Are you bored with your regular trimmed or clean-shaven look? It’s time to spice up your look by growing your beard.
Many of you would love the idea but may not know how to do it, especially if you are growing your beard for the first time.
To save you the hassle, we bring to you a step by step guide that tells you all about growing, maintaining, and styling your beard.
Let’s begin.
Highlights:
How To Grow A Beard For The First Time?
Step 1 Prepare Your Face
Growing your beard will make your face go through a lot of changes. So, preparing your face for it beforehand is a must. Decide the look you are planning to go for and start preparing your clean-shave face. In the first week or two, you might find it extremely tempting to trim down your beard as it would sport an unusual look. But, you need to pass through the phase and wait patiently for your beard to grow. Many men complain about facial itching in this period. If you experience itching and irritation, try using beard oil for relief. This stage would take around 7 days. You will notice growing stubble at the end of the week.
Step 2 Observing Your Beard
In the second week, you need to observe the growth pattern of your beard consistently. It will help you figure out the shape of your beard. Not every part of your beard will grow at a similar pace. You may notice thicker or thinner density across your face. You need to keep an eye on your beard to observe which part is lacking growth. You can apply beard growth oil to boost the growth of the area where the beard density is thinner. Also, the itching sensation might even continue in this stage. So, you can still use beard oil. But do not worry as it is merely a temporary situation. The observation periods will continue for a minimum of 2 weeks.
Step 3 Grooming Session
Most men do not consider cleaning their face apart from shaving. But that can harm your dream of growing a beard. Grooming is the most essential part that you can not skip or delay. This stage would continue for another 2 weeks. You need to wash your face every day to get rid of pollution or any product buildup that blocks your skin pores. Your skin pores would be clogged and you may develop acne otherwise. Also, this is the period when you look for patchy areas of your beard. You can clean the patchy areas using a razor but do not trim down the length of your beard.
Step 4 Understand Your Face
Understanding your face is important. Before choosing a shape and style for your beard, first analyse your face to see which shape and style would suit your face type. By this time, you will be entering the second month of your beard growth mission.
Step 5 Shape & Style Face
From the second month, you would see actual growth. Now it’s time to choose the shape and style of your beard. By this stage, the empty patches of your beard must be filled with hair and you must have understood the direction of your hair growth. Search the internet or magazines to choose a cool shape and style for your beard. Take your time to decide and trim the beard as per your choice of shape.
How To Trim Beard For The First Time?
1. Choose to trim your beard when you see a growth and you want to give it a shape.
2. Use an electrical trimmer to get your desired result quickly and easily.
3. Trim the edges of the hair to get a well-groomed look.
4. Focus on the cheekbones and lower neck when you trim your beard to clean the patchy areas.
5. Not trimming your beard may lead to issues like dandruff and split ends.
How To Maintain Your Beard?
1. Regularly wash your beard to prevent sweat, excess oil, dirt, and product buildup accumulating in it.
2. Use a beard shampoo to clean your beard. Apply a conditioner afterwards to keep your beard moisturized.
3. Keep your beard hydrated and conditioned. Use a beard oil to keep it moisturized, prevent itchiness, and maintain health of the follicle.
4. Exfoliate your face so that the hair follicles are not clogged with dirt and dead skin cells.
5. Use a quality comb for your beard so that it does not get tangled.
6. Trim your beard whenever essential to maintain the shape.
7. Eat healthy, exercise regularly, and practice healthy lifestyle routines to grow a healthy beard.
Reasons That Slow Down Your Beard Growth
1.Genetics
Your family tree influences a lot of physical traits in you. The growth of facial hair is one of them. Your genetics may decide your hair texture and growth. Many people go bald at a very early age due to the same genetic family trait.[1] Not growing much facial hair can also be a genetic inheritance.
2. Orignity
Just like genetics, your ethnicity or origin does matter for your physical appearance.[2] There are few races like the Mediterranean who tend to have thicker facial hair, whereas if you look at Chinese men they lack facial hair growth.
3. Age
Facial hair growth starts happening around the age of 18. But it is not the same for every man. Many young boys get a full growth of facial hair at a very early age and many may take time till the age of 30 to grow a full beard.
4. Hormones
Testosterone is the reason for facial hair growth among men. If you have a low level of testosterone production, you may find it difficult to grow a beard. Similarly, those who have an excess amount of testosterone secretion might have an increased growth facial or body hair. [3]
5. Improper Eating Habits
Eating right and taking the right calories are essential when it comes to growing your beard. In case you are not taking the recommended amount of calories, vitamins or probably not following a nutritious diet, it would perhaps impact your beard growing process.
How Long Does It Take To Grow A Beard?
If you want to grow a full beard, it will take around 2 to 4 months. Facial hair grows between 0.3 to 0.5 millimetres every 24 hours. This means every month, your beard grows between one third and one half an inch.
When Should You Trim Your Beard?
If you are growing your beard for the first time, the purpose of trimming it is just to define its shape. So, a month or so from the time you start the process of growing your beard would be ideal to give it a good shape.
Tips To Grow Your Beard Faster
1. Diet
Your regular food intake is a big factor that boosts your testosterone level. Obesity reduces the testosterone level and thus delays beard growth. [4] Hence, a healthy diet is an important part of your life to maintain weight. Add whole-grain carbohydrate food, lean protein, healthy fat, iron, zinc, vitamin A, B, C and E to your regular diet.
2. Exercise
There are two major benefits that regularly exercising offers to boost your facial hair growth. Exercise stimulates your testosterone production temporarily and also boosts the hair follicle growth. Experts say that testosterone level fluctuates among young men. [5] So, do not fix a particular time for your workout, rather try to work out at different times throughout the day, depending on your schedule.
3. Sleep
Getting adequate sleep has a great impact on your health. However, lack of a sound sleep may hinder the natural process of your body which also includes insufficient amounts of testosterone production. Get 8 hours of sleep every day to maintain a proper sleep cycle.
4. Grooming
Grooming is one of the most important factors behind growing your beard. If you want your facial hair to grow faster, you need it to be healthy. Growing a healthy beard requires a lot of effort. Washing, moisturizing, using beard growth oil to boost the growth comes under the grooming part. Buy a grooming kit for your beard to make the work even easier.
Wrapping Up
Growing your beard for the first time requires investing time, patience, and utmost care. But, before you decide to grow your beard, make sure you learn all the know-how’s. Start with making a plan and preparing your face. Decide on the shape and style you want to flaunt your beard with and then follow all the necessary steps. Remember to eat a nutritious diet, exercise regularly, and practice healthy lifestyle routines to boost your beard growth. Most importantly, take care of your skin.
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