: what I kind of had wondered. You know, I think
Speaker 1: I made a comment before in another episode when we
Speaker 1: were discussing some of his ideas about living forever um.
Speaker 1: You know, there was this idea of, well, if he
Speaker 1: shaved his beard, would he look twenty years old or
Speaker 1: would he look a hundred and twenty. I don't know
Speaker 1: there's that much facial hair going on, Yeah enough to
Speaker 1: him my head. I don't know how old he is either,
Speaker 1: so you can't even factor that into it. No, But
Speaker 1: after sort of looking at some of this research, I
Speaker 1: have a new view of Arportugray that I will discuss
Speaker 1: later on in the podcast because I don't want to
Speaker 1: give anything away. Okay, UM, it's interesting you sent this
Speaker 1: um this infographic around the trustworthiness of beards that ranks
Speaker 1: all these varying degrees of beards from from the very
Speaker 1: trustworthy to be disastrous. And there's there's like a dozen
Speaker 1: of them on here, and uh, on the far end
Speaker 1: of the very trustworthy scape, we have like to the
Speaker 1: two beards that are closest to the end. One basically
Speaker 1: looks like Noel's beard and the other one looks like
Speaker 1: Aubrey grays beer. If you go on the other end
Speaker 1: of the spectrum, then you have to encounter a Hitler
Speaker 1: mustache and a pencil fin mustache. Say that pencil fan
Speaker 1: always says villain to me or John Water. I don't
Speaker 1: think of John Waters as a villain. Well, I think
Speaker 1: a benevolent villain. I think he would would term himself
Speaker 1: at you know, possibly possibly he's a provocateur. But also
Speaker 1: funny on this particular infographic is that the the Hitler
Speaker 1: mustache and the John Waters mustache right below that is
Speaker 1: a full werewolf. So I'm glad that hyperdricosis made the list. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you one beerd There's so many great
Speaker 1: beards out there, um, so many great beards from science
Speaker 1: history alone, which I'm hoping we'll do a little gallery
Speaker 1: to go with this online. Now I have to mention
Speaker 1: before we launch into beer and we really look at
Speaker 1: the science be find them. Um that I feel like,
Speaker 1: in part we should owe this episode to your own
Speaker 1: facial hair. Yes, oh the sideburns, burns, You've got nice
Speaker 1: chops there. Yeah, well let's they go from the sideburn
Speaker 1: level to the chocolate which I was I was looking
Speaker 1: at where those rank on this particular trustworthiness of beards
Speaker 1: and certainly the chops that the chops are a little
Speaker 1: more in the neutral zone, whereas the sideburns are are
Speaker 1: a little more towards the trustworthy side. So if I
Speaker 1: can actually, you know, go buy anything that this infograph
Speaker 1: has to say about the matter. Well, just as a
Speaker 1: side note, you have a great photo gallery sideburns of science,
Speaker 1: sideburns of science. See, I'm thinking we'll do one about
Speaker 1: beards as well to go with this episode. One beard
Speaker 1: that I that I am seeing a lot of recently
Speaker 1: because I'm watching, um, the current season of Madman is
Speaker 1: the actor who plays the character Stan j R. Ferguson
Speaker 1: has this huge beard. I don't know if you're up
Speaker 1: to that point. Yeah, And so illustrator yea, the illustrator
Speaker 1: massive beard, and uh, I was looking up I found
Speaker 1: an interview with him and he says that when he
Speaker 1: after he came in, um, you know, ready to do
Speaker 1: the show, grew out this beard that they wanted him
Speaker 1: to have for this season. He said it was actually
Speaker 1: a bit too much. It was like a cross between
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Johnson and Tom hankson Castaway, and they actually had
Speaker 1: to trim it down to its to the state that
Speaker 1: you see it in on that So so virile was
Speaker 1: his beard. Yeah, I had to tame it back. You
Speaker 1: know what's interesting about that, and we'll get into this,
Speaker 1: is that as a character he he usually says some
Speaker 1: pretty loudish things, like loudish like um, you know, he
Speaker 1: says some inappropriate things, sexually charged, now clean shaven, super creepy.
Speaker 1: The beard I actually think softens that a bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. Yeah, because yeah, he's he's a
Speaker 1: far more levable character with the beard. Well, also you
Speaker 1: see a little bit more character development of him my
Speaker 1: fields the show progresses, so you know him a little
Speaker 1: better about it than me as the beard. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like earlier on you're like, who is this this guy's
Speaker 1: guy's kind of awful, and now you're like, this is
Speaker 1: one of the better gentlemen in the office. Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: this guy's got personality. Yeah, and he I guess it's
Speaker 1: the only I can't think of any of other characters
Speaker 1: that current that are currently on the show that have
Speaker 1: a beard. So no, but there is a lot of
Speaker 1: facial hair going on for sure. No, let's look back
Speaker 1: here in the time machine at ancient Greece, where the
Speaker 1: beard was big, right, It was a sign of virility,
Speaker 1: and it was an advertisement that you were not a Unich. Yes,
Speaker 1: because presumably or this was the thought actually that if
Speaker 1: you were a Unich, you wouldn't have the ability, would
Speaker 1: not have the hormones to produce that the massive glorious
Speaker 1: beards on your wisdom. And certainly in olden days various
Speaker 1: societies this was there were enough Unix around that this
Speaker 1: was actually something to think about. There actually a fair
Speaker 1: number of Unix plays, varying roles in society, sometimes very
Speaker 1: important roles. Um. Which reminds me we do need to
Speaker 1: do an episode on Unix. Was that because the history
Speaker 1: of Unix and some of the science of Unix is
Speaker 1: is really, um, really fascinating. Um. But yeah, yeah, go
Speaker 1: back to the Greeks. The Greeks loved them, at least
Speaker 1: until Alexander the Great came along and he said, actually,
Speaker 1: we don't need beards. We need to shave these beards
Speaker 1: off if we're going into combat, because somebody could grab
Speaker 1: me by my beard and start slicing at my face exactly.
