The wide range of beard care products is designed to satisfy the specific requirements of each and every beard fan, from the tough charm of a full beard to the painstaking accuracy of a well-trimmed goatee.
These items embody a customized grooming regimen that showcases your individuality and flair, surpassing simple upkeep.
Immerse yourself in a world of beard oils, balms, waxes, and grooming kits, each designed to nourish, sculpt, and style your beard with finesse.
Come explore the world of beard grooming with us, where each application serves as a self-care opportunity and each item showcases the artistic quality of a well-groomed beard.
Step by step routine, products and styling guide
In the past, beards, hair, and bodies were all treated with the same products. Now, people have become aware that your facial hair and skin are delicate and different than your body and head.
Facial hair requires extra care and nourishment. It would be wrong to use the same products all over the body.
Products like shampoos and conditioners are too harsh than beard wash and beard conditioner. You can not replace beard care products with hair care products.
In this guide, I will share the proper beard care regimen and the products required to follow that regimen.
Also, I will share how you can choose that product and tools in budget with a usage guide.
Go through the entire blog to grasp complete knowledge of beard care, no matter whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or expert. Everybody needs improvement.
Our beard care routine has four parts exfoliation, cleansing, moisturizing, and styling.
Exfoliation
Our body has a shield-like structure called skin, having three layers epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis.
The epidermis is the topmost layer that protects us from harmful exposure to pollutants, smoke, dirt, and Uv rays.
Our body automatically sheds off all the dead skin cells from time to time. But some cells cling to the skin and make our skin look dull, dry, and flaky. That is where exfoliation comes into play.
Exfoliation is a process of shedding unwanted dead skin cells from the skin, either by using a physical or chemical method.
It helps to remove the outer dead skin layer and makes it new, fresh, and glowing.
Why is exfoliation required?
Exfoliation is a must for all groups of people regardless of age, gender, and skin type. It is helpful in many ways:
Improve beard health:
People who have long beards will understand they have to suffer a lot. A small weather change alters their beard health.
When the weather is a little humid or dry, a lot of bacteria get trapped in their skin cells, and this becomes the reason for acne, redness, and itching.
Exfoliation helps them remove all the trapped bacteria and prevent any skin issues.
Improve blood circulation:
Exfoliation helps to improve the blood circulation of the face as well as any other part of the body. It rejuvenates new skin cells by eliminating dry, dull skin. Also, it gives liveliness to the skin, making it smooth, bright, and glowing.
Delay signs of aging:
A study has proven that exfoliation works as a wonder on wrinkles and fine lines. When we exfoliate, our pores get open and absorb the product better. The product designed for matured skin works better after exfoliation.
Best for oily and dry skin:
Men with oily skin know they have to go through a lot. The excessive oil absorbs bacteria and dirt, which gets trapped in the skin pores and results in acne.
Exfoliation can help to remove or reduce the sebum and prevent acne and blackheads.
On the other hand, dry skin people face dryness, flakiness of the skin, and beard dandruff is common for them.
Exfoliation removes dry, dead skin cells and prevents beardruff.
How to exfoliate facial hair?
There are two ways to exfoliate beards.
1. Manual methods
2. Chemical methods
Several products are available for manual methods, such as boar bristle beard brushes, soft scrubber brushes, and beard combs.
All you need to do is scrub your beard through these tools after completely drying your beard. Move the beard brush upward, underneath the beard, and into the chin and cheeks.
It will help to remove dead skin cells and circulate blood flow. After that, you can moisturize your beard with beard balm and oil, followed by brushing again.
For chemical methods, you can purchase exfoliating facial scrubs according to your skin type or make one at home.
Exfoliating scrubs are creams with micro-particles that helps to eliminate all the impurities on the skin. You can take a beard steaming before exfoliation for better removal.
Dig a little exfoliating scrub, apply it on a steamed face, and massage for a few minutes. Then, rinse it with normal water.
How often should you exfoliate the beard?
It depends on the type of skin.
