Hipsters, we’re sorry: your beard is scientifically gross.
At least that's the conclusion from a new study which found that men with beards have more germs than dog’s fur.
Researchers at the Hirlsanden Clinic near Zurich, Switzerland, wanted to see if evaluating humans and dogs in the same MRI scanner would be hygienic.
In order to do this, they compared the bacterial load in colony-forming units (CFU) of human-pathogenic microorganisms taken from 18 men and 30 dogs.
The researchers also compared to what extent bacteria from dogs, and humans, contaminated two other MRI scanners used exclusively by the latter.
The results are in – and it's bad news for beards.
Men with beards showed a higher microbial count when compared with 23 out of 30 dogs.
Even more disgusting, seven of the men involved in the study had so much beard bacteria that they were at risk of getting sick.
Didn't they wash their beards?
Study author professor Andreas Gutzeit told BBC: "The researchers found a significantly higher bacterial load in specimens taken from the men's beards compared with the dogs' fur.
On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean, compared with bearded men.