Speaker 1: And I imagine that at some point too, if you
Speaker 1: are in a situation where you don't have access to
Speaker 1: clean water and so on and so forth, that that
Speaker 1: little beard could get quite contestive. Yeah, and certainly we've
Speaker 1: been shaving beards for a while. Um, I mean we
Speaker 1: well before we were shaving beards, presumably we're you know,
Speaker 1: there were situations where one would pluck out the facial hair,
Speaker 1: especially if you if you weren't stay capable of growing
Speaker 1: like a full beard anyway, maybe you just decided to
Speaker 1: go clean cut on it, and you would be you
Speaker 1: would have to to plug at the hairs or find
Speaker 1: out some of their methods. But we have found archaeological
Speaker 1: evidence dating back to one thousand BC of into dual
Speaker 1: shaving their beards clearly with some sort of flint instruments,
Speaker 1: you know, the first razors if you will. Indeed, um,
Speaker 1: it should not go unnoted that bearded ladies make appearances
Speaker 1: throughout history, yes, right. Um. I wanted to point out
Speaker 1: that some of this is due to something called hair sudism,
Speaker 1: which is a variant of hypertrichosis, also known as the
Speaker 1: werewolf syndrome, when there's an abnormal amount of hair growth
Speaker 1: on the body. Uh. Though with hair sudism, it's usually
Speaker 1: due to increased levels of androgens. Or male hormones. Now,
Speaker 1: bearded ladies would show up in sideshow acts in the circus, right,
Speaker 1: or freak shows as they were called. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: those weren't actually ladies. They were just dudes to put
Speaker 1: on a little with beards that put on a little
Speaker 1: makeup and address. Yeah, but that's been going on since
Speaker 1: Shakespeare's time, right, no ladies on the stage. Um. I
Speaker 1: also want to point out the cultural significance of the
Speaker 1: term beard, which is also slang for um, a person
Speaker 1: who is a cover for a gay friend or a partner. Yes,
Speaker 1: and apparently sometimes too, it would be a cover for
Speaker 1: somebody who's having an affair in a nixed gender situation
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah. Yeah, although I would say that the
Speaker 1: actually i've heard it more used as a way to
Speaker 1: sort of negate someone's homosexuality. Public feel like that's the
Speaker 1: usage that sticks with us more these days. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: sort of this idea that you could give this heteronorm
Speaker 1: appearance of a couple knowing that one of them was
Speaker 1: gay the other was not. Um, But I do I
Speaker 1: think it's fascinating because the term, again, when you're talking
Speaker 1: about heteronorms, you talk about masculinity. And in the instance
Speaker 1: where there is a male who is gay who is
Speaker 1: with a woman, she the beard gives him masculinity. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that she gives him real masculinity. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that from society's perspective, she's imbuing him with this power.
Speaker 1: But it always makes me anytime I hear of the
Speaker 1: term beard used in those scenarios, it makes me think
Speaker 1: of money. Python's the Life of Brian where there's a
Speaker 1: scene where someone someone's going to be stoned to death
Speaker 1: and punishment for some sort of infraction. And and only
Speaker 1: the men are allowed to come and witness this, but
Speaker 1: only the women are really interested in attending it. So
Speaker 1: they're all buying these fake beards from a vendor outside
Speaker 1: the stoning area, and uh, and they're all, you know,
Speaker 1: there to participate. I love that bit because on so
Speaker 1: many different levels, I think it's a commentary society is.
Speaker 1: It's some wonderful commentary throwne in to what is still
Speaker 1: a very silly sketch. But that's Python for you. All Right, Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk a bit about the evolution of the beard
Speaker 1: and this sort of powers I said that is imbued
Speaker 1: by this mass official hair. So needless to say, the
Speaker 1: beard grows on the face. And it's really interesting when
Speaker 1: you start thinking about the face, what is the human face, right,
Speaker 1: Because certainly it is a bunch of skull meat. It
Speaker 1: is uh, it's a place where we keep our eyes,
Speaker 1: in our nose, in our mouth. So it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of this uh, front loaded sensory array that allows us
Speaker 1: to take in the sense world around us. But then
Speaker 1: it is also something a bit more too, It is
Speaker 1: also a communications array. Now, all this is complicated by
Speaker 1: the fact that, of course we end up thinking of
Speaker 1: our face as ourselves, right, like I am my face
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, or at least my face is
Speaker 1: an expression of who I am. Or you're saying that
Speaker 1: some people allow how they look to color their personality. Well,
Speaker 1: people end up augmenting their face and to varying degrees.