Exfoliation makes your skin dry because it takes all the sebum with the impurities.
If you have dry skin, you should use manual methods. It will do all the tasks without extracting all the sebum.
If you love the chemical method, you can use exfoliating scrub twice a month.
On the other hand, people with oily and normal skin can use a chemical-based method or apply an exfoliation facial scrub twice a week.
How to choose the best exfoliating face scrub for a beard?
As I said before, choosing an exfoliator depends on the skin type. If you are finding the best beard exfoliator, then analyze your skin.
For normal skin: You can go with the manual or chemical method. You have to pick the one which suits you better. The best part is normal skin can bear most tools and products.
Try to choose an exfoliator that is organic, natural, and has no harmful chemicals.
For dry skin: Firstly, I do not recommend using facial scrubs often. Instead, go with manual techniques only.
Still, you can use an exfoliating scrub that contains AHAs like glycolic, lactic, tartaric, and citric acids.
For sensitive skin:
I think you guys should avoid either method. Make your exfoliating scrub at home. That would be the best suggestion. You may also use beard scrub for black skin as it is also sensitive.
Make sure you are not using large granules of any ingredients while making your beard exfoliator.
For oily and combination skin:
Both methods can be used, but not simultaneously. Analyze your skin requirements. If you are feeling debris and dirt clogging your pores. Use exfoliating scrub that clears all of it.
The next day, use exfoliating tools like a brush or combs to extract the remaining dead skin cells.
Exfoliators that contain BHAs like beta hydroxyl and salicylic acid are good for oily or acne-prone skin.
DIY natural exfoliator at home
Here I have shared a few recipes of natural exfoliating scrubs for beards so you can make your exfoliator at affordable prices:
Exfoliating Honey Sugar Scrub
Exfoliating coffee scrub
Exfoliating gram flour scrub
You can make any of the above recipes for your beard. All the recipes are safe and tested and suit every skin type.
All you have to do is mix the ingredients, massage it for a while, let it dry and rinse it.
Cleansing
Our face goes through a lot of things like sweat, dirt, UV rays, and bacteria that make it dull and dehydrated and encourages aging.
We discussed exfoliation above, but we can not exfoliate regularly, as it can alter the natural skin texture and make it dry.
To keep our facial PH managed, we take the help of a cleanser. But can we get a facial with a beard? Yes!
Cleansing is a process of eliminating dirt, pollution, debris, and any impurity daily. Depending on the skin type, you can also do it alternatively.
In this process, we take mild facial cleanser or beard wash and apply it all over the beard. Then, after massaging it for a few seconds, rinse it with normal water.
It keeps our skin and beard clean from sweat, dirt, and debris and prevents acne, breakouts, and aging.
Why is cleansing essential?
Cleansing is essential because it keeps our skin and beard clean and helps prevent acne, dullness, and other beard-related issues to some extent.
Let us discuss other reasons why you must cleanse your beard.
Keep beard shiny and clean:
Sebum is a natural oil excreted from our skin that makes beard and skin hydrated but sometimes excessive sebum production can alter your beard health.
If your skin is oily and your sebum is doing its work, in such case, your skin has excess oil, which makes it vulnerable to dirt and bacteria.
These bacteria get trapped in the pores of the skin giving birth to problems like acne and inflammation.
Daily cleansing extracts the bacteria and sweat away from the skin. Also, it maintains the sebum levels.
Boost hydration:
When you cleanse daily, it increases the blood flow and helps to maintain the PH levels too. Dehydrated skin and beard look dull, lifeless, and rough.
In addition to providing new life to the beard and the skin underneath, cleansing helps maintain water and product retention.
Delay signs of aging:
Pollution and environmental toxins are like a catalyst of aging. It accelerates aging signs like wrinkles, pigmentation, dullness, and fine lines.
When your skin ages properly, you can accept it, but premature aging compromises your appearance.
Cleansing is the easiest way to cleanse these unwanted particles and prevent premature aging.
Increase product effectiveness
When your pores are clean and open, they absorb moisture deeper and beneficially affect you.
