How clean is your beard? Some are as dirty as toilets

A sample of men's facial hair has found that some beards contain the same germs as those found in toilets.

Microbiologist John Golobic, along with the help of KOAT7 television in the US, took swabs from men's beards in Albuquerque before taking them back to the lab at Quest Diagnostics.

After letting them develop in Petri dishes, Golobic said he was surprised to find enterics - a type of bacteria that can be found in faeces - adding that if those levels were discovered in a city's water system it would have to be shut down.

I'm usually not surprised and I was surprised by this.

• Golobic

Carol Walker, a consultant at the Birmingham Trichology Centre, told the Daily Mail in March that beards hang on to more bacteria because of their coarse texture.

It has the shape of a bayonet, a round, convexed bottom and then comes up the side to a point.

It becomes curly and smooth, it tends to have more bends and kinks which trap dirt.

• Walker

The solution? To avoid the build-up of bacteria, Golobic recommends a lot of beard-scrubbing, lots of hand washing and trying to avoid contact between the hands and the face.

Or you can just go clean shaven.

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