When you are growing out a new beard, there are lots of things that you can do to make your life easier. There are lots of tips and tricks to taking care of your beard. This will help you have any easier time growing one, and you will look better too.
Beard grooming can be easy if you have a good guide. Fortunately, you came to the right place.
As a guy, it is important to learn how to take care of your beard. It is one of the first things that people see when they look at you. How you style your beard and how it looks determines how people view you.
What Is Beard Grooming?
Beard grooming is the act of maintaining your beard each day. This involves many steps including washing, combing, and trimming. Taking care of your beard each day will improve your looks and the quality of your facial hair. It may also lead to an improvement in beard growth.
Another way to define it would be beard management.
10 Ways To Keep Your Beard Groomed
1. Wash Your Beard
When you have a beard, you need to wash it. Your beard is going to get dirty everyday. It will capture dust, dirt, germs, and food. While running water over it during a shower is a step in the right direction, you need to properly wash it with a beard shampoo. A beard shampoo is designed to clean and strip dirt and oils from your facial hair. But, it is not going to be too harsh for your face.
To learn more about cleaning your beard, read this.
2. Condition Your Beard
Another step for proper beard grooming is to use a beard conditioner. After you wash your beard, you will lose beneficial oils from your hair and the skin underneath your beard. If you leave your beard hair dry and brittle, you may experience beard itch and split ends.
A good beard conditioner will make your beard softer after you wash it. This is one of the most overlooked steps in beard grooming 101. Restoring moisture to your beard is key to keeping it looking and feeling healthy.
3. Detangle Your Beard
If you have a long beard, then you can use a long hair pick to detangle it. This is an important step before you comb it. Going straight to combing your beard can result in snags, and you may pull your facial hair out. This is not something that you want to do!
If you have a new beard or short beard, this step may not be necessary.
4. Use A Beard Brush
To groom your beard correctly, you need to keep it brushed. If you don’t, it will look like a scraggly mess. In addition to keeping your beard looking nice, brushing it also serves a purpose. Brushing facial hair can help to train in to go in a certain direction. If you are looking for a certain style, then this will help.
Brushing or combing will also help to improve circulation at your hair follicles. This is important for the health of your beard. A beard brush can also improve how well a beard oil soaks into your hair and skin. If you want to prevent beard itch, this is a plus.
If you are going all in on grooming your beard, you might as well comb it to make it look nice.
5. Use Beard Care Products
Proper beard care means using products that will improve your beard. This is even more important if you have a long beard. The further your beard hair gets away from the follicle, the harder it is to stay moisturized naturally. You need to replace the natural sebum that your body produces. Beard products are designed to do that.
Here is a list of some beard care products that will make maintaining a beard easier:
- Beard Oils: This will help moisturize your beard. This means less itchy beard and less beard dandruff.
- Beard Balms: This will help to provide some conditioning to your beard. It will also help you style it by taming fly away hairs. This will make your beard look better. Beard balms contain beneficial carrier oils and a styling agent like beeswax.
- Beard Butter: These help by providing moisture and softness to your beard and skin. These really provide extra moisturizing properties. Beard butters are a mixture of ingredients like Shea Butter and carrier oils.
7. Trim Your Beard
If you want to maintain a good looking beard, then trim it. Beard trimming is essential if you want a perfect looking beard.
There are two ways that you can trim your beard:
- With an electric beard trimmer
- With beard scissors
Scissors are a good option if you want to trim your beard daily or every other day. There will only be a small amount of fly away hairs if you trim often. Simply locate any stray hairs and cut them off with your scissors.
A beard trimmer can give you a more overall trim. This will allow you to shape your beard.
Here is a video example to guide you in trimming your beard:
8. Trim And Shape Your Neckline
Another step for beard grooming is shaping your neckline. This involves using an electric trimmer to define where your beard ends on your neck. Typically, it is 2-fingers length above your Adam’s Apple. If you do not trim here, your beard can look unkempt. It is important to define a line on your neck. This provides shape to your beard.
You can read our full guide shaping your neckline here.
9. Eat The Right Foods
To maintain the best beard you can get, you need to eat right. Your facial hair will grow regardless of your diet. Eating the right beard growth foods can make your beard look fuller and healthier. Some examples of this are eggs, oysters and beef. These foods are loaded with vitamins and nutrients that can improve your beard health.
10. Take Beard Supplements
You do not need to take supplements for your beard, especially if you are eating well-balanced diet. However, if you want every advantage possible for beard care and beard growth, then this is another step you can take.
Beard supplements are vitamins for men that contain ingredients that will strengthen hair. These supplements typically contain Vitamins E, C, Biotin, and collagen.
Beard Grooming Tips For Beginners
Here are some tips for first time beard growers:
1. Don’t Get Discouraged At First
If you are a guy growing out a beard for the first time, the best advice is for you to not get discouraged during the initial growth phase. You will probably see patchy spots on your beard. These will be covered up over time. You will likely experience the dreaded beard itch. This can be uncomfortable and make you want to shave off your beard. As we discussed earlier, using beard oils can reduce beard itch to a minimum or even take it away completely.
2. Get A Beard Grooming Kit
A beard kit will take the guesswork out of which products you need. These kits come with all the beginner items that you need. They typically come with a beard brush or comb, beard oils and beard balms.
Because these beard products come in a set, it is usually less expensive for you. It also takes away the hassle of deciding which brand or specific choices to make.
Here is a beard grooming kit to get you started. This should start you out and it will get you all the basic necessities to start caring for your beard.
4 Beard Grooming Mistakes
1. Trimming Your Beard Too Soon
While trimming is a great step for grooming your beard, you need to make sure your beard is long enough first. You will have a lot of stragglers and hairs sticking out. You may have the desire to trim those off in the first few weeks. It is best to let your beard fill in first before you start trimming.
You will likely have some patchy spots in your beard. The best way to cover those up is for your beard to get fuller. This will cover those patchy areas up.
2. Not Using Beard Oil
Most men will experience itchy beard. Using a beard oil will moisturize your beard and the skin underneath. This will help to alleviate that new beard itch. This is the cause for most men to shave off their beard and quit. Don’t quit your beard!
3. Not Shaping Your Neck Line
The neck area is often neglected when growing a beard. A neck line can define your beard shape, and it can make you look better. It is going to be a mistake for you if you ignore it. There are many ways that you can trim and shape your neck. To get you started, we have a guide for beard neck line styles.
Do not make the mistake by not shaving or trimming your neck area.
4. Blow Drying Your Beard Incorrectly
You need to wash your beard often. That means, you will need to dry it. Do not take a hair dryer on high heat and blow dry your beard. This will cause it to dry out. It also causes the skin on your face to get too dry and itchy. You know what happens when your beard itches right?
Towel dry your beard instead. You can blow dry your beard on the low heat setting. Keep the dryer far from your facial hair as you are doing it though.