Cleansing might not open the pores but cleanse the surface. A serum or mask applied to the skin penetrates deeply into the skin, hydrating and revitalizing it.
Also, make your beard healthy and lustrous.
How to cleanse facial hair?
The best way to cleanse your beard is to use the best beard shampoo for dandruff or best beard soap bars, followed by a beard conditioner.
Follow the below instruction to cleanse your beard and the skin underneath properly:
- Take a pea-sized cleanser or beard wash and apply it all over the beard. If you have a facial cleanser, use it all over the face but use beard wash only on the beards.
- Foam the beard wash and spread it all over using your fingertips. After massaging for a few minutes, wash it with water.
- People think warm water will open their skin pores and cold water will close them. But do not tangle in this theory.
- Extremely cold or warm water gives shock to your skin. So better to use lukewarm water for cleansing.
- After cleansing, pat dry your skin and beard with a towel and apply leave-in beard conditioner or rinse-out conditioner.
- After a few minutes, rinse them with water and completely dry them.
What is the best time to cleanse your beard?
The best time to cleanse your beard is in the morning and before sleeping in the evening.
In the morning:
Cleansing in the morning is beneficial because your skin goes through a recovery and exfoliation process all night.
Also, sebum and oil are present on your skin, which should not be there before going to the office. Otherwise, you would look untidy and unprofessional.
In the evening, before sleep:
As I said, your skin recovers, rejuvenate, and sheds dead skin cells during the night. It is crucial to clean your face before applying moisturizer so that it will absorb and benefit you properly.
Also, you might attract bacteria and fill your face with acne and pimples if, not clean it before sleep.
How to pick the right beard shampoo for your beard?
I believe you must pick your skin care product according to your skin. Everybody must avoid chemicals like sulfate, parabens, and SLS and go with organic and natural products.
Let us know which ingredients you must look for according to your skin type:
For dry skin:
If you have dry, dull, and dehydrated skin, you must choose a cleanser with some natural oils like hazelnut oil, sweet almond oil, and wheat germ extract.
It will maintain moisture and cleanse skin deeply without ruining the hydration.
For normal to oily skin:
People with oily skin face problems like acne, redness, or inflammation. In such cases, cleanser with tea tree oil extract and vitamin E can do wonders.
Before purchasing the beard cleanser for oily skin, try to get these ingredients. Tea tree oil eliminates and fights against bacteria and gives you clean skin.
For sensitive skin:
If you have sensitive skin, DIY your cleanser at home. When you use homemade products, you will not get any skin issues.
I have shared a few recipes that you can easily make at home.
DIY beard shampoo at home
Mix all the ingredients, and use it like a beard wash on your beard. It will give you a similar effect as beard wash without altering your beard health.
Moisturization
After cleansing and drying your beard with the best beard blow dryer, the next step will be moisturization.
Moisturization refers to hydrating your beard and skin underneath using different products like beard oil, beard balms, gels, carrier oils, etc.
The products penetrate deeply into the skin and provide moisture and shine to the skin and beards.
The kind of moisturizer depends on the skin type. You can not hydrate extra oily skin. You must know your skin type before choosing any moisturizer.
In the process, we have to take beard oil or any other moisturizer, rub it slightly and apply it to the roots and the ends of the beard.
We can use combs or brushes after that to spread it evenly.
It helps to prevent dryness and roughness and keeps our skin hydrated in any season.
Why is moisturization crucial?
Moisturization is crucial in many ways. Let us discuss each advantage in brief.
Prevent dryness:
Our beards and skin need a petty reason to get dry and rough. The reasons can be weather changes, chemical-based products, or skin type.
When the skin suffers extra cold weather, it loses its natural oils and makes our skin and beard dull, rough and dry.
By applying moisturizer, we can prevent the dryness caused by weather changes.
Sometimes we get attracted to overly hyped products and use them without thinking twice. Those products extract natural oils and make our skin dry.
