Every man should grow out their beard at least once in their life. It is a symbol of manliness and a big change-up from the standard grooming of the modern American. However, it is essential to properly grow, trim, and care for your beard.
Before starting to grow your beard, there are some things to consider. Be sure to shave all of your facial hair off-such as goatees or mustaches– before growing your beard out. Neglecting to do so will cause part of your beard to grow faster than the rest.
Be prepared to grow your beard out for at least a month before trimming. This should put ¾ of an inch of hair on your face. No matter how you look, grow your beard out for one month. If your beard is patchy or incomplete after a month, growing a beard may not be in the cards for you. Consider other types of facial hair such as a goatee, mustache, or sideburn chops. Some parts of your facial hair may grow faster than others, but this will be accounted for during the trimming and shaping phase.
In the middle stage of growing out your beard, you are going to look pretty bad. The period between week 1 and week 3 looks particularly bad. If your occupation requires customer face time, it might be wise to schedule a vacation for the second week of growing out your beard. When your beard is fully grown out, you will have a distinctive “Grizzly Adams” look. Don’t be troubled, as you will be trimming and shaping it.
Trimming your beard is tricky. Be sure to get yourself a beard and mustache trimmer and a fine toothed comb. This looks like a miniature set of clippers that your barber might use. The first step is to use the trimmer to cut your entire beard to about half an inch. Usually this is trimmer guard number three. Next, your beard will need to be shaped. To shape the neckline, draw a line between your ears and completely shave everything below it with your trimmer without a guard. Next, draw a line straight down from the outside of your sideburns. Remove all of the hairs to the outside of this line.
An alternative to shaping and trimming your beard by yourself is to enlist the help of a professional barber. After having a professional shape your beard, you will be able to maintain it by using your old razor and trimmer. Every 2-3 days, you will need to shave the areas you’ve just trimmed off. Approximately every week, you should set the trimmer to the same length you had before and trim the rest. Treat your beard as a part of the hair on your head. It should get shampooed at least every other day and conditioned if it has been damaged by sun or chlorine. After drying, comb it flat and straight.
Enjoy your beard!
