Keeping Your Beard Stylish With Minimal Effort
So you’ve decided to grow a beard, great! Should be pretty easy, chuck your razor in the bin, wait a couple weeks, then enjoy being a lumberjack. Except, not quite, if you do just that, you’re going to end up looking homeless. You need to take a couple steps to maintain it, not to worry, it’s still low maintenance.
Trimming
Don’t throw out your razor quite yet. You need to keep your neckline clean and after you’ve let your beard to grow out to the right length, you’ll want to keep it from getting too long. There are a couple different lines that men choose to draw for where to shave, but the most widely accepted in the ear to ear line. In this image, everything below the red line needs to be shaved (not trimmed, shaved) at fairly regular intervals. Everything above simply needs to be trimmed and kept at your desired length (Shave off the random high flying hairs as well). As much as I’d like to sell you a membership for this, truth be told you won’t need one. Get an electric trimmer, and keep your wet shave razor out of the bathroom (so as to avoid humidity that will dull the blade between uses).
Beard oil
It might be tempting to shampoo your beard as it gets longer, but you really shouldn’t. Shampoo is far too harsh for your face and strips natural oils from your beard; Your skin will respond by overproducing grease, leaving your beard looking thin and greasy. Instead, you simply need to scrub it thoroughly with warm water in the shower and apply beard oil after.
They are made in a variety of masculine scents [My beard oil is a very classic smell of frankincense] that can take the place of cologne or aftershave.
It’s made of all natural oils, such as jojoba, grapeseed, almond, and castor along with the essential oils that give the product its scent. Jojoba oil specifically is the magic ingredient; used by Native Americans for many years, it’s nontoxic, hypoallergenic, and enhances the beard’s natural oils. When you work beard oil through your beard and moustache, the hydration goes straight to the follicle, much like a conditioner does when you wash your hair.
That hydration will keep your beard healthy, but it will also hydrate your skin, which doesn’t get a lot of attention under a beard. This helps to prevent beard flakes, basically dandruff for your beard, and something you’ll want to avoid.
Beyond the work it does below the surface, beard oil is a great grooming tool itself. The hydrating ingredients will help to keep coarse hair neat and smooth, making your beard touchable, soft, tangle-free, and keeps it from getting frizzy. The image on the left is a fellow bearded man before he used beard oil (left) and a couple weeks after he started using it (right).
It’s easy to apply, before heading out the door, take about a dozen drops into your hand and then apply it to your beard, work it in a little and you’re good to go! Since you only need a couple drops, a 30ml bottle will last ages. I’ve spent a good amount of time perfecting a beard oil that has all the needed oils (without including chemicals), you can check it out here!
