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Bearded & Tschorn: A graphic display of tonsorial trust

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This week, we received two e-mails linking to the above infographic that humorously ranks the trustworthiness of various styles of facial hair, from the ‘Very Trustworthy’ Full Beard (think Santa Claus) to the ‘Disastrous’ Hitler (think, well ... Hitler).

In between there are funny snap judgments on 21 other manifestations of manliness, including the Handlebar (which qualifies as ‘Questionable’) Soul Patch (‘Threatening’) and full-moon phase Werewolf (‘Dangerous’). (We had to squeeze it down to fit into the post, click on the image or click here to see it in a larger format.)

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Turns out it’s the handiwork of Matt McInerney, a 22-year-old graphic design student who is ‘moments away’ from graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and who posted it to his website, Pixelspread, on April 16.

Shortly after that, McInerney says, someone (he doesn’t know who) posted a link to reddit.com and within 24 hours he counted an estimated 200,000 hits, with the total nearing half a million hits in a single week.

McInerney told All The Rage it was inspired by a recent article he’d read at Good’s website: ‘They’re known for their cool infographics but they didn’t create their own for the article so, as a design student I thought it would be fun to create one [like they would].’

It didn’t hurt, he said, that a friend was contemplating shaving his own beard off. ‘A couple of us were trying to convince him not to do it, and I whipped this off to send to him and make him laugh.’

He calls his choice of the Hitler toothbrush-style mustache ‘a pretty easy conclusion’ at the least-trustworthy end of the spectrum, and makes full disclosure about the his choice for the opposite end as well.

‘I have a full beard, so I’m definitely biased,’ McInerney confessed to ATR, though for the record, he does note, in the lower left hand corner, that his rankings are ‘based on absolutely no scientific evidence.’

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As we were about to end our phone call, McInerney felt compelled to explain one more thing: ‘The reason the John Waters [pencil-thin] mustache at the end is classified as ‘Dangerous’ isn’t because of John Waters. It’s [Michael Jackson’s father] Joe Jackson who makes it untrustworthy.’

‘John Waters is just collateral damage -- a victim who happens to have one.’

-- Adam Tschorn

Follow All the Rage on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Matt McInerney’s ‘Trustworthiness of Beards,’ a tongue-in-cheek infographic the graphic design student posted to his website on April 16, has been making the rounds on the Internet. Credit: Matt McInerney.

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