Speaker 1: And the varying degrees may include, um, growing a beard,
Speaker 1: it may mean wearing makeup, It may mean piercings, it
Speaker 1: may mean tattoos, it may mean cosmetic surgery. All of
Speaker 1: these things are done because we see the faces an
Speaker 1: expression of who we are. But then the but then
Speaker 1: it's also tied in with the fact that the faces
Speaker 1: a means of communicating. Um. Obviously, we make expressions. There
Speaker 1: seven primary expressions and then various um micro expressions that
Speaker 1: appear for just you know, fractions of a second and
Speaker 1: some of the best, Yeah, that allow you to get
Speaker 1: gains an insight into what's going on, what emotions are
Speaker 1: we feeling, what emotions are recovering. And there's actually a
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight check study that found that facial
Speaker 1: expressions alone can speak a thousand words. So we get
Speaker 1: into this idea of the face is not just you
Speaker 1: know who we are, but but a means of communicating
Speaker 1: with other members of our society. And uh. And so
Speaker 1: there was another study that I found that plays into
Speaker 1: this sin. This is the two thousand and twelve study
Speaker 1: from a team of U. C. L a biologist, and
Speaker 1: they started thinking about the evolution of the human face
Speaker 1: and the evolution of the primate face and and how
Speaker 1: does facial diversity UM factor into all of this. So
Speaker 1: they looked at a hundred and twenty nine different adult
Speaker 1: male primates from Central and South America, and the study
Speaker 1: included this great wheel that that graph that had all
Speaker 1: these different to monkey faces on and they arranged uh,
Speaker 1: pretty wildly there's you know, there there are some very
Speaker 1: conservative looking monkey faces that it is just like, oh,
Speaker 1: well that is that is a monkey. If you saw
Speaker 1: a picture of you be like, well look at that
Speaker 1: monkey there is. And then others are you know, like
Speaker 1: crazy must red faced, mustachioed, you know, crazy eyebrow like
Speaker 1: you know crazy monkey pictures. Yeah, like very like punk
Speaker 1: rock monk monkeys. And so you would look at these
Speaker 1: and if you look at these thinking, um, all right,
Speaker 1: some of these monkeys are gonna be more solitary than others,
Speaker 1: and some are gonna be a little more society driven,
Speaker 1: a little more you know, social and prone to live
Speaker 1: in in packs and small groups. Um. And so what
Speaker 1: is the correlation between facial complexity uh and uh and
Speaker 1: and social activity? As it turns out, the crazier the
Speaker 1: face on the primates in the study, the more solitary
Speaker 1: the monkey, whereas the planer faced monkeys were more likely
Speaker 1: to live in in some sort of a close knit
Speaker 1: society and in a group of some courts sort. And
Speaker 1: so the theory here is that since our face is
Speaker 1: the communications of race, since our face is a means
Speaker 1: of communicating with other members of our species, the plane
Speaker 1: or the faces, the better the communication system. It's in
Speaker 1: a large community, Yeah, it's like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: the poster that I'm going to use, or you know,
Speaker 1: this is the billboard I'm going to use to communicate
Speaker 1: with people, And the more graffiti I have on it,
Speaker 1: the you know, I have drapes up on it and
Speaker 1: all sorts of crazy stuff. It's it's getting in the
Speaker 1: way of my ability to use that to communicate the clearest.
Speaker 1: So the crazy faces they're standing out on their own
Speaker 1: because they don't have to use this. But the planer
Speaker 1: faced monkeys, they're using this as a communication system. And
Speaker 1: it's like a like a satellite dish. If you want
Speaker 1: to pick up a signal, you want to have it
Speaker 1: cleaned off. You don't want to have a bunch of
Speaker 1: brush on it and drying clothes and what have you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it makes total sense because if you are in a
Speaker 1: large community and you've got to read each other's facial expressions,
Speaker 1: than the plane or the face the easier to read.
Speaker 1: But if you are just hanging out with one or
Speaker 1: two people, not a big deal to put on as
Speaker 1: much of the the makeup exactly nature's makeup as possible. Um.
Speaker 1: I do think it's really interesting in the human context
Speaker 1: because conservative estimates say that um communication is perceived by
Speaker 1: up I think upboards of six of nonverbal cues. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it would make sense that whatever is crossing your
Speaker 1: face is really going to inform another person about how
Speaker 1: you feel, and particularly when you blush. I just looked
Speaker 1: at some research on blushing, and it turns out that
Speaker 1: the way that our vision is constructed, the cones in
Speaker 1: our eyes they think. Uh. Scientists and researchers think that
Speaker 1: it was constructed in a way that we could really
Speaker 1: see the variances in skin color and humans, so that
Speaker 1: we could perceive things like blushing as a subtle way
Speaker 1: of saying, oh this, you know, the person um across
Speaker 1: from me feels ashamed about this or regretful for doing something.
Speaker 1: And again this plays into this idea of nonverbal cues
Speaker 1: letting us know what is truly going on between humans.
Speaker 1: So what does allays have to with facial hair? Well,
Speaker 1: if you dress up this canvas that you display your emotions,
Speaker 1: you are certainly trying to say something with your beard,
Speaker 1: or rather there are some subconscious things going on with
Speaker 1: the beard. Well, to a certain extent, you're growing a mask.
