POOP IN MY BEARD? HERE'S THE TRUTH.

So, we've all seen the horrifying headlines. ''STUDIES REVEAL BEARDS CONTAIN MORE POOP THAN TOILETS!'' You've probably had a friend or family member poke fun at your facial forest whilst shoving such articles under your nose to read. Whilst the internet would have you believe such stories to be factual, truth is the story itself contains more poop than all our beards together!

However, after a little research taken by myself it appears that these so called ''studies'' don't even exist! No official study ever happened, no biologists locked themselves away in a science lab for hours upon hours to prove our beards are nothing more than a breeding ground for bacteria. The origin of this story appears to stem from a TV news network in New Mexico, which involved one reporter randomly swabbing a small handful of men’s beards to send away to a microbiologist in a lab to check for any microbes that may be present.

The reporter then interviewed John Golobic, a microbiologist who identified a small amount of the bacteria present on some of the swabs, revealing them as “enterics”, a bacteria that you'd usually discover living in human intestines. Whilst it's true that human faeces are partially composed of such bacteria, it’s clearly inaccurate to describe this bacteria alone as poop.

Another independent study in the Journal of Hospital Infection (Yes, a real study!) took place which found that having a beard actually reduces the likelihood of antibiotic resistant bacteria being present and surviving on your skin.

So, there you have it! from that single case ''study'' alone the internet labelled us all ''poo beards'' and ran wild with beard poop stories which still resurface on our social media feeds today.