Beard Upkeep

This is oddly enough a question I get asked pretty often: how do you manage your beard? Beard oil? Barber? So here I am writing about what I do to keep my beard from scratching my face off.

Daily

From day to day my goal is to not mess with my beard if I can avoid it. Just let the thing be. In particular, don’t wash it, because it’s not dirty. Washing it just dries everything out.

Instead I use some beard oil every morning. What beard oil to use is a matter of personal preference, but a few I like:

• Grave Before Shave offers a nice variety sampler pack that’s a pretty decent value (4 oz total for $40, and its on Amazon Prime). Their oils aren’t quite as thick and luxurious as some of the other options, but their scents are quite nice and having a variety to cycle throuh is an added bonus.
• Blackbird’s The Past is very nice, but a bit pricey. If you shop around you can generally get it on sale some place, and the scent is less dramatic than any of Grave Before Shave’s options. For the price you get a thicker mixture that soothes skin a bit more without being too heavy and a scent that really works for me.

Each morning I work in some oil with my fingers. If the beard’s particularly out of control I’ll use a comb or brush too, but only as needed.

Weekly

Once in a while you’ve just got to wash. So once a week in the shower I shampoo my beard with the same stuff I use on the rest of my hair, which is whatever I have on hand. I’m not picky. It all works.

But after cleaning off all that healthy oil that keeps the skin happy I use something a bit thicker to restore the skin underneath. Currently that’s Honest Amish Beard Balm. Honest Amish’s products make a much bigger difference with the feel of my beard, but I can’t stand the black licorice smell. So for me Honest Amish is an occasional thing. If you don’t mind anise seed you might use this stuff all the time.

Every Once In A While

At some point it’s got to be cut, even just to get hair out of the way of eating. I’ve got three basic approaches.

For my upper lip and the edges of the beard I clean them up whenever they bother me, typically every couple of weeks. I use scissors for the top lip and a razor for the edges. Typically I care more about edges when my beard is short, by the time it’s long I’ve gone full I Don’t Care anyway. If you’re cleaning up your neck, the proper line to follow is from the back corners of your jaw to your adam’s apple.

If I’m keeping my beard at a consistent length I use a beard trimmer. I used to use a normal hair trimmer, but that always took a lot of passes from odd angles to get everything. I use an older model that’s a lot like this newer model. I find a guard length that works for me then trim everything to that lenght.

If I’m letting my beard go longer than the trimmer can handle I’ll go to a barber and ask for a beard trim about as often as I get my hair cut. There’s a Rudy’s Barbershop near me that I like, but in general I’d go with the most hipster barber you can find. Anyone who can handle some ridiculous curled mustache can even things out and shape it a bit.