Speaker 1: You're growing this thing out of your face that covers
Speaker 1: up you know, at least like half your face. It's
Speaker 1: so it's it's it can be used as a means
Speaker 1: of masking what you're actually feeling. Well, and I like
Speaker 1: this idea of uh putting on a mask of power
Speaker 1: to right. And if you look at the writings of
Speaker 1: Barnaby J. Dixon, he's a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolution
Speaker 1: and Ecology Research Center at the University of New South Wales.
Speaker 1: He has a lot to say on this topic. Um.
Speaker 1: He has a couple of different studies out right now.
Speaker 1: And in fact, if you go to his website, he's
Speaker 1: at Dixon with an S by the way, d I
Speaker 1: X S O N. Does he himself of a beard. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you go to his website, not only will you
Speaker 1: see his glorious beard, which is um, you're not with
Speaker 1: a mustache, by the way, you will also be able
Speaker 1: to participate in a couple of online studies and see
Speaker 1: some images of people with beards or men with beards
Speaker 1: and then without beards, and go through the process of
Speaker 1: rating them on their attractiveness. So let me get back
Speaker 1: to Barnaby, though uh In the paper published in Behavioral
Speaker 1: Ecology quote beards augment perceptions of men's age, social status,
Speaker 1: and aggressiveness, but not attractiveness. Dixon and Paul L. Vacy
Speaker 1: take a look at the power and structure of vis
Speaker 1: via beard and an abstract. He says, or they say,
Speaker 1: Darwin positive that beards evolved in human ancestors via female
Speaker 1: choice is a highly attractive masculine adornment. This is Darwin's theory. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is they're saying. You know, Darwin put this out there,
Speaker 1: who himself had a big beard later in life after
Speaker 1: earlier in life having glorious beard. But they go on
Speaker 1: to say that they think it's not necessarily um an
Speaker 1: element of attractiveness. Here is more of power. And he
Speaker 1: said that they show that women from two very different
Speaker 1: ethnic groups a group of women um that are Europeans
Speaker 1: from New Zealand and Polynesian women from Samoa, they don't
Speaker 1: rate bearded faces as more attractive than clean shaven faces.
Speaker 1: In fact, women from both of those groups judge bearded
Speaker 1: faces to be older and ascribe them higher social status
Speaker 1: than men who are clean shaven. Yeah. I mean, of course,
Speaker 1: one of the things with all this, you have to
Speaker 1: take into account all the human complexity of any of this.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're in a society where the beard
Speaker 1: is more important and more established, and you know, that's
Speaker 1: gonna that's gonna weigh weigh in other things. Uh. But
Speaker 1: but most of the the studies that we were looking
Speaker 1: at here, they were we were seeing that the beard
Speaker 1: has a stronger role in intra sexual signaling than in
Speaker 1: any kind of female mate preferences. In other words, guys,
Speaker 1: you're growing that beard because you have something to say
Speaker 1: to the other guys, not because or you know, you
Speaker 1: may you may think otherwise, but ultimately your beard is
Speaker 1: speaking to the other men. Well, and what's interesting about
Speaker 1: the Polynesian women and the women from New Zealand is
Speaker 1: that they then saw that men who were acting aggressively
Speaker 1: with beards were deemed to be more aggressive than the
Speaker 1: clean shaven brethren. So there's this idea again that it's
Speaker 1: a sort of sort of suiting up a manning up
Speaker 1: and again assuming a power roll. And if you look
Speaker 1: at a paper by D. Caroline Blanchard which was published
Speaker 1: in Behavioral Neuroscience, UM, they begin to see the animal
Speaker 1: world being pulled in in the form of lions and
Speaker 1: their means. Yeah, yeah, you know, this was an interesting
Speaker 1: study that you came across. And the idea here, the
Speaker 1: theory here is that all right, So why does the
Speaker 1: lion have a main because it looks cool because it's
Speaker 1: since the signal? Or does the lion have the main
Speaker 1: because all of this extra hair protects some some some
Speaker 1: very important parts of the neck and face. True, and
Speaker 1: she says that lions with prominent means are like men
Speaker 1: with beards, with the ideas that both began to grow
Speaker 1: facial hair at puberty. Both the main and the beard
Speaker 1: helped the single out gender in a crowd. And um, yes,
Speaker 1: the beard, like the main, would give the wear a
Speaker 1: more imposing silhouette and serve to blunt any attacks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because one thing you have to to think about here too,
Speaker 1: if this theory holds up, you have to think about
Speaker 1: the way humans have it have evolved. Um, what are
Speaker 1: natural weapons? Are natural weapons? Are fists? The first things
Speaker 1: we're using to hurt each other, you know, aside from
Speaker 1: you know, the the odd bite and maybe you know,
Speaker 1: you know, at some point someone realizes, hey, we can
Speaker 1: kick things too, But for the most part, we our
Speaker 1: hands have evolved to punch people in the face. I
Speaker 1: did a blog in a video about this a while back,
Speaker 1: and the idea is that when you make a fist,
Speaker 1: and and certainly we are the only species that makes
Speaker 1: fists and punches other members of our species, or if
Speaker 1: you're lion nissa, maybe a wolf with your with your fist,
Speaker 1: when you make a fist, it's uh, you know, certainly
Speaker 1: you can hurt your hand still when you, you know,
Speaker 1: make contact, but it's structured so that you're actually protecting
Speaker 1: a lot of the more fragile parts of the hand,
Speaker 1: the moans and muscles when when you ball up. So
Speaker 1: the idea here is that that we have we have
Speaker 1: evolved over time to use these as weapons. So in
Speaker 1: the course of evolution to it makes a certain amount
Speaker 1: of sense that we might also develop some sort of
Speaker 1: protective feature against people punching us in the face. And
Speaker 1: then later in early developments, clearly some of our first
Speaker 1: weapons are going to be blunt instrument weapons as well,
Speaker 1: before we eventually get to where we're creating spears and
Speaker 1: swords and axes and you know, on up to our
Speaker 1: modern weaponry. Okay, so a lion who is being attacked
Speaker 1: the other lion who was attacking the line with a
Speaker 1: magnificent main would get a mouthful of hair, right, and
Speaker 1: it would be a little bit harder to get to
Speaker 1: the throat region. So if you're talking about humans then
Speaker 1: striking each other on the chin, then you've got the
Speaker 1: beard that kind of buffers the impact of that, right right.
