Style – Bald Guy Beard

So why do men grow beards? Psychology has a lot to do with it based on personal experience and research. Research shows that males with facial hair are often seen by both men and women as being strong, powerful, masculine and of a higher social status than their clean-shaven counterparts. Facial hair can also be positively used to draw attention away from a balding head. Many successful male athletes, businessmen and celebrities grow facial hair and have popularized the look and helped to make it a widely accepted and common fashion statement. Evolution of The Beard Beards have evolved from several different perspective including the styles of beards, the acceptability of them in society and the widespread uptake of them by men in general. Facial hair is usually associated with several positive attributes for men: MasculinityToughnessVirilityTestosteroneMaturity Bad guys in movies and on tv are often portrayed with facial hair, particularly goatees. The devil is often portrayed by Hollywood as having a long evil looking goatee. Research has shown that facial hair can also be associated with aggression and dominance which could be considered positive or negative depending on your perspective. Other research has shown men with facial hair as being seen as having higher social status and power by both men and women. Facial hair can also protect against sun damage similar to hair on your scalp while also drawing attention away from male pattern baldness. But is there to more to facial hair that just aesthetics and style? Why Do Men Grow Beards: Psychology and Protection Do beards act as a protective shield of sorts? I recently came across a research article that discusses the evolution of the human beard and how facial hair can help protect a man against blunt force trauma to the face (ie. a punch to the jaw). It was noted that the mandible - the jaw - is a commonly injured area for humans and particularly men during incidents of violence. Think a fist fight where someone gets punched in the mouth. Over time, researchers have theorized that a beard may serve as a protective device of sorts for key areas of the human body such as the throat and neck area. In the past researchers like Charles Darwin posited that a lion's mane protected vulnerable areas like their neck from attack from other lions although newer research has nixed this theory. But could this theory be proven for human males? Does a man's beard protect against certain forms of violence? Does Facial Hair Protect a Man From Injury? Among other things, the report concluded the following: The results of this study indicate that hair is indeed capable of significantly reducing the force of impact from a blunt strike and absorbing energy, thereby reducing the incidence of failure. Source: Integrative Organismal Biology, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2020, obaa005, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obaa005 How did they go about proving this? Researchers created a model to mimic a human skull and then created several copies. They covered each model with three type of sheepskin to mimic a human beard, stubble and a fully shaved beard. They then tested each model by striking them with a blunt object to resemble a punch to the jaw. The researchers concluded that facial hair is capable of reducing the effects of blunt force trauma such as a punch to the face. Here are several excerpts from the research comparing the effect of trauma on the model to that of a human's face: If the same is true for human facial hair, then having a full beard may help protect vulnerable regions of the facial skeleton from damaging strikes, such as the jaw.Presumably, full beards also reduce injury, laceration, and contusion, to the skin and muscle of the face.Source: Integrative Organismal Biology, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2020, obaa005, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obaa005 Why Do Men Grow Beards, Boxing and MMA In amateur boxing, no facial hair is allowed and wearing protective head gear covering the jawline is mandatory. Interestingly, boxers - depending on what jurisdiction a fight is being held in - are required to keep a beard under a certain maximum length for a fight. In some cases, the jawline must be visible. Amateur boxing allows no facial hair of any kind. And MMA has different rules and in some cases, none apparently. I've seen plenty of UFC fights featuring fighters with full, very thick beards. Think guys like Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, Jon Jones and Conor McGregor among others. On the other hand, UFC fighter Emil Meek was forced to shave his beard at UFC 206 in Toronto, Canada to meet Ontario Athletic Commission (OAC) rules. Rules that clearly don't exist in other jurisdictions. So the OAC apparently thinks that there might be some advantage to facial hair otherwise there would be no need for such a rule, right? Why Do Men Grow Beards, Psychology and Style A full beard or heavy, heavy stubble? As mentioned above, facial hair tends to provide men with a number of positive benefits. What about emotional benefits? Facial hair tends to take attention away from a bald(ing) scalp in the instance where a bald guy grows a beard or goatee like I do. So facial hair like a beard can offer balding men a good reason to grow one: It can make a balding guy feel better about his baldness by compensating elsewhere. Don't underestimate the value of this. In fact research has shown positive attributes. The article The role of facial hair in women's perceptions of men's attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities stated: Our findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513813000226?via%3Dihub The research also showed how men and women differ in terms of their view of full beards vs. stubble: Women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive. In contrast, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513813000226?via%3Dihub So women view heavy stubble as most attractive whereas men rate full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive. But if you look closely, both women and men actually agreed that heavy stubble is most attractive. What constitutes heavy stubble though, and when is that actually considered to have become a full beard? Perhaps there is some disagreement on that. Conclusion Why do men grow beards? Psychology has a lot to do with it. Research shows that men and women tend to react positively to men with beards.Beards and facial hair in general are often associated with masculinity, testosterone and strength among other things.Full beards have been scientifically shown to provide at least some protection against certain blunt force trauma.A beard grown in conjunction with a shaved head helps to draw attention away from baldness towards the face, a positive thing for men who are concerned with their hair loss.