Beard Maintenance: How To Keep Your Beard looking Awesome

Beard maintenance is essential if you want a great-looking beard. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes.

It doesn’t matter what length of beard you’re aiming for, (even a stubble beard) there are 3 mantras you need to live by, for growing and maintaining a beard:

1. Time
2. Patience
3. A Consistent Routine

If you keep these 3 in mind and follow the advice in this article, there’s no reason you can’t have, and maintain, an awesome-looking beard.

Why You Need To Maintain Your Beard

Growing a beard is easy – you just stop shaving. The hairs on your face will keep growing and you’ll have yourself a beard.

The problem with that, is your facial hairs grow at different lengths and in different directions.

Just letting your hair grow will eventually leave you looking like Tom Hanks in the final few days of Cast Away!

A well-styled, trimmed, and maintained beard, on the other hand, can give you confidence, compliments, and a certain ‘status’ among your fellow men.

Sporting a great-looking beard is probably one of the only times a guy can safely compliment another guy without feeling awkward.

Get used to hearing the words “Great beard bro!” from friends and strangers alike. Trust me, it never gets tiresome. 🙂

Don’t be afraid to change your beard style.

Depending on the shape of your face, some beard styles may be easier or better suited to you.

You’ll discover that as your beard grows and thickens.

You can’t force a square peg through a round hole, so be flexible and realistic.

Your Beard Maintenance Plan

Once you’ve got the cutting tools and a good idea of how to keep your beard the length you want, you now need to maintain it.

A healthy-looking beard doesn’t happen overnight, but rather the result of a daily maintenance plan.

As beards are far more popular these days, there are some excellent products available to us that will really enhance your beard and help you get the look you want.

1. Wash Your Beard with Beard Shampoo

No matter how great a beard product is, it won’t be effective on a dirty beard.

As obvious as this might seem, not every gent out there cleans his beard at the right time.

And before you go, “But I wash my beard daily when I bathe,” there’s a huge difference between beard maintenance and washing your beard daily.

In fact, washing your beard every day is the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do!

Ideally, you should wash your beard about two or three times per week, depending on the nature of your day-to-day activities.

Excessive washing can dry out your facial skin and beard.

It’s not a good idea to use regular hair shampoo on your beard.

Scalp shampoo contains ingredients that are suitable for the scalp but harmful to the skin underneath your beard. They can strip your beard of its natural oils, leaving it brittle and dry.

Instead, use a beard-specific shampoo.

A few excellent choices include:

Professor Edward J Fuzzworthy’s Gentleman’s Beard Gloss Shampoo

This is actually a beard soap bar and has thousands of rave reviews!

It lasts a long time and contains only organic ingredients.

Other good choices:

• Viking Revolution Beard Wash and Conditioner
• Zeus Beard Shampoo
• Bulldog Original Beard Shampoo

For stubble or a short beard, a dual-purpose face and beard cleanser is probably the better option.

Beard Shampoo To Reduce Grey Hairs

Grey hairs in your beard are just something that will happen as you get older.

Even young beard owners may succumb to the dreaded grey!

Just For Men Grey Reducing Beard Wash is just the job.

Use it as your beard shampoo and watch those grey hairs slowly disappear with each wash.

How To Wash/Clean Your Beard?

Use warm water to wash your beard. Never use hot water for your beard, even in cold weather.

Hot water might feel good on your skin, but it will increase circulation to your skin, which can lead to inflammation, itchiness, and dryness.

Work your preferred beard shampoo into a lather, and gently massage it into your beard and the skin underneath.

To really benefit from the shampoo, follow this up by applying a beard conditioner to get a really soft feel to your beard.

Beard conditioner is to your beard as a hair conditioner is to the hair on your head.

Rinse off with warm water, at first, and rinse a second time using cold water.

Wait, what? Why cold water?

Warm water opens up your skin pores to absorb the nutrients and moisture in the beard shampoo, and cold water closes up the pores to keep the moisture locked in.

Lastly, you want to keep your beard slightly damp before applying any beard maintenance product.

So, gently pat it dry with a clean towel. It should be around 70-80% dry.

2. Moisturize Your Beard With Beard Oil

A good part of beard maintenance is keeping your beard and skin hydrated and moisturized.

That’s your surest bet to avoid beard problems such as breakages, beardruff, and itchy beard.

Most of these problems can be attributed to a lack of sebum (your face’s natural oils) to help the beard remain supple.

Therefore, applying beard oil is the best thing you can do for your beard.

Beard oil acts as a moisturizing and conditioning agent that can help stimulate growth and treat your beard as well as the skin underneath.

But not all beard oils are created equal.

The world’s trusted brand when it comes to beard oil is the Honest Amish Premium Beard Oil.

It contains a good number of premium, natural ingredients for making beards softer, healthier, and itch-free.

It has an unmatched viscosity, which means tiny drops will provide more than enough coverage.

If your skin is prone to acne or you have generally sensitive skin, consider getting beard oils rich in tea tree and sandalwood.

How To Apply Beard Oil

Put 2 or 3 drops of oil into the palm of your hands and gently rub them together.

With your palms and fingers covered in the oil, stroke them into the sides and front of your beard.

Do the same again working from the bottom upward.

3. Tools To Tame Your Beard

Beard Brush / Beard Comb

Once your beard reaches a decent length and thickness, you’ll need to start using a beard comb and beard brush to keep it tangle-free and to train it.

A brush or comb might appear seemingly less important, but that’s not the case at all.

These tools offer important benefits, including:

• Styling of beards (comb)
• Maintaining a tangle-free beard (comb)
• Shaping and training the beard to grow in a particular direction (brush)
• Distributing oils and balms throughout the beard (brush)
• Promoting growth by stimulating hair follicles (brush)

Besides an all-natural beard oil, a good-quality beard brush is a small investment that will pay off in spades.