Speaker 1: And of course they don't really go into a mention
Speaker 1: in the study, but humans today are not above biting
Speaker 1: into the foe, son or an ear. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: can only imagine that that would have played apart as well, indeed,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. And naturally Blanchard brings up something called the
Speaker 1: glass chin phenomenon. She says it's well known in boxing
Speaker 1: and direct blows to the front and sides of the
Speaker 1: neck as well as the area just under the nose,
Speaker 1: can be particularly lethal, and that both are particular targets
Speaker 1: of attack and unarmed combat techniques, and that this is
Speaker 1: a protective feature of human beards, and that this is interesting.
Speaker 1: The technical and competition rules of the International Amateur Boxing
Speaker 1: Association prohibit beards and boxing matches. So I'm assuming that's
Speaker 1: to level the playing field, right, I guess, because then
Speaker 1: you know, Otherwise someone with a particularly great beard is
Speaker 1: going to be that much more protective. Now, you don't
Speaker 1: see those rules if I'm not mistaken in mixed martial arts,
Speaker 1: because you do see bearded individuals partaking in combat there.
Speaker 1: I guess I mainly thinking of I only know older dudes,
Speaker 1: but like like Dan Severn, he had an awesome mustache.
Speaker 1: I don't know that wasn't really protecting the jaw and neck,
Speaker 1: but but it seems like there are a few other
Speaker 1: bearded guys that were thrown down. Well, no, I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking about Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln of course describe the wrestler,
Speaker 1: and he had the beard going on for sure, macho man,
Speaker 1: Randy Savage, professional wrestler, but that he had a great beard, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And it also ties in kind of interestingly
Speaker 1: with some other studies we're looking at where the theory
Speaker 1: was to that a large beard and also large eyebrows
Speaker 1: contribute to the way that the face is perceived and
Speaker 1: they make the jaw look stronger and more intimidating. Um
Speaker 1: and uh. And when you couple that with a brow,
Speaker 1: I can't help but think, like what you have. Peter Gallagher,
Speaker 1: the actor who already had like amazing eyebrows. What if
Speaker 1: he had ever grown a beard, because I did a
Speaker 1: quick Google search and I never found an image of
Speaker 1: him with a beard, So I think missed opportunity. He
Speaker 1: could have been the ultimate alpha male. Well, but maybe
Speaker 1: he's doing that just for everybody's benefit. I mean, I
Speaker 1: bet that every time he furrows his brow that the
Speaker 1: earth trembles. Right, So if he were to grow a beard,
Speaker 1: it could be catastrophe. It could be someone set him
Speaker 1: down once said Peter, you have amazing eyebrows, and that
Speaker 1: you must promise himust swear a blood oath and never
Speaker 1: to grow a beard. All right, let's take a break
Speaker 1: and when we get back, we are going to discuss
Speaker 1: why Billy nays Is beard made him the success that
Speaker 1: you are. All right, We're back, and uh, we said,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Billy Mays, the infomercial superstar,
Speaker 1: the Pitchman. Pitchman. Yeah, um, a huge beard, I mean,
Speaker 1: glossy black beard, the fullest beard I think I've ever
Speaker 1: seen in my life. Not wizardy really, not like long,
Speaker 1: but very very thick and prominent. Right. Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: was a pitchman for a bunch of different household cleaners,
Speaker 1: and I think that his beard contributed to his success.
Speaker 1: And this is why A two thousand intense study in
Speaker 1: the Journal of Marketing Communications found that men with beards
Speaker 1: were deemed more credible than those who were clean shaven,
Speaker 1: and the study showed participant pictures of men endorsing certain products. Now,
Speaker 1: the products were kind of key to whether or not
Speaker 1: there was any correlation of increased trust. So it turns
Speaker 1: out that and then with beards had great We're seen
Speaker 1: as having greater expertise and more trustworthy when they were
Speaker 1: hawking things like cell phones and toothpaste. Okay, so they
Speaker 1: were doing much better than the clean shaving guys in
Speaker 1: that area, but not tidy Whitey's huh. Okay uh. Participants
Speaker 1: preferred clean shaven. Then when it came to underwear, I
Speaker 1: was thinking, perhaps it's subconscious the association of you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of hair with underwear. And I know we're
Speaker 1: getting into mercan territory here, but that might have something
Speaker 1: to do with it. And I've never thought about this before,
Speaker 1: about who do I prefer selling the underwear? U. I
Speaker 1: guess I would prefer someone without a beard, um, but
Speaker 1: but not so much. I mean, I guess it comes
Speaker 1: down to if are you talking about an underwear model
Speaker 1: or just an underwear pitchman, and is the pitchman wearing Um,
Speaker 1: I think that they were talking about the pitchman as
Speaker 1: the model. Okay, well I would, I guess, or maybe
Speaker 1: that's a good question, that's a very good question. Well
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just more attractive to beardless guys, because I
Speaker 1: would I would want to be sold by underwear by
Speaker 1: you know, they beardless underwear model, but a man with
Speaker 1: a beard who is selling the underwear. But on the
Speaker 1: package there was a clean shaven man. And now remember
Speaker 1: the why is the bearded man there at all? Is
Speaker 1: he the other underwear models fathers in a department store.