In this case, I would suggest using only natural, organic moisturizers like carrier oils. Carrier oil will never extract the natural moisture but makes your skin hydrated. You can also use bio-oil for beards as an alternative.
Moisturizer penetrates the skin and provides nutrients to our hair follicles, keeping our beard healthy and hydrated.
Gives shine and hydration:
For example, if you are using a boot without polishing it and your boot is suffering heat, dirt, and pressure. How long would it survive?
It might get destroyed within a few months of purchase.
A similar thing happens to our skin texture when we stop protecting it from sun, dirt, pollution, and debris.
Moisturizers are essential for keeping our skin and beard hydrated and lustrous. It is like a need for our skin to look at its best.
Relief itching:
Sometimes dry beard or any infection causes itching or flaking of the skin, also known as beard dandruff.
When you moisturize your skin daily, your skin becomes hydrated and will no longer suffer beard flakes and itching.
Soften beard:
People who have outside work daily will agree that their beard has become rough and needs a conditioner to smoothen it.
There is nothing better than a moisturizer to condition your beard.
The moisturizers like beard balm and oils have ingredients like shea butter, carrier oils, and essential oils.
These ingredients have smoothening properties that smoothen our beard hair and make it straight and silky.
Prevent infections:
Beard guys will agree it is not easy to maintain a beard. Your beard suffers a lot of things like skin infections, beard dandruff, acne, inflammations, dryness, and whatnot.
But believe me, if you are giving a healthy environment to your beard, it will never disappoint you. For this, you need a beard moisturizer.
It will maintain a proper environment for your beard and prevent any beard issues.
Beard smells good:
Who does not like a pleasant and attractive smell from our beard?
Well, I guess everyone. Moisturizers, especially beard oils, come with the goodness of essential oils, which gives you an attractive smell.
Types of moisturizers:
Beard oil:
Beard oil is the most common and overly hyped moisturizer in the beard care industry. Beard oil is a blend of carrier and essential oils that helps moisturize your beard and skin.
Beard oil is for people with severely dry skin but voluminous beards because it does not help with styling.
Still, it is a great option to moisturize your beard strands. Beards with no style are better than unhealthy, dry beards.
There are beard oils available for acne-prone skin. People who do not like fragrances under their noses can try best unscented beard oils range.
Beard balms:
Beard balm for hold is the second most liked product after beard oils. It has bases like shea, cocoa, and mango butter with essential oil fragrances.
These are best for normal to combination skins.
Beard balms are of two types: conditioning balms and styling balms.
The main difference lies in their consistency. Styling balms are thicker than conditioning balms.
Conditioning balms help to condition the beard with no styling, where the purpose of styling balms is to provide sleek straight styling to the beard.
There are so many balms available, beard balms for black skin, sensitive skin, dry skin, and many more.
Beard serum:
Beard growth serum for beard is a foam/alcohol-based spray or lotion with carrier and essential oils.
Like beard oils and balms, it has moisturizing properties, but it also helps with beard thickness, strength, and density by boosting nutrition and blood circulation.
These are best for people struggling with beard thinning or beard loss. It also helps to frighten any fungal infections because it has essential oils like tea tree oil for the beard and peppermint oil for the beard.
It has no styling property but works wonders for any beard issues.
Beard butter:
There is often confusion between beard butter and beard balm because of the shape of the bottles. People think both are similar, but both have different consistency and ingredients.
Beard butter has cream-like consistency and has no wax content for styling like beard balm. It has cocoa butter, shea butter, jojoba oil, glycerine, and coconut oil.
All the ingredients help with moisturization and eliminate beard itch and dandruff.
People with normal skin can use beard butter.
Carrier oils:
Carrier oil for the beard is the purest oil, used in plenty of beard products like beard oils, balms, lotion, and butter.
They are natural moisturizers suitable for any skin type. I recommend people with sensitive skin must use only carrier oils. There are no side effects of using chemical-free carrier oils.
Usually, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, argan oil, and olive oil are used for beard care products.
