First of all, congratulations! Growing a long beard isn’t easy but you have persevered for months, or perhaps even years, allowing your beard to grow out.
However, a long beard, if not properly looked after, can make you look unkempt and worn down. Here are 5 common mistakes to avoid making when looking after your beard,
Mistake 1: Trimming Your Beard When It’s Wet
Hairdressers and barbers will often sit you down at the sink, get you to lean your head back and give your hair a rinse before giving it a trim.
However, trimming your beard at home is a different story. In fact, it can be a disadvantage to wet or dampen your beard before trimming it. There are two main reasons for this:
1.) Your beard, when wet, appears longer than it is when dry making it difficult to gauge how much you need to trim to achieve the length you’re going for. For an accurate trim, keep your beard dry.
2.) Beard trimmers are designed to trim dry hair. Their shaving heads find dry hairs much easier to pick up.
Having said that, your beard should be clean before you trim it. We still advise that you wash your hair first but before you start actually trimming your beard, make sure you blow-dry it!
Mistake 2: Cleaning Your Beard with a Face Cleanser or Shower Gel
While regularly washing your beard is commendable and encouraged, make sure you’re washing your beard with the right products. While face cleansers and shower gels are great at cleansing skin, they’re not so great with hair. If you have a full beard, it’s worth remembering that a significant portion of your face is now facial hair. Traditional soaps like cleansers and shower gel can strip your beard hairs of their essential oils. What you need is a beard shampoo that’s specially designed to be mild on your beard, keeping it hydrated and boasting a healthy shine while, at the same time, caring for the skin underneath.
Mistake 3: Having Your Lower Beard Line the Wrong Way Round
The lower beard line refers to the transition between the neck and the beard, i.e., the contour. But not all beard lines are the same. Depending on how long your beard is, the beard line should run differently. For men with a short (3-day) beard, the beard line runs higher up - as a rule of thumb, two fingers above the Adam's apple. If you have a full beard though, you should avoid a beard line that runs too far up as it can take away from the volume of the beard.
However, the beard line should not run too far down either as this can make your beard look unkempt.
Where exactly your lower beard line should run depends on the length of your beard and can be different for every man.
To figure this out for yourself, simply stand in front of the mirror with your head straight. Without moving your head, look at the lower end of your beard. If there are no hairs on the neck below this line, you don't need to do anything. If there are hairs there, cut them away until they are no longer visible.
Mistake 4: Only Using Beard Oil for Your Beard
It's good that you use beard oil regularly! It helps prevent dry, brittle hair and gives your beard a silky shine. But you shouldn't just work the beard oil into your beard, work it into the skin underneath too!
Your skin is put under a lot of stress when you grow your beard. It becomes dry, which in turn can lead to irritation and skin problems. Beard oil moisturises the skin underneath and replenishes the natural oils your skin may lose as your beard grows out. Make sure your skin isn’t neglected.
Mistake 5: Over-trimming Your Beard
Over trimming is a sign that you’re extremely meticulous, and always make sure that not a single hair sticks out of place. We can see how it might make sense. Our vision of a beautifully groomed beard doesn’t have any hairs sticking out – that would ruin its perfect shape after all. However, try to resist cutting these errant hairs, certainly don’t do it every day, as your beard will start to lose volume. To make sure your beard stays thick, trim your beard every three to four weeks at most.
To hide these stubborn protruding hairs, consider using a beard shampoo instead as it’ll make them bend into shape easier.