Speaker 1: He has a stack of underwear, and he is next
Speaker 1: to the clean shaven pitchman. They're both trying to sell
Speaker 1: you underwear. I don't know that. Now, that's just a
Speaker 1: tough decision. I'm going to go with a clean shaven
Speaker 1: because I still stand by that. I think it's something
Speaker 1: subconscious about a lot of hair and underwear. And then
Speaker 1: other regions you may have something there. Somebody needs to
Speaker 1: do a study. Clearly, there are enough people researching beards
Speaker 1: and what beards mean. There's got to be room out
Speaker 1: there and some available funding. Let's get out of this
Speaker 1: uncomfortable territory and into beards and how they can contribute
Speaker 1: to one's health. Yes, now this is pretty awesome. This uh,
Speaker 1: this is some relatively new uh info that we have
Speaker 1: to work with here two thousand twelve study, UH French study.
Speaker 1: And they had an interesting theory here. All right, so
Speaker 1: we're growing these beards, and we've talked about how the beard,
Speaker 1: of course may provide some amount of protection against punches
Speaker 1: to the face, how the beard may mask our ability
Speaker 1: to communicate via our our facial features with the members
Speaker 1: of our species make us a little more aggressive than
Speaker 1: we actually maybe, but then to what if, to what
Speaker 1: degree could they possibly be shielding us from horrible U
Speaker 1: V ray? So this study decided to test it out.
Speaker 1: So what they what do they do? They went and
Speaker 1: they bought three mannequin heads, put them out in the sun.
Speaker 1: On one of them they just left it beardless. On
Speaker 1: the other they gave it a short beard, you know,
Speaker 1: mild beard. And then the other one they gave it
Speaker 1: long beard, big, long, thick beard. To see how these
Speaker 1: mannequins are affected by the u V rays based on
Speaker 1: their level of facial hair, and they found that beards
Speaker 1: block of uv UV rays. Yes, okay, so of course
Speaker 1: that would reduce your exposure to those rays and decrease
Speaker 1: your chances of having skin cancer. Yeah, so a huge
Speaker 1: health benefit, right, Yeah, And certainly it brings me back
Speaker 1: to the you know, Tom hankson Castaway and he's getting
Speaker 1: baked by the sun and growing that beard was probably
Speaker 1: his only real choice at the time, but he you know,
Speaker 1: it worked out for the best because it probably gave
Speaker 1: him just a leg a little leg up on avoiding
Speaker 1: skin cancer. Yeah. So, I mean you can see how
Speaker 1: this would be a protective cover throughout the ages, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you're you're making your your life on the beach
Speaker 1: out in the sun, maybe you should grow a beard.
Speaker 1: Maybe that would help because you think about it that
Speaker 1: you think of like a picture you've seen of particularly
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of like snowboard borders and the like. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll have have the big beard and then they'll have
Speaker 1: the big goggles and then the hat and that's basically
Speaker 1: yet all you have to do is worry about the nose.
Speaker 1: And if you were to wear say a pair of
Speaker 1: you know, gradual Marx glasses or humpy hump glasses. On
Speaker 1: top of that, you would have complete coverage and while
Speaker 1: what image you would be projecting, Yeah, pretty faculty, especially
Speaker 1: if you went with the humpy hump up nose and
Speaker 1: you know glasses instead. You know, I was thinking about
Speaker 1: the study in the mannequin heads, and I was thinking
Speaker 1: about them in a field, and I immediately began to
Speaker 1: imagine instead of body farms, we would have these mannequin
Speaker 1: head farms, various growth patterns of facial hair on them,
Speaker 1: and how disturbing that might be to walk up upon
Speaker 1: and say, oh, well, you know, I've been I've been
Speaker 1: watching the new Hannibal Electric TV show, which there are
Speaker 1: things I really like about it. Um. I think that
Speaker 1: the acting is great. I think the look of the
Speaker 1: show is great. I'm I'm less into some of the
Speaker 1: writing and the monster of the week scenario that they have.
