What is pogonophobia?
Pogonophobia is an extreme fear of beards. “Pogon” comes from the Greek word for beards. Someone with pogonophobia may feel severe anxiety or panic around people with beards. They may also feel this way if they see a photo or video of someone with a beard. They might fear long, full beards, or any type of facial hair such as a mustache, goatee or “five o’clock shadow”. The condition can also make people scared of real beards or artificial beards that are part of costumes.
If you have pogonophobia, it’s impossible to predict when and where you might encounter someone with a beard. So, pogonophobia can make it difficult to function at work, in social situations or in public.
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What is a phobia?
An overwhelming fear of an object, event or situation is a phobia. The fear might seem irrational or silly to others. You might think, “How can a beard be dangerous?” But to someone with pogonophobia or any other phobia, the focus of their fear presents a very real threat. Specific phobic disorders are a type of anxiety disorder.
How common is pogonophobia?
It’s not clear how many people have pogonophobia, but phobias as a whole are fairly common. Studies show that about 12% of adults and 19% of teenagers in the U.S. experience a specific phobic disorder at some point. Phobias are about twice as common in women as they are in men.
