Apparently a man's beard carries more germs than a dog

Delightful.

Beards. Some people love them, some people hate them. The Queen doesn't like Prince Harry's beard, apparently, but according to science we fancy men with beards more than someone who is clean-shaven. At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide whether you're pro beard or no beard.

However, if you're a big beard fan then you might want to listen up. Or, if you'd prefer to live in ignorance, stop reading immediately.

Researchers from Hirslanden Clinic in Switzerland decided to test just how clean a group of men's beards were compared to dogs. It found that of the 18 male participants, 100% of their beards contained bacteria. Yes, 18/18. Of the 30 dogs tested, however, just 23 of them carried bacteria in line with the beards - meaning that mens beard's are actually dirtier than your pet dog.

Alarmingly, seven of the tested beards were actually so unclean that they could actually have caused harm to another human's health.

Lovely.

'Our study shows that bearded men harbour a significantly higher burden of microbes and more human-pathogenic strains than dogs,' Andreas Gutzeit told The Mail on Sunday.

'On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men.'

So the question is - why?

Well, men's facial hair is more likely to be curly, making it more likely to trap dirt. On top of that, dogs are washed often whereas beards, apparently, are not.

Clean shaven it is, then.