Speaker 1: So each episode seems to have to have a new
Speaker 1: crazy invented serial killer. Yeah, they're gonna eventually start running
Speaker 1: to start running out of ideas though, So I think
Speaker 1: this could be one a killer who's who is inspired
Speaker 1: by this survey. I mean, this study and finds the
Speaker 1: heads of clean shaved, mildly bearded, and super bearded men
Speaker 1: and then cut their heads off and leaves them out
Speaker 1: in the field. Oh, like a researcher who was like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not enough to see what you know,
Speaker 1: chemically based substance would absorb in terms of the sun's
Speaker 1: UV rays. I want the real thing. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: want any polymer in the subject. And so therefore I'm
Speaker 1: going to take this study to the you know, the
Speaker 1: inst degree in terms of I was going to the integrity. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also not really, this would be a great mad
Speaker 1: scientist too, because we're used to models of mad scientists
Speaker 1: where they get into morally ambiguous territory. They or they
Speaker 1: start using human test subjects. But but generally they're trying
Speaker 1: to go for something big. But you know, this would
Speaker 1: be a great one because it's this is some low
Speaker 1: hanging fruit. There's really no reason to go cutting the
Speaker 1: heads off of people for it. But hey, they're mad,
Speaker 1: that's what they do. Yeah. And if you for some reason,
Speaker 1: if maybe you skipped ahead in the podcast and you
Speaker 1: just got to this part doing that, why are you
Speaker 1: listening to podcasts that way? That's not you're not going
Speaker 1: to get a full spectrum there of information. Uh but yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is just an a marriage imaginary circumstance here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but nobody is cutting off heads to really see what
Speaker 1: the UV absorption example is. But if you if you
Speaker 1: look up any of the articles about this study, you
Speaker 1: do get to see a picture of these three mannequin
Speaker 1: heads with their beards out in the middle of the
Speaker 1: sunny field, and it's, uh, it's a little creepy. Alright. Well,
Speaker 1: researchers barn and B. J. Dickson, our friend that we
Speaker 1: mentioned before, and Robert C. Brooks photographed ten men at
Speaker 1: four stages of beard growth. We're talking about clean shaven,
Speaker 1: five day light stubble, ten day heavy stubble, and then
Speaker 1: fully bearded. Okay. Then they took three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one women and one hundred and seventy seven men, had
Speaker 1: them view photos and rate each face for attractiveness, masculinity, health,
Speaker 1: and parenting ability. Here's the deal. Women ranked heavily stubbled
Speaker 1: faces as the most attractive. Really, so that just that
Speaker 1: just that level of I'm sort of growing a beard.
Speaker 1: I think they think it's really sexy, but they don't
Speaker 1: know how itchy it actually is. I think maybe it's
Speaker 1: where it's it's full enough, not quite a full grown beard,
Speaker 1: but uh, grown out enough where it starts to soften.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess because that didn't that also, yeah, because
Speaker 1: also isn't like really scratchy. It's like a burliopath. It's
Speaker 1: the worst. It seems like it's bad for everyone. It's
Speaker 1: gonna scratch the woman's face and then the man is
Speaker 1: itching like crazy and thinking, why am I trying to
Speaker 1: grow a beard again? This is why I shaved every
Speaker 1: couple of days, although I'm sure for women there there
Speaker 1: are some exfoliation benefits. Um. Okay, So participants said that
Speaker 1: the clean shaven men the participants meaning the men and
Speaker 1: the women, thought the clean shoven men looked about as
Speaker 1: healthy and attractive as those with a full beard, but
Speaker 1: they raided the bearded men higher for perceived parenting skills.
Speaker 1: That was fascinating. Light stubble got the shaft, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: just in general, so if you've got some white stubble, um,
Speaker 1: you got the short of the step. Here. When I
Speaker 1: say light stubble, that's that five day growth not quite
Speaker 1: there kind of spotty. Yeah, uh yeah, low scores exactly
Speaker 1: like are you hungover? Are you what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: Is there your homeless Well, although homeless beards can grow
Speaker 1: to a great volume. So anyway, those are the results
Speaker 1: of that particular study. Interesting. Um, yeah, And it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where it gets so complicated when you
Speaker 1: start thinking of beards, as you know, from from a
Speaker 1: purely biological standpoint, and then from a cultural standpoint, and
Speaker 1: then when we factor other things on top of it,
Speaker 1: because sometimes people will grow a beard. Is again part
Speaker 1: of that idea that I am changing or I want
Speaker 1: to change who I am, and I'm going to make
Speaker 1: an outward show of this, uh and somehow tell the
Speaker 1: world that I'm doing something, you know, like because somebody
Speaker 1: will go through uh, you know, like a bad breakup
Speaker 1: and then maybe they'll shave their head or they'll grow
Speaker 1: out of beard, you know that that kind of thing. Um. So,
Speaker 1: so it gets complicated with humans. Well, it's just Sampson
Speaker 1: And although right didn't right when when he was clean shaven,
Speaker 1: it was gone. Well then that goes into some very
Speaker 1: old ideas. I was looking. I was reading in the
Speaker 1: Brewer's Dictionary phrase and fable about the beards, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, various cultures, there are all sorts of sayings
Speaker 1: about like you know, if you take grab somebody about
Speaker 1: a beard, it's like the ultimate insult. And it certainly
Speaker 1: if you if you cut someone's beard, then it's just
Speaker 1: the just an enormous upfront in in varying beard heavy cultures. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: So just as as a little mental abstract here, think
Speaker 1: about Zach galifin Nakis if he were to shave his beard,
Speaker 1: how would you perceive some of his characters who have
Speaker 1: been childlike? Uh, would get into creepy territory? Or is it?
