How To Properly Maintain Your Beard
Posted by Dean Nappa on April 23, 2020
There's nothing more important to a man's grooming routine than their prized beard. Beards are a symbol of time, pride and vigorous energy. No man grows a beard without loving it. However, some steer away from growing a beard due to the maintenance. It's true, beards can easily become unruly, but luckily for you, we've constructed the ultimate beard maintenance routine. So if you've currently got a beard or looking to grow one, strap yourself in because this blog outlines everything you need to know about taming your facial hair.
Beard Wash (Shampoo)
Just like a hair care routine, we start our beard maintenance with a wash. It's important to note that your face produces less oil than your hair, so it's best to use a wash (Shampoo) specifically formulated for your beard. However, similarly to a haircare routine you only want to wash your beard once every 2-4 days (depending on length) as excessive washing will strip the beard of its natural oils and dry it out.
Beard Wash Recommendation: Proraso Beard Wash Refresh 200ml
Beard Softener (Conditioner)
Once all the grime and impurities are removed, it's time to restore moisture to your beard. The washing process can dry out your beard and make it brittle, so this step is extra important for hydrating and maintaining your beard's health (especially in those colder months). Apply the softener and let it sit for 2-3 minutes while it works it's magic.
Beard Conditioner Recommendation: Bossman Fortify Intense Beard Conditioner Magic 118ml
Beard Oil
Now that the canvas is clean and prepped, it's time for artistry to take place. Beard oils nourish your beard, reducing itchiness, providing it with hydration and making it less fragile. This is by far the most important part of the maintenance of your beard, and like our stance with most grooming products, cheap drugstore branded oils aren't going to cut it.
The difference between a good quality beard oil and a drugstore one is shown in the quality of the ingredients. Quality beard oils use natural and essential oils that are similar and try to mimic the ones that our skin produces. Oils such as jojoba oil will absorb easier restoring hydration to your beard, strengthening it and making it less prone to breakage.
On the other hand, cheap branded beard oils use more dense ingredients, for example, olive oil, which rather than absorb into your hair, sits on the surface These oils are prone to shirt stains and lacks the hydrating agents that more renowned beard oils have.
Beard Oil Recommendation: The Bearded Chap Original Beard Oil 89ml
Beard Balm
Beard balms are extremely versatile. They're basically a leave-in conditioner that has styling properties. A beard balm will soften your hair, taming those strays and allowing you to shape your beard the way you desire it. When this is paired with an oil your beard goes to a whole new level.
Beard Balm Recommendation: Burly Fellow Beard Balm 100ml
Moustache Wax (Optional)
If you have an elite level beard, then you probably want to (or already do) use moustache wax. A moustache wax helps balance out your lengthy beard and is the perfect solution for those annoying stray hairs that find their way in and around your lip.
Moustache Wax Recommendation: Captain Fawcett Ricki Hall Booze & Baccy Moustache Wax 15ml
Brush Your Beard
An unsung hero in your beard care routine, brushing does a lot more than you think. Combing your beard stimulates natural oil production and enables your beard oil and balm to be distributed thoroughly. Make sure you do this step after the previous steps mentioned and once or twice throughout the day.
Critically, you should have different combs for your hair, moustache and beard. Your facial hair is different than your head hair. Unlike a hair comb, a beard comb is designed to get through coarse beard hair, your normal comb will mostly struggle with this and it could result in you ripping out some of your facial hair. To extend on this, your beard comb will likely be coated with traces of beard oil, this can ruin the properties of the styling product that you apply to your hair.
As with moustache combs, they have finer teeth and are perfect for providing control to align your hair and create precision in your moustache styles.
Beard Brush Recommendation: Captain Fawcett's Wild Boar Bristle Beard Brush
Moustache Comb Recommendation: Pegasus M9 Moustache Comb
Re-Application
Beard oil and especially beard balms tend to die out throughout the day. We recommend re-applying these two where you can and especially after a late shower. Your pores open up after a hot shower priming your beard for easy absorption. Adding a beard oil and then a beard balm to further nourish and seal all the moisture in, will give your beard an extreme deep conditioning treatment that will continue to work its magic throughout the night.
Trust us. You'll be thanking yourself the next morning.
Trim 1-2 Weeks
Just like you go to the barber and get a trim, the same rule applies to your beard. The last thing you want is that glorious mane you take pride in, looking stray and raggedy.
Our advice is to use grooming scissors and/or a beard trimmer on your beard every 1-2 weeks. This will make sure your beard is well kept and presentable. Keep in mind that grooming (or beard) scissors are not the same as normal hair scissors. They're made to shear through beard hair, which tend to slip out of normal scissors and like we mentioned, is a lot tougher than head hair.
Having a pair of small scissors that have a micro-serrated edge and can actually grip these tough hairs, gives you maximum control and is the way to go
Beard Scissors Recommendation: Milkman Affordable Beard & Moustache Scissors
Beard Clipper Recommendation: Silver Bullet Ceramic Pro 240 Hair Clipper
The Wrap
Beards are more than just facial hair, they speak volumes about your character and are niche in the way you present yourself. A well-kept beard and an unruly one, is all the difference in looking like a cavalier who's got their shit together, and one who doesn't.
I hope we were able to educate you in how to sustain your beard. If you take away anything from this blog, I hope its the importance of maintaining your beard.
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