Research: Women are Most Attracted to Men with Beards, Least Attracted to Clean Shaven Men

Facial hair for men is becoming the norm. Some choose to sport closely-cropped stubble, while others go for hipster beards or even something Dumbledore-inspired.

Love it or hate it, facial hair certainly has a polarising effect on your desirability.

Some simply adore the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Jamie Dornan, and Jack Gyllenhaal; whilst some others prefer BTS, BTS, and BTS lookalikes.

So if you are thinking of emulating K-Pop stars by shaving your stub, you might want to chuck your razor into the bin as researchers found that women are more attracted to men sporting full beards than those who are clean shaven.

In research published by the Journal of Evolutionary Biology titled “the masculinity paradox: facial masculinity and beardedness interact to determine women’s ratings of men’s facial attractiveness”, researchers asked 8,500 women to evaluate the attractiveness of men of three categories – bearded, fully bearded or sporting a goatee.

They used photographs of men as they grew their beards over a period of four weeks, from bare-faced to fully-bearded.

The women were asked to evaluate the men’s attractiveness, with a majority of them rating the clean-shaven men as the least attractive!

The researchers concluded that, “Those sporting full beards are seen as men who are mature, masculine, socially dominant and aggressive.”

They added that beards are a trait that women would consider when choosing a short- or long-term partner. 

It is hard to imagine that beards are also a factor in relationships!

Ultimately, the decision of whether a man should grow a beard or not will depend on his own relationship goals (or those preferred by his partner – or if you can even grow one).

At the very least, what this research has done is simply help men make more informed grooming choices.

Also read: Survey: 85% of M’sian Men & Women Find Stingy Partners the Most Unattractive