How Bad Medical Advice Helped Make Beards Trendy

Beards are back in style - but this isn't the first time they've made a comeback.

In the 18th century, "men were almost entirely clean-shaven," writes Alun Withey, a medical historian at the University of Exeter. "The face of the enlightened gentleman was smooth, his face youthful and his countenance clear, suggesting a mind that was also open."

Growing a beard was a rebellious act, reserved for outcasts and renegades.

All that changed in the 19th century, when, Withey writes, "the beard came back into fashion with remarkable swiftness." Beards became trendy, in part, because they signified the Victorian ideal of rugged manliness.

But that wasn't all: "By 1850, doctors were beginning to encourage men to wear beards as a means of warding off illness."

Withey, citing the work of Christopher Oldstone-Moore, explains the reasoning behind this peculiar medical advice:

In fact, in an 1892 letter to the Gloucester Chronicle, a man named William Johnston claimed that he grew out his beard for health reasons - with great results, he adds - and that the trend caught on like wildfire, all throughout the Gloucester area.

Here is Johnston's letter, presented in an 1894 volume with the theory that Gloucester beards actually set a more widespread trend:

Unfortunately for shaggy-faced men of the modern era, there is little evidence to support the advice of Johnston's "medical man."

One recent study in Behavioral Ecology points out that "hair on the face and body are potential localized breeding sites for disease-carrying ectoparasites." And a London dermatologist told The Guardian that since "facial hair is more likely to trap bacteria and food... there is actually more chance of infection with a beard than a clean-shaven face."

Growing beards to ward off colds isn't recommended, at least until more specific research is done.

Still, while the actual immune benefits of beards are hazy at best, the perception of thick facial hair as a sign of healthiness seems to have persisted. A 2013 study in Evolution and Human Behavior found that while women see heavy stubble as the most attractive facial hair option, men with full beards are seen as the healthiest - and the most manly.