The Beginner Beard Care Guide: 5 grooming tips for bearded men.

In case you haven’t heard the news, beards are in. If you want to look a little more rugged and awesome, facial hair is the easy route. You can grow out your beard, dazzle the masses, and enjoy a vigorous love life that is full of adventure and surprise.

Ok. We might be going a little far, but beards are stylish right now, especially when you take care of them.

That’s why we’re here. MANSCAPED™ has long been dedicated to keeping you ahead of trends and looking and feeling your best, so today, we’re going to tackle the modern beard.

There are some old rules that are a little dated. For instance, big, masculine beards are the rage right now, so you can grow your whiskers out with more confidence than ever.

Also, beard maintenance is an absolute requirement. You can’t walk around with a bird's nest in your Santa Clause beard. It should be clean, shaped, and a sight to behold.

So, we’re going to teach you about beard care. We’ve distilled the whole thing down to five easy tips. When you’re done reading, you’ll be ready to grow the beard of your dreams.

Keep it clean

Maybe you’ve seen some of our advice before, so you won’t be surprised that this is the first step. Cleanliness is always essential to grooming for a few reasons.

First off, your beard can harbor microbes, and that’s bad in general. If you don’t clean that beard of yours on a regular basis, you can get skin infections and other issues. It’s no fun.

So, start by cleaning your beard. You can do it when you shower. In fact, it’s all pretty easy, and we’re going to give you the key steps.

How to clean your beard properly

When you shower, use some beard shampoo and wash your beard thoroughly. Repeat if you need to. That’s it. Now, you have a clean beard.

Ok, maybe you want to be a little more thorough, so here are the pro tips you need to know.

You want a dedicated beard shampoo — especially if your beard is getting a little long. This is mostly due to the fact that beard hair is very different from scalp hair. While you already know that much, beard hair is much wirier, and it can get very stiff and prickly. If you use the right shampoo, it will soften your beard hair, and that reduces irritation.

Perhaps more importantly, your beard is on your face. Your scalp needs the right kinds of moisturizers to avoid dandruff, but your face needs its own specialized soaps that aren’t too harsh. After all, those rosy cheeks of yours are delicate.

A good beard shampoo is also a qualified face wash. It will clean everything effectively without harshing on your face and neck, and that’s just better all around.

Keep it moisturized

Aside from cleaning your beard, you also want to moisturize it. Once again, there are a few different factors at play.

To begin with, moisturizers help soften your beard hair. While your shampoo is a great starting point to keep the beard soft, you often can’t wash your beard too many times a week without drying out your face. To compensate, you can use beard moisturizers, and the hair stays soft perpetually.

If that’s not compelling enough, then remember that moisturizers for your beard also moisturize your face. You’re on board, right? You understand why you need to moisturize your skin?

Moisturized skin stays young and healthy. Your face won’t wrinkle as quickly when you’re on top of this task. You’ll be less prone to the itchiness that can come with your beard growth. Most of all, moisturized skin tends to run into fewer long-term health problems. So, beard moisturizers are good.

A few tips for moisturizing your beard

This is a beginner’s guide, so we’re assuming that you’re new to some of this information. Allow us to shed a little light.

The key to moisturizing your beard is beard oil. It’s a dedicated product, and its sole purpose is softening beard hair and moisturizing your face under the hair. That’s all, and it’s very good at these things.

Then again, a lot of guys like to style their beards. You can use oil for this purpose, but you can also play around with beard balm or pomade. These are hair styling products specifically for your beard, and the good ones serve as moisturizers, too.

Let’s recap this to keep it simple. Oil your beard a few times a week, and your face will thank you. If you style your beard with balm or pomade, you can reduce oil usage and still be quite healthy.

Keep it an appropriate length

Up until now, we’ve been talking about regular beard care. You want healthy hair and skin, regardless of how you cut your hair. The next step in grooming is actually cutting the hair.

The key to grooming your beard is to figure out your style. The perfect beard depends on the face, so not every guy is suited for every beard. That can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it’s important.

When you’re figuring out the right beard style you really want to think about your face shape. Don’t worry, we have a guide for that.

The other thing you want to consider is your hair type. Thick beards look great when they’re full and long. Thin beards don’t grow out as well. It’s tough to admit, but you’re not going to pull off a Keanu Reeves. If we’re being completely honest, he doesn’t really pull it off (although we would never say that to John Wick’s face!).

Let the fullness of your beard determine the right length.

Beard cutting 101

When it comes to the process of trimming your beard, there are a few key ingredients that really get it done.

First, you need the right tool for the job. You can use generic hair trimmers in a pinch, but you really do want something designed for beards. As we’ve already covered, beard hair is coarse. A lot of trimmers struggle with that. You want something that smoothly cuts your facial hair, not something that brutally yanks hairs out of your jawline.

Regardless of your trimmer, the real key to beard grooming is patience. When you’re new to the practice, it’s easy to go a little too fast and cut too much off. It ruins the shape, and you have to take everything down and basically restart your beard.

If you want a glorious face mane, then you have to slowly and carefully trim it down, one bit at a time.

Not to worry, you’ll get a lot faster with practice.

The best way to see where to trim is to comb your beard. It sounds pretty simple, but that’s really the key. Comb your beard up and away from your face. That will highlight uneven growth, and you’ll see where to trim.

Use the proper tools

Speaking of combs and trimming, there are important tools beyond your electric trimmer. Sure, it’s great for the heavy lifting, but when you stay on top of your grooming, there’s actually less work for the electric trimmer to do.

Instead, you want a great pair of scissors. There are a lot of different kinds of scissors out there. Beard scissors are going to be a little shorter (not super short) for improved control. You’ll find both curved and straight scissors.

Regardless of the scissors’ details, they allow you to target stray hairs very easily. As we said before, comb your beard up and away from your face. Find the longer hairs and trim them accordingly.

As you might have guessed by now, a beard comb is also pretty nice. It’s especially useful for moments of trimming. There’s not a lot to say. You need a comb that’s the right size and design for your beard.

You can also get a beard brush. While you can use a brush for trimming, this tool will really shine when you’re styling and cleaning your beard. The brush clears away dead hairs (they happen more than you think). It removes any particles caught in your beard. Most of all, it tames the mane.

Use the proper products

Our last tip for beard care is to use the right products. In this case, we’re talking about the formulas that you put in your beard.

We’ve been subtly mentioning the key ingredients to a gorgeous beard. That’s right, MANSCAPED™ has a whole lineup of beard goodies in the pipe.

To make sure you know what products matter most, though, here’s a quick refresher.

• Beard shampoo keeps things clean and free of microbes. Wash your beard one to three times a week. Stay on the lower end if your skin gets dry.
• Beard oil is your go-to moisturizer. Typically, you’ll only need to use it around three times a week, but adjust according to your skin health.
• Balm and pomade are your styling products. Use them whenever your beard needs some shaping. They will supplement your moisturizing routine.
• Serum is basically beard conditioner. Use it at least once a week to infuse your beard with everything it needs for healthy hair.