And if you have a long beard, a beard comb is a great asset.

This afro comb is actually perfect for running through and de-tangling long beards..

Brushing and combing your beard and mustache will help it grow into the style you want.

It also helps prevent hair from getting into your mouth while eating.

Of course, combing and brushing won’t magically make your beard grow fuller and thicker overnight, but regularly doing these activities will ensure your beard and mustache remain neat, presentable, and free from knots.

Beard Straightener

A heated beard straightener is an absolute must of a tool if you have a full beard of 2 inches or more.

It’s basically a brush that heats up.

Once the brush gets warm enough, you simply brush your beard as normal. The heat does a great job to straighten and detangle your beard. It also makes the process a lot quicker.

4. Apply Beard Balm

Another type of beard maintenance product that doesn’t just moisturize your beard but also conditions and provides moderate styling capabilities is a beard balm.

A good beard balm can add volume and shape to your beard and can keep flyaway strands in check while acting as a leave-in conditioner.

How to Apply Beard Balm

Depending on how big your beard is, simply take a small pea-size amount of the balm and rub it into your hands.

From there work it into your beard by stroking your beard in the direction of your growth.

To get an even distribution of the balm throughout your beard you should use a beard brush.

How Often Should You Use Beard Balm?

For short to mid-length beards, you should apply beard balm every day. This will help train your beard and keep it healthy-looking.

5. Trim Your Beard

For stubble to short-length beards, a decent beard trimmer will keep your beard to the length and style you want.

Using a beard trimmer every few days will keep your beard looking neat and tidy.

For longer, full-length beards, you need to use clippers and scissors to trim it.

Most beard trimmers can’t handle anything over a couple of centimeters in length, so you’ll need to be proficient at trimming your beard the old fashion way.

Here’s a great video demonstrating how to trim a long beard:

Fuel Your Beard – Eat Well

You are what you eat.

Rephrase.

Your beard is what you eat!

Give it poor food, and you could end up with splint ends, beardruff, acne, skin inflammation, and other irritations.

On the flip side, a healthy, nutritious diet will ensure a healthier body and ultimately a healthy beard, regardless of length.

If your diet is a bit shit, taking supplements such as biotin, zinc, protein, and vitamins A and D will improve your chances of growing a healthier beard.

Be sure to consult your physician if you want to include vitamin supplements that might help with beard maintenance.

Practice Healthy Living

Apart from eating a healthy diet, some lifestyles might not be great for maintaining a healthy body. And isn’t every single strand of hair on your face part of your body?

Indeed, genetics plays a huge role in your ability to grow facial hairs, but genetics can’t keep your beard healthy.

So, practice healthy living by doing simple things, such as:

• Getting enough rest and a good night’s sleep
• Exercising regularly
• Drinking plenty of water
• Reducing your stress level

These will all play a part in how your skin and hair look.

It is also important to avoid potentially harmful habits, such as excessive alcohol intake and smoking.

Summary

1. Wash your beard with warm water and beard shampoo twice or thrice weekly. Remember to rinse off with cold water for the reasons mentioned earlier.
2. Use a towel to dry your beard gently, making sure it is still damp. Most beard products work better on slightly wet beards.
3. Apply your preferred beard oil.
4. Comb or brush your beard, depending on the length. Doing so will distribute the oil evenly.
5. You may choose to apply a beard balm or beard wax for styling. This is completely optional.
6. Trim your beard with a beard trimmer and/or scissors
7. Eat well to nourish your beard.
8. Live well to maintain a healthy beard.

Beard Maintenance During the Day

There is no hard and fast rule about beard maintenance during the day.

The important thing to keep in mind is that your beard oil or other effective beard conditioners are doing their work if you applied them before starting your day.

Reapply only when there is a need to do so. For example, if you get caught up in the rain during the day, your beard can become wet and vulnerable.

Ensure that you dry it gently and reapply your conditioner.

And if the weather is particularly hot or extremely cold that your beard dries out too quickly, you can bring along a water spritzer to apply to your beard or wet your beard lightly in the office bathroom to keep it moisturized throughout the day.

Bottom line: keep your beard moderately moisturized as you go about your day.

You don’t want to leave it dry to prevent breakages and beardruff; neither do you want to overdo it and smear oil on everything that comes in contact with your face!

Beard Maintenance Before You Go To Bed

The night routine is pretty simple. You are essentially stripping your beard of dirt, sweat, and debris.

Unless you’ve had a particularly dirty day, simply rinsing your beard with mildly warm water should do the trick.

Next, apply good-quality beard butter before you go to bed.

While it is okay to use beard oil at night (if you prefer), the properties of beard butter make it more suitable for nightly use.

Beard butter provides deeper conditioning for beards, so using it when you are less likely to be disturbed (like when you sleep at night) will allow it to deeply nourish and hydrate your beard and the skin underneath.

Beard Kits

As with a skincare routine, it’s important not to mix and match different scents when you apply more than one product to your beard.

Try and find a brand you really like to keep a consistent fragrance. Or use a non-scented product.

These beard kits include everything your beard needs..

Video – 7 Beard Rules

Want more?

Here’s a great video giving you 7 beard rules, every guy should follow..

Final Thoughts

Try lots of different brands and products.

You’ll not know what you really like, what smells great, and what works best on your beard until you’ve tried a good selection.

Growing a beard is not just about letting your manly mane do its thing.

You want to look stylish and attractive, but most importantly, you want to be happy about your face, your appearance, and your overall health.

For these reasons, it is important to follow these simple beard maintenance tips.

Your beard will thank you for it. Not to mention the compliments you’ll get.. 😉

Peter