Grow a Beard

Ulysses S. Grant. Ernest Hemingway. Dr. Cornel West. There have been some great beards throughout history, and you should probably have one of them. You can learn to grow out and stimulate the growth of your facial hair, as well as how to trim and care for your new beard. Don't fear the beard.

Steps

Growing Out Your Facial Hair

1. Shave regularly until your facial hair comes in evenly. The worst way to grow a beard is to just stop shaving, or to never start. This results in patchy, uneven, and thin beards that just flat-out won't look good on your face. If your facial hair isn't growing in evenly all around your face, keep shaving regularly, and be patient until it does.
   • If you're not sure how evenly your facial hair is growing in, shave your entire face and look for stubble. Does it grow on the tip of your chin as quickly as over your lip? Does it grow under your neck at the same rate as it does on your sideburns? If so, you're ready for growing a beard.
   • If your beard doesn't grow evenly, there's a bit you can do to speed up the process and ensure that your hair will eventually grow in as thickly as possible.
   • Genetics has a lot to do with your ability to grow facial hair. Some people simply won't be able to grow full beards.
2. Raise your testosterone levels to speed up facial hair growth. If you're currently going through puberty, or have gone through puberty but haven't started growing your facial hair yet, there are some simple things you can do to stimulate testosterone levels and encourage hair growth. The effect won't necessarily be fast, but you'll get hair growing if you do some combination of the following:
   • Exercise. Doing intensity training, cardio, and some strength training a few times a week encourages testosterone growth in males, helping to get facial hair growing. Warm up for three minutes, then do on/off sets, with 30 seconds of all-out exercise, then 90 seconds of moderate exercise. Do sets of seven of these circuits.
   • Get your Vitamin D levels up, either by taking a supplement, or by spending some more time out in the sun, absorbing Vitamin D naturally.
   • According to some recently published research, ashwagandha is an herb that stimulates testosterone in men. It's also known as adaptogen, and is commonly sold as a supplement.
3. Take care of your skin in the meantime. As you're trying to stimulate facial hair growth, it's also important to take care of your skin and address issues that can keep hair from growing evenly and looking good. Talk to your doctor about problems with rosacea, acne, or dryness before you decide to grow a beard.
   • See your dermatologist while you are still shaving regularly. Apply the prescribed or over-the-counter medication for at least one month before growing facial hair.
   • Keep your face moisturized, to keep the follicles healthy and stimulated. Use a natural foaming cleanser on your face to keep the skin healthy.
4. Start with a fresh shave. Just as you need a clean canvas to start paining, when you decide you're ready to start growing a beard, you need a clean face. Start from scratch, trimming any facial hair you do have off, then shaving close to the skin. This will ensure that everything will grow as evenly as possible as you're starting your new beard.
   • Consider springing for a razor shave at a barber shop. This is typically the closest and most even shave you can get, to start out.
   • After you shave, just stop for a period of about four weeks and do nothing, other than wash your face regularly and take care of your skin. Your facial hair should start to come in normally.
5. Manage the itchiness of the early growth. Lots of guys stop growing out facial hair and start shaving because it gets itchy. Understand that itchiness will last for approximately four weeks, before you'll eventually get used to it, once the beard softens slightly.
   • Use a moisturizer, or a natural beard oil on your beard follicles to soften the hairs and to keep the beard from itching too much. While there will always be some itchiness associated with the growing of body hair, it's possible to control somewhat. Read the third section for more information about beard care.
6. Be patient. Everyone's facial hair grows at different rates, and it will take a while for some guys to grow beards, while others will seem to sprout whiskers in between morning shaves and evening showers. At whatever age and maturity level you're at, it's important to stay patient and wait for your beard to grow at its own pace.
   • For some guys, growing a beard out will happen in two or three weeks, while for others it may take as long as several months to get real results.
7. Grow it out whenever you want. While lots of men like to grow out their beards in cold months for insulation purposes, it's a common misconception that beards are more uncomfortable in hot weather. In actuality, beards help protect from UV sun rays, and work to cool the skin during hot weather, trapping sweat close to your face, cooling as it evaporates. While the itchiness associated with beards is typically less desirable during hot weather, it's not something that will do much to keep you warm.
   • Beards offer a variety of other health benefits, including trapping dust to help you avoid asthma attacks and upper respiratory infections, and act as windbreakers, helping to shield your face from cold weather blasts.

