Growing a thicker beard can be a challenge for many men for a variety of reasons. The problem for most men is that once the beard reaches a certain point, itchiness can become so out of control that they shave or trim their beard too early.
Combine this with a poor diet and improper skin care techniques, the facial hair looks thin and weak, to say the least.
Some men simply have a higher testosterone level and can develop a full beard. Others are, unfortunately, left with some to no facial hair at all. This being said, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything at all.
There are a lot of tricks you can apply to have the lustrous and full beard you desire. Stay tuned to learn some of our favourites in this video.
Steps Before Starting to Grow Your Beard
A couple of things can be done at the very beginning of growing a beard to help your beard become thicker later:
1. Wash – but not too often
First off, wash your beard regularly, but make sure you don’t over-wash it. If you do it every day, chances are your beard will soon start to dry out and become more prone to damage.
2. Apply beard oil
From the day you start growing your beard, apply beard oil regularly. This way you will prevent excessive itching, and you’ll grow a beard that’s softer and healthier.
The Next Steps
If you’ve survived the first month of bearding without shaving, congratulations. You now have two choices when it comes to growing a beard.
The first is to grow a beard on its own, letting it reach its full potential. The other option is to begin to sculpt, shape, and groom your facial hair. Letting it grow more naturally will still produce a great-looking result, but grooming helps to give you a more polished appearance.
Grow Thicker Beard Faster
No matter how you choose to grow your beard, your most pressing goal right now is to actually grow a beard. If this is the case, the following tips will help you to grow that thick beard after you’ve made it past the 4-week growth mark:
1. Take Care of Your Skin
Healthy skin is the foundation of a healthy, thick beard. That’s why you’re going to need a good moisturizer. Cleaning and washing your face regularly will stimulate circulation, exfoliate the skin, remove dead skin cells that are causing ingrown hairs, and open up your pores.
A good moisturizer keeps your skin healthy. In return, you’ll notice increased beard growth, which leads to a thicker beard over time.
2. Start Exercising
As unusual as it may seem, the first thing you can do to improve the quality of your beard is exercising on a regular basis. This is the solid foundation that you need to put in place if you want to grow thicker hair, so start by focusing on losing any excess weight you may have.
Although all exercises help your beard grow thicker in one way or another, some of them are more helpful than the rest. Cardio workouts, brisk walking, running, cycling, and dance are proven to make your beard thicker in a faster manner.
This will in turn increase testosterone, which promotes healthy follicles and hair growth. Exercise also increases blood circulation, which provides all the nutrients your hair needs to grow thicker and stronger.
With more exercise, you’ll not only increase testosterone, but also DHT, or dihydrotestosterone. This is testosterone’s product, which is also crucial when you’re trying to get a thicker beard.
DHT promotes linear hair growth, resulting in a curlier and thicker beard. A quick note: when adding exercise to your daily routine, you should be careful and start slowly, especially if you haven’t done it before.
3. Reduce Stress
When you’re stressing about everything in your life, you increase the cortisol in your body. This will have a negative impact on testosterone development. Stress also can constrict your blood vessels, making it more challenging for the nutrients in the blood to get to the hair follicles, improving beard circulation in the process.
Stress can be divided into short and long-term stress. Everyone often experiences daily or short-term stress, and it’s considered fairly normal.
Men who are trying to grow a thicker beard, however, may find short-term stress especially harmful because it disrupts their sleep pattern. Not getting enough sleep directly affects your facial hair, making it more challenging to grow thicker.
4. Get Your Rest
To increase testosterone in the body, your body simply needs to sleep. Sleeping helps you to regenerate testosterone, especially if you’re getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night.
Studies have found that getting 5 or fewer hours of sleep can reduce your testosterone production by a staggering 15%, which in turn can result in those patchy beard areas throughout your facial hair that never seem to fill in.
So you know what to do! If you’re struggling to sleep, you may want to visit your doctor for support.
5. Improve Your Diet
A vitamin-rich diet consists of eating more vegetables. These vegetables are packed with all the minerals and vitamins that your body needs to stay healthy. Your hair growth is a protein filament, so the more protein-rich foods you’re consuming, the healthier your beard will look.
Some of the foods you should focus on incorporating into your diet are eggs, nuts, and kale. These should increase testosterone production and give your beard that desirable thicker appearance.
