How to make your beard soft.

If you love having a big, thick beard on your face, you’re not alone. If that beard gets scratchy, itchy, or otherwise unpleasant at times, you’re still in good company.

Beard hair can be really tough, but it turns out that there’s a secret art to keeping your beard nice and soft. If that sounds promising, then you’ve found the ultimate guide to making your beard soft. Let’s jump right into it.

Beard hair vs body hair.

Presumably, we can start this conversation by drawing parallels between beard hair and other hair on your body. You already know how to wash the hair on top of your head, right?

Okay. Sorry. We’re not being sensitive to about 30 percent of you. But even if your dome is shiny, you have other hair on your body and you really need to know how to take care of all of it.

Back to beards.

Your beard is similar to the rest of your hair. You need to wash it. You need to style it. You need to give it products that infuse it with nutrients to help it stay healthy and beautiful. You also need to take care of the skin underneath it. All of that is universal.

That said, beards are obviously different in a lot of ways too. For most guys, beard hair is the densest and coarsest hair on the whole body. Because of that, you need products and a care plan that account for these differences, and that’s what we’re really going to get into.

If you don’t know where to start, treat your beard like any other hair, but make adjustments according to everything else we’re about to discuss. 

Washing and conditioning.

With all of that covered, beard care starts in the shower. 

How to wash your beard.

This is where parallels to other hair care go a long way. Washing your beard is a lot like washing any other hair. Get some good shampoo. Rub it thoroughly into your beard. Let it sit for a minute. Rinse it. If your beard is having a particularly rough week, maybe rinse and repeat.

Scheduling is also familiar. You typically need to wash your beard two to four times a week. That should be sufficient.

And that’s where the parallels end.

Because your beard hair is so coarse, it’s actually more fragile and vulnerable than you might think. Beard hair depends on natural oils much more than most hair and because of that, you need a special beard formula to get the best results. 

In a pinch, regular shampoo is better than nothing, but most traditional shampoos will strip too much oil from your beard and damage the hair. So if you aren't using a good shampoo, wash less often instead of more often.

If you do have a good shampoo (Our Beard Shampoo is perfect, if you don’t mind our saying.), then it will be a lot softer on your beard and you can wash every couple of days without worry.

In particular, there are some nutrients that you really want in your beard shampoo. At the top of the list is Vitamin B5. It actually strengthens the hair follicle. Glycerin is another ingredient that’s great for your hair.

Most of all, you want something that's designed for sensitive skin. Your beard sits on top of your face, after all.

When you wash your beard properly a few times a week, it will grow healthier, shinier, and just better in general.

Don’t forget the conditioner.

But shampoo is only part of the process. You also want a good beard conditioner. As we keep saying, your beard depends a lot on natural oils. When you shower, even though our beard shampoo doesn’t strip oil, hard elements in your water can.

To keep a long story short, washing your beard probably dries it out a little. You can compensate for that with our Beard Conditioner. It uses coconut oil and shea butter to hydrate your hair, overcoming the ill effects of tap water on your beard.

If you’re not using our shampoo, then your conditioner is even more important as it probably has to undo a bit of damage caused by using the wrong shampoo for your beard.

The rule is simple. If you wash your beard, use conditioner after. That’s all it takes.

Use good styling products.

Shampoo and conditioner do most of the heavy lifting, but if you want your beard to feel like fresh cotton, then you’ll need a little more.

A couple of hair products can further soften your hair and really give your beard a full, soft, vibrant look and feel. Those products are balm and oil.

Beard Balm styling pomade.

Let’s start with Beard Balm. This is a styling product that’s made for two purposes. The first is obvious. It helps your beard hold a shape when you style it. To accomplish that, simply rub a little balm into your beard and then brush (or comb) it. The balm will make the beard obey and you’ll have a nice, styled beard.

The second purpose matters a lot more. A good beard balm is going to have hydrating ingredients as well as some outright hair softeners. We use sweet almond oil, shea butter, and beeswax for these purposes.

The almond oil and shea butter hydrate the hair to help it stay soft and healthy. The beeswax actually coats the coarse beard hair, leaving a softer surface. As a result, your beard will be softer to the touch, less itchy, and a lot more comfortable for intimate moments, if you catch our drift.

Of course, this leaves an important question. How often should you use your beard balm?

That really depends. Every beard is a little different. Start with twice a week and make adjustments from there. If it feels like the wax builds up a bit in your beard, wash it thoroughly and then reduce the frequency. If you want an even softer beard, up the frequency. There’s no hard science to it. Do what feels good.

Moisturizing Beard Oil.

Our Beard Oil is your other top choice for beard styling. It serves a lot of the same functions as beard balm, but oil works a little differently. The biggest thing to know is that beard oil rarely has beeswax (or any alternatives) in it. Because of this, the oil won’t soften the beard as much as balm. Also, your beard oil won’t hold your beard as stiffly when you style it.

On the other hand, beard oil is the best stuff in the business for getting a good shine out of your beard.

That’s because a good beard oil is going to be made mostly from natural oils (we use sweet almond and jojoba seed).

These oils complement your own natural oils and together, they keep your beard hydrated, protected, and healthy.

So how do you use it?

Beard oil is going to be superior for guys who have naturally softer beards. It’s also nice in shorter beards or beards with great color that you really want to highlight.

You can use beard oil a little more frequently than beard balm, but the general rule is the same. Start with twice a week and make adjustments according to how you feel.

As for application, just rub a little bit of oil into your beard when you comb it.

Brush your beard too .

Speaking of combing your beard, that’s important too. You can use a brush or a comb—they really accomplish the same thing. Whether or not you're using styling products, it’s nice to brush your beard daily (or at least every other day).

Brushing does a couple of things for you.

First, it makes your beard look better. We’re all about helping guys look their best, and literally one minute of brushing your beard can make a world of difference.

On the scientific side of things, when you brush your beard, you distribute your natural oils (and beard products) more evenly. This helps to avoid any clumpiness and it prevents parts of the beard from getting too dry—and dry hair becomes scratchy hair.

Lastly, a brush gets things out of your beard. A big bushy beard is great at catching debris. Your comb keeps that under control.

And keep up with maintenance trims.

The last thing that helps with a soft beard is trimming. You don’t have to shave every week (unless you prefer that style). You can grow a full Grizzly Adams if you like. Trimming, in this case, isn’t about making the beard shorter.

Instead, you have two goals.

You want to keep the beard even. About once every week, use your comb to brush your beard hair up and away from your face. Find any hairs that are sticking out and cut them down to a uniform length. That keeps the beard tidy.

But when it comes to softness, you’re trimming in order to remove dried and split ends on your beard. When you comb your beard out for a trim, you can see the hairs that aren’t as healthy as the rest. They’ll be a lot coarser. Take off the rough end and your beard will be softer as a result.

Again, you can accomplish both of these goals by trimming about once every week.