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5 Beard Care Tips for an Amazing Beard

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Did you know that a shaving man spends over 3000 hours of his life in the bathroom?  That’s 125 days!  If you think that growing a beautiful beard only requires hiding your safety razor and not shaving, you’re WRONG. There’s a lot more to getting a badass looking beard.

Letting your beard grow without proper caring and grooming routine may result in a poor quality beard – aka “caveman style” if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s perfectly fine. But if you want a great looking beard you will need to invest some time (not a lot) to nurture and care for it. A lot of guys start growing their beards only to give up later due to poor grooming and care routines.

It doesn’t matter if you’re taking baby steps into the big bad and curly world of beards or if you’re halfway there, these beard care tips will show you how and when to wash, trim, moisturize, brush and care for your beard.

1. Keep It Clean

A great looking beard is a clean beard.

Your beard needs to be washed 1-2 times a week, usually, it’s enough. (If you’re a professional mud wrestler, then you’ll need to wash it more often).

If you’re planning to just use your hair conditioner or shampoo, please think again. Although it sounds reasonable it can do more harm than good.

You’re probably wondering why you shouldn’t use hair shampoo on your beard.

The main difference between them is the ingredients list. Regular hair shampoo is made of chemicals that are designed to strip your scalp skin from sebum oils so that your hair won’t look oily or greasy. The problem is, your beard needs these oils to look great and the chemicals in the shampoo will strip these oils from your facial hair.

Beard shampoo contains natural ingredients that won’t strip your beard from important oils. It will wash and remove dead skin cells which cause beardruff and beard itch.

Tip: over-washing your beard can do more harm than good. 1-2 times a week is enough.

2. Use Beard Oil

Beard oil is one of the most important tools in your grooming arsenal.  It has many benefits:

  • Moisturize hydrate and nurture your beard and skin beneath it.
  • Repair split ends.
  • Soften your beard.
  • Reduce beard-druff.

Beard oil is actually a blend of two types of oils:

  1. Carrier Oils: They carry the essential oils onto the skin. Made mainly from vegetables and seeds they are highly beneficial for your skin.
  2. Essential Oils: Used mostly to add aroma to the beard oil.

A quality beard oil is not a cheap product because carrier and essential oils are expensive, if you come across a cheap product it probably means that it’s not 100% natural and you should stay away from it. If you want to, you can make your own beard oil.

The best time to apply beard oil on your beard is after a shower. This is the time where your pores are open which makes it easy for the oils to be absorbed in them. Pour few drops to your palm and rub it in your beard (with a brush or your fingers).

Tip: Don’t soak your beard in it, as a thumb rule: if your hands are more or less dry after applying the beard oil it’s a good sign you’ve used the right amount.

3. Brush Your Beard

Brushing your beard must be a part of your grooming routine. Please don’t think about using your mom’s hair brush with your beard. You should use a designated beard brush.

If you’re in the early stages of growing your beard, brushing your beard will greatly help with redirecting the growth direction.

On top of that, brushing increases blood flow to your facial hair, which means healthy beard growth.  Brushing will also clean your beard from dust or dirt it accumulated during the day. Regular brushing will keep your beard tangle free and will help straighten it.

A natural boar hair beard brush can carry sebum oil and will distribute it evenly on your beard. This is a great way to naturally nourish and hydrate your beard.

Tip: Use a beard brush to distribute beard oil after applying it to your beard.

Trim & Style It

If you’re starting growing out your beard, I would recommend not trimming it for at least 4-6 weeks.

Beard trimming is an important part of any grooming routine. You will need to trim your beard on a regular basis if you want it to look sharp and presentable.

This is still true even if you’re deep in the growing process and haven’t reached your desired beard length. Your beard is not growing at the same rate and direction on your face, so you will need to trim it to get rid of uneven stray hairs. I recommend trimming your beard every 2 weeks.

Trimming your beard is only half of the work, the other half is styling and shaping your beard. How you style and shape your beard is completely up to you, however, take into consideration that different face shapes call for different beard styles. Experiment with different styles and shapes and see what fits you best.

There are two more areas that require special treatment when it comes to styling your beard. The neckline and cheek lines, these lines define and shape your face and your beard.

To show you how the neckline can define and shape your face, take a look at this picture: http://imgur.com/wmfnlNX.
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Doesn’t it look like they glued his head on someone else’s neck?

There’s no right way when it comes to your cheek lines, it depends on your beard.

As for the neckline, the standard is usually trimming just above your Adam’s apple, imagine a ‘U’ shaped arc going from your left ear to your right ear, you should cut everything below it.

5. Don’t Pull on Your Beard

I know it can be fun to play with your beard, some do it out of comfort and some do it unconsciously. Pulling your beard on a regular basis can harm your beard.

You basically weaken your facial hair which might cause it to look patchy, you can even have holes in your beard. In some cases, you’ll need to shave it off and start growing it again, which can be very discouraging.

Tip: keep your fingers busy, instead of playing with your beard brush it.

Wrapping Up

As I said before, growing a beard doesn’t mean – not shaving.

It will require some effort, the tips I gave you won’t take you too long and can actually be quite fun. If you’ll incorporate them into your grooming routine you will see great results.

About The Author
Jason Hall has been growing and shaving his beard for the last 10 years. He loves experimenting with grooming and styling.  You can read more on his blog https://wisebeards.com

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1 thought on “5 Beard Care Tips for an Amazing Beard”

  1. Thanks for pointing out that it’s important to use beard shampoo because it contains natural ingredients that won’t strip your beard from important oils. My husband is growing out his beard for the first time in years, and I want him to take care of it so that it will look good. I think I’m going to get him some beard shampoo and maybe a beard product kit to make sure that he can keep it looking good and not let it get out of control.

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