The best part of carrier oils is they are chemical-free, absorbs more, and have no side effects. Unfortunately, they do not help with styling and are of fluid consistency, which is why people use baby oils for beards and other beard oils.
How to moisturize your facial hair?
Plenty of moisturizers are available nowadays to hydrate your beard and skin. Choose the product according to your skin type and follow the instructions below.
- After cleansing your beard with a suitable beard wash, pat dry with a towel.
- Pick the beard oil or balm according to your skin type and take a few drops or pea-sized products.
- Use your fingertips to apply thoroughly to your beard. Spread the product to the tips and the roots of the hair follicle.
- Take a comb or brush, and spread the product evenly to the beard.
- Avoid touching your face after that.
Best time to moisturize beard
The best time to moisturize your beard is when your beard is clean. People prefer moisturizing their beards after a shower and before sleeping.
You can do the same because your beards are clean and free from dirt, pollution, debris, and oils after a shower and during the night.
It absorbs the product to its fullest and provides crucial elements to our beard.
How to choose the best beard moisturizer?
There are certain things you must keep in mind while choosing beard moisturizers. Let us discuss all of them:
Skin type
The most important thing is to know your skin type. For that, you have to notice the t-zone of your face.
T-zone is the area of your forehead and nose.
If your t-zone looks oily at the end of the day, your skin is oily. If it is matte, you have dry skin, and if you feel a little shine, you might have combination skin.
People with sensitive skin already know their skin type, as they get allergies, redness, and itching with the most product.
Now, if your skin is dry, you must choose a beard oil because oils are more hydrating in nature.
If your skin is normal to combination, you can choose either. Beard balms are non-greasy and help with styling. Beard oils are fluids and help to nourish.
For oily skin, beard balms would be better to avoid extra greasiness.
People with sensitive skin should avoid chemical-based beard care products and use carrier oils for moisturizing.
Brand
Never go with any cheap, local beard care range. Always choose branded beard care products that assure you guaranteed results.
It would be better if the company supplies its own products and is honest about its ingredients.
Ingredients
It is very crucial to look for the ingredients of your beard products. It must be natural, chemical-free, and with no side effects.
You will use beard products daily, so it is mandatory to go with natural ingredients because our skin will absorb them and provide nutrition to the beard.
Scented/ Unscented
If you are someone who does not like overly perfumed products on the face, make sure your products are unscented or have a mild natural fragrance.
Affordable
Every expensive product is not the best for your skin. Sometimes cheap carrier oil will benefit that beard oil can not.
Choose pocket-friendly products and try to avoid chemicals. Go natural.
DIY beard moisturizer at home
It is easy to make the best beard moisturizer at home with few ingredients. The best part is if you have nothing but some carrier oils, you can put them up on your face.
Oakmoss beard oil recipe
Beard oil for beard dandruff:
Cedarwood beard balm recipe
Styling:
Best styling products
Well, there are several styling products like beard oil and balms that we have already discussed above.
The most common product for styling that is left is beard wax and heat shield protectant spray. Let us discuss it in brief:
Beard wax
People usually think beard balm and beard wax are the same. Maybe the packaging looks like that, but they are different.
A beard wax is a styling agent that gives your hair a durable hold. It contains beeswax, perfume, and a minimal quantity of moisturizing agents.
On the other hand, beard balm provides little hold but deep moisturization.
I would not recommend you use the best beard wax daily because it may alter your beard health. But you can use it while styling sometimes.
Take the pea-size product and apply it on the beard and style them. It will stay until you wash them.
You can also try beard thickening creams if you do not like styling beard wax. It will give fuller, shinier appearance to your beard.
Beard dye
When we discuss beard styling, beard coloring is one of the crucial things. Some people may suffer early greying of beards or want to change their beard color to look different.
Beard dyeing is nothing but using temporary or permanent color on your beard to make it look different. You can remove beard dye whenever you want.
Unfortunately, some people have no idea about beard dyeing, and they use hair dyes on your facial hair, but it makes the situation even worse.