6. Take Supplements
Stimulating hair growth can be as simple as taking supplements alongside a well-balanced diet. Copper, zinc, magnesium, vitamin B, iron, vitamin D, and vitamin E all play crucial roles in growing thicker hair. If you don’t get enough of these in your diet, consider buying them in supplement form.
Along with these supplements, experts recommend taking biotin every day to grow your beard thicker, as well as vitamins B6 and C, beta-carotene, nettle, and flaxseed oil. Incorporating supplements into your diet will have a positive impact on your facial hair, and you’ll begin to see the quality of your hair improve after changing your diet.
Supplements are great for filling in a patchy beard and making a beard fuller and thicker in just a couple of months, but keep in mind that unfortunately, vitamins can’t grow a beard for you, if you don’t have it in your genes.
While some men have successfully grown their beards faster and thicker with the help of supplements, they won’t work for everyone the same way. You might also want to consult your doctor first to discuss the appropriate dosage of certain supplements.
7. Apply Beard Oil Regularly
As we’ve already mentioned, every man serious about growing a beard should start using the best beard oil from the first day. Good beard oil moisturizes your facial hair and skin underneath while eliminating beard itch and dandruff along the way.
Try and look for a beard oil that contains jojoba oil, which plays a similar role to the sebum that your skin produces, making your beard appear fuller and thicker over time.
Beard oil made with natural ingredients is always the best choice if you want to grow a beard that’s healthier and thicker. It’s especially important if your beard is exposed to harsh weather conditions or chemicals.
To avoid damaging your beard, be sure to apply a light layer of beard oil, which then locks in moisture and prevents the loss of natural oils in your beard.
8. Trim Your Beard Properly
If you insist on shaping or trimming your beard before the 4-week mark, you might want to consider going to a professional barber with significant experience in dealing with beards. After your beard grows to a certain point, though, you can start trimming it yourself. Although if you’ve never done it before, this requires a little practice.
You’re going to need a reliable beard trimmer. The good thing to remember is that you should first define your neckline, and then shape the rest of the beard.
Depending on how fast and thick growing a beard is for you, you should aim to trim it two or three times a week. Avoid trimming your beard after the shower, as facial hair is much longer and thicker when wet, and you might end up cutting too much off.
9. Stay Hydrated
Drinking enough water daily, which is about half your weight in ounces, can help you flush out toxins from your body. This will make your skin hydrated, and healthier skin means a healthier and thicker beard. This one may seem obvious to some, but you will be surprised how many men don’t drink enough water on a daily basis.
If staying hydrated is a problem for you, consider buying a two-litre water bottle and taking it to work every day. Fill it up in the morning, and make sure you’ve drunk right down to the end of the bottle at the end of the day.
10. Shampoo and Condition Your Beard
Just as hairs on your head benefit from using a good and natural shampoo and conditioner, the same goes for your beard. After applying shampoo or conditioner thoroughly through your facial hair, leave it for a couple of minutes to do its job. Sliding your hand through your beard will help you determine when it’s time to wash it off.
When you notice that your beard feels smoother and silkier, and your hands effortlessly glide through your beard, your shampoo or conditioner can be removed. Using a quality shampoo and conditioner from time to time will strengthen your facial hair and make your beard look fuller and thicker.
11. Ignore The Myth That Shaving Makes Beard Grow Thicker and Faster
From time to time you’ll still hear people asking the question: Will shaving make beard thicker? Sadly, there’s no truth in this theory. Shaving removes your beard, so it’s just common sense that leaving your beard alone and letting it grow will make it thicker.
When you shave and start growing a beard again, it will appear to be thicker at the beginning, which is nothing more than a small optical illusion. The hairs nearest to the root will be darker and coarser than the ends, and that’s why you’ll feel like your beard is thicker after you shave it. Once the length of your beard increases, you will no longer notice this difference.
Conclusion
Growing a beard is definitely not an overnight job. It takes time, commitment, and a whole lot of effort.
If you’re prepared to potentially look a bit silly as your beard “grows into” itself, give these tips a go. Providing you don’t have the sort of cursed genes that prevent beard growth altogether, they should help you to improve the quality of your facial hair in a matter of months.