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The claim that exercise promotes beard growth is common around the Internet. The explanation that is the most common is that heavy exercising increases the testosterone levels in the body and that in turn increases beard growth.

Does exercise indeed increase the beard growth and if so is the "increased testosterone levels from training leading to increased beard growth" explanation correct?

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  • I guess beard growth will be because of testosterone elevation if you work out for x number of months/years?! If that is the case then here is what I found via WebMD. But I don't know how tenable WebMD is, to be honest.
    – Janus Boffin
    Jun 17, 2016 at 17:20
  • I was going to copy/paste in a quote of the claim from the link, but it's displaying so badly on my browser that I can't really make out the page. Dunno if someone else might have better luck? Or it might be best to just find another source.
    – Nat
    May 25, 2019 at 8:31
  • Is the belief that it's testosterone, or just increased circulation/blood flow stimulating the follicles?
    – PoloHoleSet
    May 28, 2019 at 20:20
  • I don't know that this claim is common around the Internet. You just linked to a single forum post - in the "beard board"...
    – einpoklum
    Dec 21, 2019 at 21:22

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Two studies support this claim:

  1. Margaret Chieffi; Effect of Testosterone Administration on the Beard Growth of Elderly Males. J Gerontol 1949; 4 (3): 200-204. doi: 10.1093/geronj/4.3.200;

  2. Testosterone metabolism by cultured human beard outer root sheath cells in comparison with epidermal keratinocytes. Journal of Dermatological Science Volume 6, Issue 3, December 1993, Pages 214-218.

Both studies state that increased testosterone levels leads to increased beard growth for males, but both studies worked with men who were already able to grow beards.

However, there is no evidence to show that men who cannot grow beards in the first place were able to grow beards by increasing their testosterone levels.

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  • 4
    The question is about heavy exercising causing beard growth and not about administration of testosterone stimulating beard growth in elderly men which is known from the abstract of the first paper. The second paper talks about testosterone conversion to weak androgens in the beard's outer root sheath cells under experimental conditions and nothing about exercise. The effects of DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) is very complex to explain because tissue DHT is noted to be associated with hair loss in the scalp, but surprisingly, tissue DHT also encourages body and facial hair growth!
    – pericles316
    Feb 28, 2017 at 17:25

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