Beard at sunset? Lace fashion comes to terms with Covid-19 - Lifestyle

The beard trend had just reached global proportions. For 2020, fashion sanctioned it rather short (5-7 millimeters) or medium Van Dyke style but also proposed perfectly shaped pizzetti in addition to the thick and long hipster beards. We also witnessed a newfound love for the mustache, just hinted at or thick, very thick in the Mexican style, or combined with sideburns as a true cow-boy. Then came Covid-19. With him the closure of the barbers for the lockdown and, more recently, the news that the virus protection masks may be less effective if worn in the presence of a thick down on the face. Is the beard at sunset?The debate got to the heart when, curiously, a curious design of the American CDC (Centers for disease control and prevention) emerged that related 36 different styles of beard, mustache and pizzetti with the filtering capacity of the masks used by the health personnel (i.e. the rigid cupped respirators, not the soft band), rejecting 18 of them such as the very thick 'alla Verdi' or 'Garibaldi' hair, the hipster style, the thick and long laces beyond the chin, the Mexican mustache and the sideburns ('mutton style) chops').
Among the beards promoted, on the other hand, the lace around the lips and the thin mustache stand out, Zorro and toothbrush and short 'walrus' style. In short, the hair must not come out from the edge of the mask in order not to prevent the adhesion of the respirators to the skin otherwise the air is not perfectly filtered, say the authors. The document, dedicated to occupational safety for health workers, was drafted in 2017 and therefore in the pre-Covid-19 era, so much so that CDC specialists were quick to specify it but beard lovers have already started careful shaving.
"Healthcare professionals should shave their faces in this emergency period," American surgeons say in the New York Times in the meantime. In the same newspaper, an infectious disease specialist from Santa Clara Medical Centers in San Jose, California, Dr. Supriya Narasimhan, also states that if a family member or friend at this time told her that she had decided to grow a beard, she would dissuade him prudently. At the time of the SARS epidemic, the Italian Institute of Health (ISS) also recommended that health workers get rid of their masks before wearing protective masks. Today, in full Covid-19 emergency, on the sheets attached to the soft fabric protection masks of the ffp2 type, which can be purchased by anyone in pharmacies and parapharmacies, we read “ do not use with a beard, sideburns or mustache that could prevent a good seal of the respirator on the face".
So what to do, shave or not? We asked Paolo D'Ancona, epidemiologist and coordinator of the working group on prevention and control of infections at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. "The respirators used in hospitals, ie the ffp2 and ffp3 type masks, must adhere perfectly to the skin to avoid the risk of contagion which, especially during some medical assistance procedures that produce aerosols, is high and therefore all the health workers who should wear should not have a beard. For citizens who instead wear surgical masks, the hair does not constitute any impediment, as long as the beard is not too thick or long otherwise the screen is no longer sufficient. In this case, I would recommend shortening it. " With the masks therefore go ahead to the care of the beard, which is of medium length, and to the mustache and well-defined and shaved laces. Do not recommend thick beards like Garibaldi, Verdi or hipster. The bum trend will wait for better times.