Speaker 1: I mean, does the beard kind of helped him negate
Speaker 1: some of the weirdness of those characters. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: such a part of his look. It's it's I don't
Speaker 1: know that I've ever seen a picture of him without it.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that too, Yeah, but but I think
Speaker 1: maybe it does. It does contribute to the act um
Speaker 1: fear to shave his beard off. I don't know how
Speaker 1: I would take it. I mean, also some you know,
Speaker 1: some faces just work better with a beard. I think
Speaker 1: that's it goes without saying true. Um, this is one
Speaker 1: of the little tidbit that I found. I thought was
Speaker 1: really interesting, and it is that some men who grow
Speaker 1: out a beard or a mustache are surprised that their
Speaker 1: facial hair is ginger colored. Oh, they're surprised if they're
Speaker 1: not red headed, right, And that is because facial hair
Speaker 1: allows expression of the normally recessive jeans for red hair
Speaker 1: and very red skin. Interesting son pop up in those
Speaker 1: areas of your face, but not on your head. Well,
Speaker 1: and then of course it's a lot of times it
Speaker 1: will grow out gray when you don't. Isn't really doing that,
Speaker 1: and we'll reveal your secrets. And then the rare individual
Speaker 1: will have the blonde beard, which I've always found kind
Speaker 1: of fascinating because in a in a way it's almost invisible.
Speaker 1: At first, I think of that as a very California beard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a dude in my high school. I don't
Speaker 1: remember his name, but this is a high school, and
Speaker 1: he had like a full blonde beard. It was very impressive,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Yeah. Alright, so here's some interesting research for
Speaker 1: you guys to ponder out there. But just to be clear,
Speaker 1: this is not a free pass to grow a Gangs
Speaker 1: of New York style handlebar mustache. Well, you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's gonna be pretty treby in some areas. I mean,
Speaker 1: walk into Brooklyn with that and gets the right in.
Speaker 1: I just feel like that's best left to Daniel day Lewis. Well, oh,
Speaker 1: you're right some people. I you know, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: should probably not uh tell someone not to do that. Well,
Speaker 1: the thing about just a very specific choice. Well, the
Speaker 1: mustache isn't is an interesting bit of facial hair because
Speaker 1: it really almost seems like there's you got to take
Speaker 1: it out a case by case situation. There are people
Speaker 1: who grow a mustache and you're like, that was absolutely
Speaker 1: the right call. Or they shave off their mustache and
Speaker 1: you're like, that is wrong. Grow it back, um, Jimmy Buffett,
Speaker 1: because you just don't look right without it. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really gotta be a case by case It's true.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's just my association with Bill the Butcher, Like
Speaker 1: if I see that mustache, I think there's a bit
Speaker 1: of a menace to it. Yeah, it's a menacing mustache
Speaker 1: for sure. Um alright, so there you go. Um. I
Speaker 1: can't help but think though about some animals with facial hair,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking that Grumpy Cat would totally sport
Speaker 1: whole Cogan. You think the whole Cogan beard, which which mustache?
Speaker 1: The mustache he for a while and maybe he still
Speaker 1: has this. He had the blonde mustache, and then but
Speaker 1: then he had stubble, a stubble beard that was dyed black.
Speaker 1: So it was it was, you know, the combo diabolical. Well,
Speaker 1: there's also an older image I found of him once
Speaker 1: where he in this when he had a different moniker.
Speaker 1: I think, but um, he had he was not waxing
Speaker 1: his chest and he but he did have a heart
Speaker 1: shaved into this chest. So hairy chest except for the
Speaker 1: shape of a That is the ultimate act of hyper
Speaker 1: masculinity right there, right like I have such a hairy
Speaker 1: chest that I can now actually assume some femininity here
Speaker 1: in my expression of emotions. He a heart? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of There are a lot of
Speaker 1: interesting manscaping choices in the world of pro wrestling. I
Speaker 1: tell you a beard we didn't mention. Have you seen
Speaker 1: the Hunger Games movie? I have you know the West
Speaker 1: Bentley beard that he has in that with all the
Speaker 1: flames and that one is that one's one to think about.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where I stand on that. I guess
Speaker 1: it's the future. So all right, well, there you go.
Speaker 1: There's a little insight into the science of the beard. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of cool studies out there, and
Speaker 1: we highlighted some of the more interesting ones we think.
Speaker 1: But if you've come across anything, let us know. There's
Speaker 1: always new science brewing, uh, growing to the surface and uh.
Speaker 1: And also we'd love to hear your thoughts about beards
Speaker 1: in your life, your own beard, if you have one,
Speaker 1: how do you feel it alters the value proposition of
Speaker 1: of you the human? How does it alter your interactions
Speaker 1: with those around you? Or if you are you're not bearded,
Speaker 1: or even if you are, then then then how do
Speaker 1: you take in the beards in your life or in
Speaker 1: popular media or in fiction? What are some of the
Speaker 1: best beards? What are some of the worst. We'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Let us know. You can find
Speaker 1: us all over the place. Our main website, of course,
Speaker 1: is Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com, but we're
Speaker 1: on Facebook where we are Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: We're also stuff to Blow your Mind on Tumbler, were
Speaker 1: below the Mind, on Twitter and on YouTube. Our channel
Speaker 1: is minds Stuff Show. And if you want to tell
Speaker 1: us a little story, about how you are perceived with
Speaker 1: or without a beard. If you've had the experience of both,
Speaker 1: you can always send us a note at below the
Speaker 1: mind at Discovery dot com. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com.