Men's Answers 2 Growing a Beard
So you want to grow a beard?
Good on you.
Someone recently told me that beards are on the way out but I disagree. Heres why:
1. Shaving is expensive (even though there are some cheaper and better options which I'll do a later post on)!
2. You look like a champ when you have a beard.
3. No one suffers from "clean shaven face envy"
I could go on but I'd much rather just tell you how you can grow and maintain your sweet looking beard.
Stage 1 Start your beard today!
The starting bit is easy, just stop shaving. Put the razor down for at least 2 weeks. The only thing you really need is something to moisturise your face. You can go out and buy beard oil as some people like to use it later in the process when their beard is long. So this means you only have to buy one moisturizing product. you wont have to use it every day. We stock Handsome Devils Co. Beard Oil but there are so many out there its not funny. You need something like this as us blokes are pretty rubbish when it comes to moisturising our faces and when the hair starts to grow it draws the natural oils from your face and dries it out leaving behind 'Beard Dandruff'. It's real and the reason why some beardy men don't wear dark coloured shirts. It will also help with the itchiness often caused by the initial phase of growing a beard. Yes this can be minimised if not completely prevented.
Stage 2 This didn't just happen to my face
The next step is to make your beard look like you meant it. Now I'd probably suggest going to a Barber to clean up your newly aquired facial adornment, as they can (hopefully) do a better job than you. Initially it's hard to get the line between your neck and chin right and there are a couple of options (see end of the paragraph for more details). I usually cut the line in with clippers for most of my beard trims and then the client maintains it at home. The other crutial thing to do is the cheeks. By creating a straight line between the sideburn and moustache connection the beard gets a much neater overall look and you can clean up the hair above which is often patchy.
Options for neckline: I usually do right on the corner of the angle of where your neck connects to your chin. However you can still get a great look for a shorther beard by a bit higher towards the chin. Just don't go too far.
Step 3 This is getting a bit long
Now is where the self doubt kicks in you'll go a week wondering if it was the right thing to do and then BAM! Someone will give you a compliment about how sweet your beard is looking and you'll be back in the game. There are two peices of advice I give my Beardy Guys at this point:
1. Get yourself some scissors. You can pick up a pair of "hairdressing scissors" from you local chemist in the nail clipper section which should cost about $15. The reason i say scissors and not clippers is because it's easy to take out a chunk with clippers (they are always cutting) so with scissors you can give the whole thing a good comb and trim the wild bits with the scissors.
2. There's a product called "Mo Wax" its by Uppercut and is a bit thicker than most beard products and is awesome for smoothing the whole thing down. It also kinda stays in for the day so you can keep smoothing it down when you notice your face scarf looking a bit wild. The package is also pretty small so you can take it with you in your lumberjack bag anyway. If you bought beard oil in Stage 1 you can now be using it 1-2 times a week to maintain moisture in your face and the shine of your lucious beard.
So that's it. Pretty easy huh? You'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier. The only thing to do from here on in is, when it needs a good tidy, go see your barber (e.g The Cock and Crown). I usually only need to tidy my client's beards when they are due for their haircuts... especially if they have been maintaining it at home.
