Your genetics determine pretty much everything when it comes to what your beard will look like. That being said; things like stress, bad diet, and physical damage can lower your full beard potential. These tips will help maximize your own beard growing potential to give you the best beard possible. First off, shaving your beard will NEVER make your beard grow faster – that’s just an urban legend and anyone who says it makes your beard grow faster is just trolling you. If you already have a perfect diet, perfect work out regiment, and perfect stress levels, than this section won’t help you – but if you aren’t living the ideal life; they will help your beard grow better.
Expert Beard Growing Tips: Prepping The Beard
That being said, handsome healthy beards don’t sprout up overnight. They do take time, care, and dedication to look dazzling. To demonstrate some tips and techniques for cultivating impressive facial hair, we turned to Eric Bandholz, founder for Beardbrand and the proud owner of a full, lustrous beard. Here’s some of Eric’s helpful tips on how to grow, style, and maintain a beard so that it flatters instead of flunks:
- Hair is dead pieces of you slowly coming out of your body. If they lived a good life, then they will exist as a good hair — otherwise your beard will look like shit. So to have the best beard you will need to start with a healthy diet and foods high in protein.
- If you eat a balanced diet, you won’t need vitamins or supplements. However, if you suspect your diet is less than ideal you may want to consider adding these beard assisting supplements: biotin, fish oil, and a multivitamin. Or you could simplify your life and take the Vitabeard vitamin. Keep stress and smoking to a minimum and you will be living up to your full beard growth potential.
- Once you’ve got your beard growing at its best, you’ll have to take care of it to keep it that way. This starts in the shower: you have to resist the urge to shampoo your beard every day. Shampooing beards puts a lot of strain on beards because it strips out the natural oils that keep your beard healthy and moisturized. I try to shampoo only once or twice a week and always use conditioner after a wash. Bluebeards makes a beard wash specifically formulated for your beard.
- Immediately after the shower, while your pores are open, is the best time to add some beard oil to your face and beard. Beard oil is a leave-in conditioner that will help keep your beard soft, shiny, and prevent against beard dandruff. Personally I use Spiced Citrus Beard Oil (shameless plug — it’s my line of beard oils), but I have also heard good things about Frank’s Beard Elixir.
- For your combing needs, try to get a saw-cut and handmade comb like a Kent comb. These combs will glide through your beard like a hot knife through butter and create little to no static. If you are a brush person, avoid the nylon brushes and go for a boar’s hairbrush. The hairs redistribute your natural oils rather than stripping them away.
Expert Beard Growing Tips: Grooming The Beard
There are three tips for overcoming this stage of growth – 1) “man it up” and just wait. It’s only temporary and will pass shortly. 2) apply ample amounts of moisturizer like a beard oil, or other product. Try to avoid moisturizers with alcohol in there as they actually dry out your skin. 3) In the early stubble phase (day 1 or 2) use Soft Goat scruff softener. This product is designed to help make stubble softer and more touchable.
See also: How to shave
Once you get through the itchy phase, you’ll get to the point where your beard will look untidy. To neaten up your look, I recommend trimming the neckline, upper cheeks, and mustache lip. If you are going for the yeard, or natural beard, you should leave your beard untouched. At this point is when we lose the most amount of beards. Men will typically get a little ambitious with their razors, cut too much and then shave the entire thing off. Because of the risk of mistakes, I recommend waiting at least a month to trim.
Most new beardsmen trim the neckline too high. The ideal location for the line is where the neck meets the head. I’ve created this neckline trimming video to help as it’s hard to put into words where you should trim. The big take away is that there is very little of your beard that needs trimming around the neck. You shouldn’t need to look up to trim and aim to shape a nice round curve from one ear to the next.
See also: How to grow a beard – The ultimate guide
Wrap up
Growing a beard is a wonderful experience that I recommend all men trying at least once in their lives. If it’s not for you, feel no worries about shaving it off – but you should at least try the grow. Through the journey you will have a more open mind towards others, more patience, and more confidence. Ultimately it’s one of the items that helps you become a better man. If you need any more tips or guidance, I’ve created a YouTube channel that goes over a lot of the topics in this article in greater detail. Or ask questions in the comments and I’d be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading and of course, beard on!