Beard Care 101: From Fresh Shave to Full Beard

Growing a beard takes time and a little effort. With the right regimen, you’ll have your facial hair looking great, feeling soft, and growing healthy. In this article, Lovett Sundries, a purveyor of self-care products and all-natural household goods, breaks down the eight steps for simple and effective beard care.

1. Keep Your Beard Clean

Staying on top of your facial hair hygiene is always step one. We recommend finding an all-natural soap that is safe for your face or a shampoo specifically designed for your beard. When searching for a suitable soap or shampoo, avoid varieties that include any of the following ingredients:

• Chemical-Based Fragrances
• Diethanolamine (DEA)
• Dioxane
• Formaldehyde (which may appear as paraformaldehyde, quaternium, or methylene glycol)
• Isobutyl and Isopropyl Parabens
• Phthalates
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)
• Synthetic Coloring
• Triclosan

All-natural soaps with high-quality ingredients will keep your beard and skin clean and healthy without all the unpronounceable chemicals. Although they’re a little more expensive than your big-box drugstore soap, they’re worth the investment. Remember, you’re putting this stuff on your face!

2. Make Sure You Moisturize

Historically, most guys are not the best at remembering to moisturize. But the ones who do are rewarded with an especially healthy beard.

One of the best ways to moisturize your beard is by using beard oil. It nourishes, repairs, and hydrates facial hair and the skin below it. A high-quality beard oil contains oils packed with healthy fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that your hair follicles crave. Regularly moisturizing will minimize beard itch and dandruff while maximizing the softness of those otherwise prickly whiskers.

Like any product you put on your skin, we highly recommend finding an all-natural option. Chemical-free options are especially helpful for acne-prone and sensitive skin. Look for beard oil made with plant based oils such as jojoba and apricot oils.

3. Consider Conditioning Your Beard

Having a beard is a style; having a healthy beard is a statement.

If you’re trying to elevate your beard game to new heights, then you should consider investing in some beard balm. First, beard balm helps condition your facial hair, which prevents tangles and split ends. Next, it helps you shape and style your beard, eliminating that dry, frizzy look that plagues so many people’s beards. Finally, it’ll give your beard a subtle, swoon-worthy shine.

When searching for a beard balm, look for products that include plant oils such as olive and coconut oil. It’s always a good idea to make sure they don’t contain artificial fragrances. If scent is your thing, keep an eye out for essential oil-based fragrances.

4. Groom Your Beard

Some basic grooming of your beard will go a long way. Using a beard brush will help you pull away dead skin, break up built-up oils, and clear out loose hairs. At the same time, it’ll help you style and tame your facial hair, keeping the frizz down and the shape up.

A beard comb is also helpful for untangling long beards. As you rid your facial hair of any knots, you’ll add to the shape of your beard. Further, it’ll help you evenly distribute any product you’ve used in your beard. Daily combing will also help you train your beard and mustache if you're going for a specific shape and style.

5. Keep it Tidy with a Trimmer

Beards don’t always grow in perfectly evenly. For that reason, it’s essential to have an electric trimmer to add some consistency to the length and shape of your beard. Electric trimmers are probably the best tool for tightening up your neckline, cheekline, and lipline.

6. Apply Shave Oil Before Trimming & Shaving

Whether you’re cleaning up your beard or starting with a fresh face, you can reduce razor burn and razor bumps by applying shave oil to your beard. This step in the shaving process reduces the friction from your razor, which is especially important for people with dry and sensitive skin.

7. Use An All-Natural Shave Soap

If you’re using a blade to shave, be it your beard cheekline, neckline, or lipline, you want to use a high-quality, all-natural shave soap to ensure your razor glides smoothly over your skin. By eliminating the friction of your razor, you can reduce the risk of nicks and irritation. A good shave soap also has hydrating and skin-softening properties, which help your skin stay nourished and supple.

8. Care For Your Face Post-Shave

Shaving takes a lot out of your skin. After your shave, soothe and rehydrate your face and neck with a well-crafted aftershave tonic and balm.

An aftershave tonic will reduce inflammation, razor burn, and redness while improving the skin's appearance, moisture balance, and barrier function. For people prone to razor burn, a tonic will likely be their best bet.

Because aftershave tonic can dry out your skin, you’ll want to finish your shave routine with aftershave balm. We encourage you to find a product with vitamin E, squalane, fatty acids, and anti-inflammatory compounds to revitalize your skin.

Frequently Asked Questions About Beards

Does male pattern hair loss affect your beard?

Nope! In fact, Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone that, in too high of levels, causes male pattern baldness, can actually stimulate facial hair growth.

Do beards carry a lot of bacteria?

A few years back, a bunch of articles went viral about how dirty beards are, with titles like Your Beard Might Be As Dirty As Your Toilet. But the truth is, they’re as clean as you keep them. And, yes, there will be bacteria, but it’s natural in the human biome.

Funny enough, a Penn Medicine investigation found that bearded men were less likely to harbor bacteria than their clean-shaven counterparts. Clean-shaven men actually had higher rates of certain bacterial species due to micro-trauma to the skin that occurs during shaving, another great reason to look for healthy, all-natural aftershave care.

Are Men With Beards More Attractive?

A significant study from the University of Queensland in Australia explored male facial hair’s impact on sexual attractiveness in heterosexual relationships. The research team gathered data from 8,520 women who were shown pictures of men with varying degrees of facial hair. The images, which had been manipulated by the research team to show the same men with different levels of facial hair:

• Clean-shaven
• Light stubble (five days of growth)
• Heavy stubble (10 days of growth)
• A thick beard, representing about one month of growth.

Overall, women said the sexiest men were those with heavy stubble, followed by short stubble. However, the answers of attractiveness depended on what the woman was looking for. For instance, men with light stubble were most attractive to women looking for a short-term fling or one-night stand.

Conversely, when it comes to choosing a long-term partner, women opted for men with heavy stubble and full beards. The study's authors theorize that beardedness may be more attractive to women who are looking for a long-term mate as it “indicates a male’s ability to compete for resources.”

Interestingly, it’s not just women who prefer bearded men. When a similar study was published in the Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior that surveyed 1,577 gay men and women, gay men had stronger preferences for men with more facial hair.

However, when beardedness is too common in a particular geographical area, it becomes less attractive. This is likely the reason that beardedness ebbs and flows as a fashion trend.

Build Your Beard Care Kit

Lovett Sundries has a curated variety of handmade, all-natural, chemical-free beard care products you need for your beard care and shaving kit. From shave oil and shaving soap to beard oil and beard balm, we got you covered. Check out our selection of shaving products today.