Beard Styling and Shaping

1. Trim with a beard trimmer every 5-10 days. After waiting for your initial grow-out period, when you've got the beard to its desired length, it's important to start trimming and shaping it. Most men should trim their beards about once every two weeks or so, depending on your speed of growth, and the kind of beard you want to have.
   • If you hope to end up with a Gandalf-style wizard's beard, it's still good to shape and trim using a beard trimmer, or scissors, to keep things growing evenly.
   • If you want a very short beard, and have especially coarse hair, you might find you need to trim it more regularly, like every two or three days.
   • Always keep your neck trim, up to your chin-line, or at whatever point along the neck looks best to you. If you don't trim the neck hair, beards typically look pretty cave-man-like.
2. Use a beard trimmer. While it's possible to trim longer beards neatly with a pair of hair-cutting scissors, it's very difficult to keep a beard orderly without an electric trimmer, or at least regular hair clippers. The only difference is typically the size of the guards and of the clipper itself.
   • Use a regular beard trimmer for shorter beards or the first few months of beard growth, and try a more hefty hair trimmer for thicker beards.
   • A common mistake is learning to use a trimmer for the first time and shaving off too much. If you have some stubble, practice with the trimmer before you shave, to get a feel for how it works, and which guards are most appropriate for you.
3. Choose a beard style that fits your face shape. There are many ways to style and shape your beard, but a lot of the choice will depend on your face, and your personal sense of style. If it looks good to you, go for it. But in general, if you have full cheeks, plan on keeping it shorter on the sides. If you have a narrow face, you can keep some length to fill it out.
   • Decide on a cheek line. You will need to choose how high the beard should go on your cheeks. Most people leave this section to natural growth, but if it seems to be creeping up to your cheek bones, you should trim the upper section.
4. Use tapered settings on your trimmer, if possible. On most trimmers, you can use a tapered setting, which will allow you to trim the beard in even strokes, tapering it down to your neck as you go, without having to change the height of the trimmer itself. You can taper the cheeks, the neck and the chin, if you desire, for a nice, clean look.
5. Consider less usual beard shapes. If you want to go with a more complicated beard style, there are lots of options available for you to style. Try any of the following beard styles:
   • Goatees involve trimming off the cheeks, leaving your chin beard and your mustache.
   • Pencil-line beard involve leaving only a thin line of beard along your jawline, connecting to your mustache. This typically looks best with extremely short hair, or a bald look.
   • Pharaoh beards typically involve shaving everything but the chin, and growing out the chin, sometimes braiding or beading the beard as it grows.
   • Wizard beards, or Civil War type throwback beards will take some time to cultivate, but essentially involve growing the beard out as long as possible, but still trimming the neck periodically, as well as the mustache, so it gets out of the way of your lip.

Caring for Beards

1. Clean your beard before you trim it with a moisturizing shampoo. It's important to trim your beard when it's clean, to make sure the hairs are softened and untangled for an even trim. Wash your beard in the shower with warm water and soap.
   • You can use a hair shampoo or a special beard shampoo, depending upon how your skin reacts, but it's normal for most guys to just use the same soap they use on their faces in the shower.
   • People with longer beards may prefer a special shampoo, such as Bluebeard's brand. It leaves less residue than facial washes and some shampoos.
2. Comb your beard regularly. Most trimmers will come with beard combs, but you can also use the same variety of brush or comb you might use on your hair, and comb your beard downward, with the grain, to make sure it lays nice and flat against your face. This is also a good way of seeing whether or not it needs a trim.
   • Sometimes beards are called "flavor savers" for a reason. It is possible to get food, lint, and other junk stuck in your beard, if it grows especially long. Comb it regularly to keep it from becoming a bird's nest.
3. Moisturize daily. If you have sensitive skin, try several moisturizers before you start growing your beard, and continue moisturizing your beard follicles and your face after you grow a beard, to keep your skin healthy underneath. A healthy beard needs a healthy base from which to grow.
   • Lubriderm and other lotion brands are perfectly fine for using on your face and making sure your skin doesn't dry out.
4. Try "beard lube" to combat itchiness or dryness. While they're not super-commonly used among men with beards, there are a variety of beard oils on the market, which can be combed into clean beards to keep them looking shiny, moisturized, and clean. It can be a desirable look, and it may give relief to men with sensitive skin who suffer from itchiness.
   • Take a small dab of oil on a comb and lubricate the comb with the oil before combining your beard naturally. This is the best way to distribute the oil evenly throughout the hair.
   • Coconut oil is excellent for the hair and makes for a perfectly natural substitute.

Things You'll Need

• Facial moisturizer
• Beard lube
• Beard trimmer
• Clippers
• Shampoo
• Comb

Related Articles

• Grow Facial Hair
• Grow a Beard Faster
• Grow a Thicker Beard
• Maintain Stubble

Sources and Citations

• Videos provided by Banana Stew Productions

See also

• Use Pomade for Your Beard
• Grow a Hipster Beard
• Use a Beard Trimmer
• Grow a Goatee
• Grow Facial Hair
• Grow a Mustache
• Grow Sideburns
• Maintain Stubble
• Grow a Handlebar Mustache
• Manage Your Beard

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