Fundraising, Shaving, and Allergies

This post may seem off topic, but it’s not.  My husband, Joel, joined his friend Megan Walker’s team for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Run For The Cure, since she went through breast cancer treatment this year.   As pledges began to flow in, Joel set a lofty goal of $1,000 and pledged to shave his beard (which he’s had for almost 30 years) if he reached it. Maybe he didn’t expect to raise that much money, but he did, and today was the day his beard came off.

I’m inspired by Megan and Joel’s friendship, by her strength, and by their team’s efforts to raise funds.  I’m also obsessed about allergies, so in the midst of all the excitement today, I wondered if people could be allergic to facial hair.  This is what I found out.

Facial hair acts as a pollen trap.  The pollen is trapped right on your face, right under your sneezing runny nose.  As a result, men allergic to pollens should shower before bed to avoid breathing in the pollens all night too.

I also found out that facial hair harbors dust mites.  They consume skin flakes, the main component of household dust, and facial hair is a great place for them to thrive.  It gets better:  Bed bugs thrive in beards and so do lice, for those with infestations.  Finally, certain molds and fungi thrive in facial hair, specifically Trichosporon cutaneum White Piedra, which is characterized by the growth of soft, white-to-light-brown nodules around shafts of the hair.

Men with facial hair love their facial hair, and I respect that.  Now that I know what can be in facial hair, I’d favor the well groomed freshly washed variety of bearded or moustached man.  That’s all I have to say about that.