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CDC Explains Which Of 36 Different Facial Hair Styles Fit Respirators That May Prevent Coronavirus Infection

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If you are preparing for a date by grooming your facial hair and getting ready to wear a respirator mask, you are in luck. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a guide for you.

Take a look at a CDC infographic, which shows 36 different facial hair styles and provides names for each of them, just in case you want to refer to your face in the third person. It also tells you which facial hair styles would and would not work well with a “filtering facepiece respirator” like the P2/N95 respirator. This is the kind of mask that may protect you against small airborne microbes like the COVID-19 causing coronavirus if the mask is worn properly.

The info-graphic does not specifically name the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak. In fact, some on social media have said that the CDC actually put this reference together in 2017 as general guidance for P2/N95 respirator use, which are much less permeable than standard surgical masks. Standard surgical masks won’t really protect you against small microbes like viruses.

So even if this may be an older info-graphic, it still made the rounds and got reactions on social media. One example is this tweet, which marveled at the hairy care involved in putting this infographic together:

That’s a lot of hairy styles, and they all don’t go in one direction. You can see that some have green check marks while others have big red X’s.

That’s because respirators can only work if you have a good seal. No, not a sea mammal with flippers. That would be weird. Rather, in this case, a good seal means a tight fit between your face and the mask so that air and viruses can’t leak under the edges of the mask. Your facial hair can really affect your ability to maintain this seal. Think about it. If you had a Jason Mamoa Aquaman beard, how could you possibly have a mask fit tightly on your face?

Before you Brazilian wax your face, you don’t necessarily have to be completely clean shaven to achieve such a seal. As they say in real estate, location, location, location. If your facial hair isn’t where the edge of the mask would normally rest, you may be OK with keeping it there.

For example, what the CDC calls a Soul Patch, which is a small patch or tuft of hair growing directly under your bottom lip, may not interfere with the mask’s fit. The Soul Patch is the style in the lower left hand corner of the picture accompanying this tweet:

Other names for the Soul Patch are the Douche Tag or Dork Tuft, names that are typically not used by the person who has the Soul Patch. Wearing a tinted glasses along with the soul patch will not affect the fit of the mask but may signal that you are undergoing a mid-life crisis.

Any substantial amount of chin hair will probably interfere with the seal. This includes the Circle Beard, which looks like what Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark character sports, the Imperial, the Extended Goatee, and the Van Dyke, a style named after the 17th-century Flemish painter and not Dick van Dyke, who starred in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Throw into this group the Chin Curtain, a style that would allow you to easily answer the question, “does the curtain match the drapes?”  

Another part of your face that greatly affects mask fit is the area just below your sideburns, assuming that your sideburns are not unusually long. Any type of extended sideburns such as mutton chops or the Hulihee could cross this area. So don’t expect to attend a 1990’s retro Beverly Hills 90210 cos-party and have a snug N95 respirator at the same time.

Since the mask would cover the entirety of your nose as well as your mouth, facial hair restricted to above your lip probably won’t interfere with the mask’s fit, unless of course your mustache is the size of a musk rat. Therefore, the Zorro, Lampshade, Walrus, Handlebar, Pencil, or Zappa should be fine.

You may, however, want to hold off on a Toothbrush. Not an actual toothbrush, because good dental hygiene is important, but the facial hairstyle listed as the “Toothbrush” on the CDC infographic. In fact, if you insist on wearing such a facial hairstyle, you may want to wear a mask, like all the time.

Just look at what @CochraneCDC tweeted:

Even if you don’t have an official beard that has a name and that you can stroke like a Bond villain’s kitten, beware of stubble. The Bradley Cooper O’Clock shadow or any type of extensive stubble may be enough to lift the edges of the mask off of your face. Therefore, if you are going to go clean shaven, make sure that it is really clean and not dorm room toilet bowl clean.

If you are planning on wearing a respirator on a date, stop right there. Not only would wearing a mask scream “please don’t give me a second date,” the CDC “does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including COVID-19,” according to their website. In fact, use of facemasks should be limited to those who show COVID-19 symptoms, health care workers, and others who are taking care of someone who may be infected.

Besides being in limited supply, there are a number of reasons why wearing a P2/N95 respirator is not advisable unless you are a health care worker or taking care of someone who may be infected. It can make it more difficult for you to breathe. Plus, after a while, as the respirator becomes more and more moist from water droplets in the air and your saliva-laden breath, it loses its ability to properly filter out small particles and microbes.

So don’t wear a respirator until you actually have to do so. If you do have to wear a respirator, fear the beard. Say bye-bye to your French Fork, Ducktail, Verdi, Garibaldi, or Bandholz. As a replacement, you can choose any style on the CDC info-graphic that has a green check mark and be OK. Well, almost any of them.

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