There are dyes present specifically for sensitive skin or black skin. Using hair color can affect facial skin because your facial skin is much more sensitive than your head.
Shaving creams
There are some people who love a clean-shaven look or prefer to keep their beards clean-shaven as their beards become patchy.
For them, having the best beard shaving cream for sensitive skin is a must.
Shaving cream helps to provide beard moisturization so the razor glides easily without making the skin dry or itchy.
You may switch to products specially made or itchy beards if you suffer such conditions.
People with long beards will agree that straightening the beard is so crucial. When you grow your beard to the fullest, you see roughness, dullness, split ends, and an intangible beard.
To make them manageable and professional, you can style them or straighten them regularly.
But we know how heat can damage our beard and make it lifeless.
Thatswhy, the beard care industry introduced a product called heat protectant spray.
The heat protectant helps to form a shield between your hair and the tool. It protects your hair from excessive heat and prevents dullness.
Other factors crucial for beard growth:
When it comes to beard growth, it is not only about using beard tools and products. Other factors determine healthy, thick beard growth.
Before investing money in expensive branded products and tools, make sure your other factors are in order.
Sleep
Sleep is essential for testosterone levels and overall body health.
When 10 Healthy men of age 24 went under restricted sleep, their testosterone levels decreased by up to 15%, according to the study.
Testosterone is the hormone responsible for beard growth. A low level of testosterone can alter beard thickness and growth.
In addition, if you do not sleep properly daily, you might suffer premature aging, dull skin, fatigue, and improper organ functioning.
Beard growth is secondary, but overall body care is the first crucial thing you must focus on.
Genetics
Genetics is one of the crucial factors for beard growth. If your father or grandparents have a little beard, then, unfortunately, you have minimal control over your beard.
The possibility is you resemble the beard growth like your father or grandparents.
A hormone called androgen is responsible for our deep voice and beard growth.
When an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase covert androgen into DHT(dihydrotestosterone), it binds with hair follicles and stimulates beard growth.
Some people use minoxidil, creatine or testosterone creams for beard growth to boost their hormonal levels.
The hair follicle receptor sensitivity depends on genetics.
Stress
You already know stress is related to heart problems, blood pressure, mental issues, weight gain, and disturbed sleep.
But do you know stress can affect the beard also? It can make your beard thin, patchy, and lifeless.
A stress-induced increase in cortisol production hinders beard growth by preventing essential nutrients from reaching beard follicles.
Eight hours of daily sleep, meditation, exercise, and keeping yourself hydrated can resolve stress and boost beard growth.
Diet
A balanced diet will improve your beard health and keep your organ active and healthy. It is crucial to maintain BMI because obesity can lead to low testosterone levels.
Try to add protein, iron, zinc, healthy carbs, and fats, vitamins like A, B, C, D, and Vitamin E are responsible for beard regrowth and health. You can try beard growth gummies to fulfill all crucial vitamins and minerals combinely.
There are supplements present in the market designed for beard growth. But I always recommend you to go and fulfill nutrition naturally. There is nothing better than that.
Exercise
Exercising can help to improve blood flow which helps to transfer essential nutrients to the hair follicles.
When hair follicles get all the vitamins and minerals, they result in better beard growth.
Exercise also helps with stress relief and improving sleep which is associated with beard growth.
Harmful products
When we start caring for our beards, we use various products based on hype and reviews. We forget to check the ingredients, skin type, and many things, which worsens the situation.
Avoid sulfate, paraben, SLS, and chemical-based products, and go with natural ones. Before buying any product, check if it belongs to your skin type.
Smoking
Smoking is harmful to your lungs and can cause cancer. Everyone has heard this line before. But smoking can also lead to hair loss and thinning, according to the study.
Avoid smoking for better beard growth.
Ethnicity
Your ethnicity plays a role in your beard growth. People from Mediterranean countries have a high density of hair follicles which means thicker growth.
Have you seen Chinese people? They have thin beards and are always lesser than Caucasian men.
Your race affects your beard growth rate.