He may have stopped going to clubs and bars until 3am, swapped the flatshare in the city for a semi in the suburbs, and ditched the late-night takeaways for nutritious casseroles made in his slow-cooker.
But the sign a man is really ready to settle down? He’ll grow a beard, a study has found.
Researchers recruited more than 400 men aged 18-40 with different levels of facial hair, ranging from clean shaven to full beard.
They then quizzed them about their “social motivations”: the importance of affiliation with friends, status-seeking, caring for family members, finding a new romantic/sexual partner, keeping a partner, and staying safe.
The researchers, from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, and the University of Padova, Italy, did this by giving
