Thanks to hipster chefs, beard hair nets are now a thing

While there is no concrete data on the number of urban male chefs cooking while sporting massive facial hair, I can tell you in Brooklyn, New York, where I live, you can't swing a pair of vintage suspenders without hitting a bearded chef.

And it seems I'm not alone. "Big beards are booming," says Tampa Bay Times food critic Laura Reiley. In the food world, where hygiene is key, what's a restaurant to do about this burgeoning style trend that could introduce unsavory bacterium to a diner's plate? Enter: The beard hair net. Yes, the same thing your school lunch lady wore over her head is now being spread across some chefs' chins. And there's anecdotal evidence the facial hair-net trend is growing faster than a high schooler's mustache.

"As someone who dines out a couple hundred meals annually, I've seen beard snoods this year crop up in small independent restaurants and big corporate chains," Reiley says.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In fact, a few food industry players have already instituted a hygiene rule for beards. A manager for the Florida region Whole Foods Market tells the Tampa Bay Times their official policy states that "beards and mustaches longer than 1/2 inch must also be in a restraint and anything under 1/2 inch in length are not required to be covered."

Interested? Buy a pack of 100 beard hair nets today for just $3.24.