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 SCIENTIFIC EFFECTS THAT HAPPEN WHEN A MAN GROWS A BEARD

As you've probably noticed by now, beards are in. These days, the scruffy look once reserved for mountain men, lumberjacks, and hippies can be seen everywhere from billboards to fashion runways to business conferences. Don't believe those occasional headlines proclaiming that the end of the bearded era is nigh: while fashion always moves in trends, beards aren't going anywhere, anytime soon.

Ask anyone who has ever bearded up, and they'll tell you that life changes once you embrace your inner werewolf. People look at you differently. You feel different. As a whole, the impact that a beard has upon a person's life is way bigger than you might think, and to back that up, here are some scientific studies that have been done on beards — many of which, one would assume, may have been conducted by bearded men. Here's what happens when you grow a beard.

YOUR BEARD IS A SKIN CANCER FORCEFIELD

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Sunburns suck. But similar to how the hair on your head protects your scalp from turning cherry red, beards provide the same level of defense for your chin, cheeks, and upper lip. So if you get burnt, and then shave, you might have a paler "beard shadow" left over, which would look pretty silly ... but on the other hand, this also means that your beard protects you from skin cancer. Pretty swell, right?

According to a study by researchers at the University of Queensland, having facial hair reduces your exposure ratios by about one-third, compared to a clean-shaven face, and the ultraviolet protection factor, or UPF, ranged from 2 to 21. For those who aren't science geeks, this means a beard protects you from about 90-95 percent of dangerous ultraviolet rays that would hit your face, thereby significantly lowering your risk of getting skin cancer on your face. Voila! Still, unless you're growing beards on your forehead, forearms, and neck, don't ditch the sunscreen.

SAVE TIME BY DITCHING SHAVE TIME

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Hey, you've only got a short time left on this Earth, and do you really want to spend 3,350 hours of it standing in front of a mirror, scraping sharp metal against your cheeks? Didn't think so. Lest you claim that this whole "3,350 hours" business was pulled out of thin air, that number actually comes from the New York Times, and it's a fair estimate for how long the average man spends shaving during his lifetime. No matter how hard, how often, or how aggressively you shave, your bristles will grow back a little every day. Now zoom in one all those little facial hairs and picture them as a forest of tree trunks: The perpetual act of chopping them down, day after day, seems like a lumberjack's endless existential nightmare.

Strange visions aside, the fact is that kicking shaving to the curb will restore over 3,000 hours to your life, so you can finally take on that project you've been dreaming of. Or at the very least, you can watch some more TV.

YOU BECOME MORE ATTRACTIVE

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Attraction is a matter of taste, and everyone likes different things. But when it comes to monitoring general trends, research shows that a good, healthy beard makes a guy seem more attractive right now to the majority of people surveyed. The New York Times cites a study conducted by the University of Queensland, where over 8,000 heterosexual women were asked about surveyed regarding men's attractiveness. Results varied, of course — for example, 5 o'clock shadows were seen as better one-night stand propositions, whereas men with fuller beards were assessed as better long-term partners — but on average, the majority of surveyed women preferred guys with some scruff. Another study surveyed gay men and found that they also gave higher ratings to men with a healthy amount of whiskers. If you mostly want to join the beard club to level up your romance game, science is on your side.