Do women prefer men who are clean-shaven or those who have a beard?

Turns, out, it's a little in between.

A short stubble -- think David Beckham -- seemed to be the preference of 60 women students who compared different looks in a recent study conducted by two British researchers at Northumbria University in Newcastle. It appears in the latest issue of Psychology Today.

The British women, ages 18 to 44, rated five looks: clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, light beard and full beard.

According to the experts in human evolution, the clean-shaven look can seem immature and suggest a man's preoccupation with tidiness, while the full beard suggests aggression. In fact, a beard makes the size of a man's lower jaw seem larger and emphasizes the teeth as weapons.

Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, researchers Nick Neave and Kerry Sheilds concluded: "Facial hair, or beardedness, is a powerful sociosexual signal, and an obvious biological marker of sexual maturity.

"Facial hair may have been sexually selected by females on the basis of associated male success, despite its threatening appearance. Clean-shaven faces therefore may suggest appeasement, as well as being an obvious sign of sexual immaturity."

Perhaps most interesting, the women found that stubble or a light beard "the most suitable for both short-term and long-term relationships."

The ability to grow a beard indicates physical maturation, but the actual growth of a beard infers aggression, dominance and fully manifested manhood.

The researchers now plan to expand the study internationally to see how the appeal of facial hair plays among women of different cultures.