The B.E.A.R.D. Room

[hogcowboy]

Attachment 67541

Well ya. Anything else so enlightening?

[jjvw]

[hogcowboy]

My wife made a silly picture of me. But it shows my beard. Sadly, that is as long as I can ever get it to grow. Wind on the bike seems to keep it at this length no matter what I do. At least that's my theory. It's not as if I don't take care of it with beard balm, oil and a weekly conditioner. That's it. Plain and simple.

[desertclassic]

We were playing a gig recently and the photographer was snapping shots of the band.

Pic did not post

[rhino 2]

My Wife wont let me grow a beard.....She says it makes me look like a bum....Funny though my Girlfriend tells me the same........

[Dockem]

[hogcowboy]

Really??? Not this guy. Give me another beer maybe.

Oh crap. That's organic. Shucks.

[Dockem]

[Sully]

Beards may be totally "in," but they are also dirty, and hazardous to human health.

Scientists discovered men with beards have more germs in their hairs than dogs carry in their fur.

A new study found that every sample of beard hair collected was crawling with bacteria. Nearly half had bugs and bacteria considered hazardous to human health, the Daily Mail reports. The dogs tested had lower levels of microbes, a bacterium that causes disease.

KUTV 2News did not commission or participate in this study and could not verify its results or findings.

Scientists initially wanted to determine if humans could pick up a dog-borne disease from an MRI scan that was also used for examinations by veterinarians. Researchers took swabs from beards of 18 men, ages 18 to 76, and the necks of 30 dogs.

The results showed that all of the bearded men had high amounts of microbial counts. Only 23 of the 30 dogs had high counts and the remainder had moderate levels. Seven men even had harbor microbes that posed a threat to their health.

"On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men," Dr. Andreas Gutzeit, of Switzerland's Hirslanden Clinic told the Daily Mail.

[jjvw]

[hogcowboy]

The results showed that all of the bearded men had high amounts of microbial counts.

There may be a reason for those test results.

[1dn5up]

There may be a reason for those test results.

Aaaah- finally the answer as to why my face feels like There's a relay race going on when I give it a weekly peroxide bath

[hogcowboy]

Looks like this thread just kinda died.

[1dn5up]

Naaah , just getting primed up for winter. It’s on hold till September.

[hogcowboy]

Rather than cut mine off and shave, I decided to get it under control another way. Works great. Initially did it just for riding but I liked it so much that I do it like this all the time now.

[jjvw]

From female on FB, Bikers, Babes And Their Toys

[Papa Zook]

I haven't seen many member's beards pic updates in a while, so lets see 'em. Here's mine...I cut it back by about half.

[Papa Zook]

Beards may be totally "in," but they are also dirty, and hazardous to human health.

Scientists discovered men with beards have more germs in their hairs than dogs carry in their fur.

A new study found that every sample of beard hair collected was crawling with bacteria. Nearly half had bugs and bacteria considered hazardous to human health, the Daily Mail reports. The dogs tested had lower levels of microbes, a bacterium that causes disease.

KUTV 2News did not commission or participate in this study and could not verify its results or findings.

Scientists initially wanted to determine if humans could pick up a dog-borne disease from an MRI scan that was also used for examinations by veterinarians. Researchers took swabs from beards of 18 men, ages 18 to 76, and the necks of 30 dogs.

The results showed that all of the bearded men had high amounts of microbial counts. Only 23 of the 30 dogs had high counts and the remainder had moderate levels. Seven men even had harbor microbes that posed a threat to their health.

"On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men," Dr. Andreas Gutzeit, of Switzerland's Hirslanden Clinic told the Daily Mail.

Rebuttle Article in Slate Magazine (one of many):

Source: Slate Article

The irrational germophobia story of the week is that beards harbor “dangerous germs.” This story hits almost all the sweet spots of the genre: It has no actual data, no controls, nonsensical interpretation of results (such as they are), and a punch line that can be summed up in 140 characters or fewer.

The only missing ingredient is that this study was conducted by a TV news station instead of the usual: a company that produces cleaning products. In this “study,” the news station swabbed a few beards, sent them off to a company for analysis, and got back a report that the beards contained “germs,” specifically enteric bacteria, which are part of the human gut microbiome and therefore also found in feces. Voila: “Your beard is as dirty as a toilet,” and “Beards contain poop” sweep the Internet. Let’s take apart each piece of this misleading viral phenomenon.

The original story doesn’t say how many beards were tested … just a “handful.” Let’s be generous and call it 10 beards. Not exactly a great sample size, but not the end of the world. The real problem here is the lack of swabs from clean-shaven men. People are covered, absolutely covered in bacteria. Yes, that means you too … 15 showers a week notwithstanding. Everything is covered in bacteria, most of which are harmless or beneficial.

Any story that starts with “we found germs on X” is already pointless unless you’re talking about Mars, the moon, or something that’s supposed to have been sterilized (like surgical equipment). So of course they found bacteria on beards. And I can promise you that if they swabbed any other part of those dudes, they’d also find bacteria. Amazing!

What we’d want to know is whether men with beards harbored more bacteria than men with clean-shaven faces. Which of course they didn’t look at. Fortunately, this question has been addressed in the scientific literature. A recent article titled “Bacterial ecology of hospital workers’ facial hair: a cross-sectional study” concluded that health care workers with and without beards harbored similar numbers of bacteria.

OK, so what about the kinds of bacteria? If we’re concerned about health, then the type of bacteria is far more important that the numbers. Just imagine: “Well sir, you’ve got one-tenth as many bacteria on your face as I do, but yours are all anthrax!” The microbiologist in this story says that they found “enteric” bacteria, which were the “kind of things that you’d find in feces.” Well, OK.

Many members of the Enterobacteriaceae family are found in the gut (and therefore feces). Some are even pathogens. Most are not; some are beneficial, even essential for human health. Assuming that finding enteric bacteria equates to finding feces is like saying that finding cat hair on your couch means you’re at risk of being eaten by a lion. Members of the Enterobacteriaceae family can also be found on normal human skin, cheese, plants, seeds, water, and soil. I’d be willing to bet that you can find enteric bacteria pretty much everywhere if you look hard enough. And do those present a health risk? Probably not, as even the microbiologist in the original story admits.

So to recap: A 90-second TV news story on microbiology, with no actual data, goes viral on the internet because germs are gross and we get to say “poop” in a story. Maybe this taps into some deep-seated cultural prejudice about beards or fascination with feces or something.

So is your beard dangerous? Unless you set it on fire, probably not … and if it were, we’d certainly never know from this experiment.

[hogcowboy]

I haven't seen many member's beards pic updates in a while, so lets see 'em. Here's mine...I cut it back by about half.

I just showed you mine above. That's how I wear it all the time now. Even in bed. I just wish the sideburns would get long enough to get trapped. When I pull my helmet off I look weird as hell with that part sticking straight out and the rest trapped completely under control. Ticks me off.

[Papa Zook]

I just showed you mine above. That's how I wear it all the time now. Even in bed. I just wish the sideburns would get long enough to get trapped. When I pull my helmet off I look weird as hell with that part sticking straight out and the rest trapped completely under control. Ticks me off.

Heavy on the photo crop though..?