There's power in a beard. Go ahead, place aside the armchair-and-smoking-pipe analysis about how one is "clear evidence to success, power, and public acclaim in the 21st century." Because there is now scientific evidence adding to the already-proven actual value of whiskers.

Researchers at the University of Southern Queensland, in Australia, proclaim in a new study that a bearded man's face gets hit with a third of the UV rays of his shaven compeer. The scientists built a rotating set of mannequin heads — one beardless, another with short brown hair, then a bushier counterpart as well — to place beneath cloudless skies and compare their exposures. The thicker beard very slightly outperformed the trimmer one, but both triumphed over the bare face, particularly in the upper-lip region (so mustaches are, when executed well, a viable alternative). In fact, after an hour — though keep in mind, this is the brutal Australian sun — the bald face surpassed the recommended ultraviolet exposure limit.

Look, it's no surprise that facial hair blocks out the sun. But now it's published data.

So it's settled: Beards, everyone. For health.

[Via href='http://www.newnownext.com/beards-keep-you-young-healthy-and-handsome-says-science/02/2013/' target='_blank">New Now Next.']

Nate Hopper Associate editor Nate Hopper is an associate editor for Esquire magazine.

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