People on TikTok love to brag about having sex without actually saying they’re having sex. The app won’t allow you to talk explicitly about eating pussy, but many have found workarounds to get the message across, anyway. Currently, some men are doing this by claiming that going down on women has caused their beards to lighten in shade. By pointing out their supposedly lighter-colored beards, they get to proudly promote themselves as routine oral sex-havers. But is there any actual truth to this bizarre claim?
Vaginal fluid is acidic, and the vagina secretes lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide as part of its normal, healthy functioning. Because of this, some women have noticed that the regions of their underwear that sit against the vulva become “bleached” over time. Last week, people on TikTok began applying this theory to facial hair, too. “Just found out from TikTok why my beard gets lighter and lighter every few months,” a video from @maguiresharpe says, with him looking off into the distance and scratching his forehead. The video now has eight million views, and has spawned a bunch more videos of others having the same a-ha moment.
As Sharpe, 20, reiterates to me, he first learned of the possibility from another TikTok that claimed going down on a woman could produce such results. That original video is no longer available on the platform, though there’s a similar video from November 2021 with two million views that supports the same theory. More than just responding to a ridiculous TikTok, however, Sharpe says he really has seen a change in his beard.
“I honestly have noticed a difference, over the last few months — it’s gotten a few shades lighter,” the Lake Superior State University student explains. “I noticed the difference when I was looking at a picture of myself a few months earlier.” He cites his girlfriend, whom he goes down on around twice a week, as the culprit.
If that’s the case, he must really be getting his face in there, considering his cheek hair looks lighter, too. Then again, it might all just be lighting — as you can tell from the second picture, he’s seated next to a window, with a good amount of natural light illuminating the hue of his beard. Unsurprisingly, the hair on the side of his face opposite the window is much darker, suggesting that it might not be his oral sex habits that’s creating the effect — it’s just a product of where the light’s coming from.
I don’t mean to rain on everyone’s cunnilingus parade, but none of this makes much sense. Yes, underwear can get bleached from vaginal fluid, but that’s after much prolonged exposure — i.e., wearing them all day, then whatever length of time they sit before getting washed. Thus, someone would have to routinely coat their beard in it for hours on end — likely for days at a time — to produce a similar effect. Don’t most of you at least rinse your beard with water afterwards? If so, it’s highly unlikely that vaginal fluid would lighten your hair unless you were literally living in it.
More damning, however, is the fact that it doesn’t seem as though vaginal fluid is known to bleach pubic hair. Were vaginal fluid acidic enough to bleach hair, wouldn’t the pubes closest to the vaginal opening be blonde, or at least a little lighter in shade? Much to the contrary, pubes are often darker than the hair on your head, and relatively uniform in color, too.
So, then, why do men’s beards sometimes get lighter over time? There are many possibilities. It’s common for beards to change color or be different from the hair on your head due to genetics, changes in medications or the amount of time spent in the sun. Now that we’re well into spring, some guys might just be noticing the effects of recent sun exposure in their facial hair. Regardless, I suspect that many of the men participating in this trend are just looking for a good way to point out that they’re having sex and going down on people with vaginas.
And to them, I say, we get it! You fuck! Good job. Now can we all go back to wondering why men’s beards are often red instead?
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
