It’s time that you decided to do it; you finally decided to join the ranks of actors, musicians, and style icons who rock the flawless beard look. But, you have hesitancy. There is something slightly holding you back from fully committing. You fear that it will take too long, let alone having to endure some of the awkward stages of growing one out. Luckily, we got your back.
We have what you need to help guide you on how to grow a beard until you’re sporting luscious facial hair that elicits the envy of all around you. Okay, maybe that’s a bit much. But at the very least, we’ll give you our best tips to encourage healthy beard growth and upkeep at a speed seemingly faster than watching paint dry.
So how long will you have to wait for those admiring glances? Many factors affect beard growth, such as age, ethnicity, genes, and even lifestyle — so there’s no one answer to that tricky question. But a few lifestyle changes can help influence facial hair growth and get you to obtain the beard you’ve always wanted, as quickly as possible.
How fast does facial hair grow?
The truth about why and how fast your hair grows isn’t cut and dry. Regardless of your shaving routine, your facial hair will grow near the same rate: About one-quarter of an inch a month. While your body does have ways of governing the maximum length of different types of body hair, all of your hair grows at roughly the same rate, no matter how often you trim.
There’s no evidence that shaving affects hair thickness, but there are several reasons why this myth has persisted for so long. In their teenage years, boys experience a spike in testosterone that results in that unfortunate phase of patchy, unreliable facial hair growth that many young men experience. While going through puberty, you might have shaved your facial hair only to have a thicker beard grow back in its place. It was purely coincidental. Your body was simply sorting out the kinks of adulthood while you happened to be learning to shave.
Regardless of when or how you shave, your facial hair will always grow at approximately the same rate: about one-quarter of an inch per month. There’s no evidence that shaving has any effect on hair thickness.
Optical illusions play no small role in the long life of the myth that you can shave your way to thicker hair. We’ve all heard the persistent myth that shaving makes hair grow back darker and thicker. The truth, though, is that the individual strands of your hair taper to the tip. When you shave those hairs, effectively sheering all of those tapered strands into flat ends, they look thicker to the naked eye. Combine that with constantly shedding hair naturally from your beard, and the short, densely concentrated dots on your freshly shaven face can appear thicker than the beard they came from.
Your shaving method can play mind games with you, too. Higher-end razors with multi-blade designs lift your facial hair before slicing it, resulting in a deep shave that means new growth of your freshly shorn hairs will take longer to become visible since they will start from much closer to the surface of your skin.
The same happens if you use a standard double-blade razor and shave multiple times in a row to get a perfectly smooth shave. A single-pass shave with a traditional razor or a beard trimmer will result in a more shallow shave, meaning the new growth starting from the cut ends are already a bit past the surface of your skin. Hence, these shaving methods make your beard appear to fill in again more quickly.
Right about now, you might be thinking, “Great. You’ve told me what won’t help my beard growth, so what will?” You’ve come to the right place. As usual, we’ve done the research and legwork for you. Here are a few things you can do to help your beard become more robust.
Does shaving help grow a beard?
No, shaving doesn’t help grow a beard. In addition to what we’ve already explained above about this myth, some people believe that shaving helps grow a beard because the hair may appear thicker and darker when it first grows back. However, this is only because the newly grown hair has blunt tips, which makes it feel coarser. The hair will eventually return to its normal thickness and color as it continues to grow.
If you’re trying to grow a beard, the best thing you can do is to be patient and give your beard time to grow the one-quarter of an inch per month. There are no magic potions or pills that can make your beard grow faster or thicker. However, there are some things you can do to support beard growth, such as:
- Eating a healthy diet
- Getting enough sleep
- Exercising regularly
- Managing stress
- Keeping your skin clean and moisturized
- Using a beard oil or balm
Below are tips that go into more detail on some of the things on the list above.
How to grow a beard fast
1. Pamper your face fuzz
A smooth, fluffy beard is a thing of pure beauty, but let’s get real for a second: Even the most well-maintained beard lives a rough life. Besides acting as a loyal crumb-catcher (even when you wish it wouldn’t), your beard sits proudly on your jaw, soaking in all the sunlight, dust, dirt, heat, cold, spittle, and other elements you encounter daily. You probably wouldn’t ignore taking care of the hair on your head or the sensitive skin on your face, so why should your facial hair be any different? If you want to touch up your chin curtain, there’s just no way around it — you need to care for it properly.
Beard oils contain ingredients that condition your beard, protect the skin underneath, and leave you looking downright classy. If you live in a particularly cold or dry environment, it’s a good idea to upgrade from beard oil to beard balm, which typically contains beeswax for extra conditioning and protection. Keeping your beard squeaky clean helps the hair stay strong and healthy, so you’d be wise to freshen up between washes. If you’re a ramblin’ man, consider picking up some beard wipes to keep those whiskers tidy while you’re on the go.
2. Up your protein intake
One of the best things you can do to help your chances of growing competition-worthy scruff is to eat a diet high in protein. The outer layer of your hair is made mainly of keratin, and eating foods high in protein, such as nuts, meat, and eggs, boost the production and strengthening of keratin. This means your beard won’t just gain some girth. It will be stronger (and shinier!) too.
3. Work hard and rest hard
Regular exercise increases blood flow, and proper sleep gives your body a chance to recharge at the end of the day. Both help ensure that the systems responsible for hair growth and strength keep running smoothly.
While improving your beard may not be as easy as a quick shave, these tips (and a little TLC) will enhance the health of your facial hair and have you on your way from dud to DaVinci in no time.
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