The process of how to grow a beard can be quite tricky if you don’t have the right beard growth tips and tricks up your sleeve. But now more than ever, men are ditching razors and embracing their facial hair (a trend I personally love to see). Just look at celebrities like Jason Momoa and Drake for great examples of full, luscious beards.
If you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like with a good-looking beard or just want to know how to maintain a healthy beard, I’ve got a great resource for you, full of beard growth tips and products to combat patchiness and itching alike. Bookmark this page and keep reading to learn how to grow a beard faster and how to keep that big beautiful beard healthy and happy.
Index
The 3 Stages of Beard Growth
Before you prepare for the beard growth process, it can be helpful to understand how to grow a beard in terms of the actual stages of hair growth. The process can look different for each person, but in general, there are three stages of beard growth:
1. Anagen – The first stage of beard growth is the anagen phase. This is when the hair starts to grow, and cells within the root of the hair divide rapidly. As these cells divide, the hair continuously grows at around a centimeter per month. This stage can last anywhere from 2-6 years (and sometimes longer!).
2. Catagen – This next phase is the shortest, and represents a sort of transitional period between growth and the hair eventually falling out. During the catagen phase, hair growth stops and each strand becomes separated from the follicle. This only lasts 2-3 weeks and marks the end of the active period of hair growth.
3. Telogen – During the last phase, new hairs start to push old strands out, causing them to eventually fall out. This phase can last from 2-4 months and is essential for giving new hair room to grow. Once the old strands of hair are shed, the follicle starts the cycle all over again, entering the anagen phase.
How Long Does It Take to Grow a Beard?
Several factors can influence whether your beard growth happens faster or slower (or whether or not it will grow in all the areas you’d like it to). As you learn how to grow a beard, it’ll be helpful to keep these in mind. Beard growth factors include things like:
- Age – Beard thickness and facial hair coverage tend to hit their peak around the age of 30. If you’re younger, it might take you just a bit longer to achieve a full beard.
- Ethnicity – Human hair thickness tends to vary greatly among different ethnic groups, and the thicker the hair, the thicker the beard generally speaking. For example, people from Mediterranean countries tend to be able to grow thicker beards.
- Genetics – Did your father or uncle have a thick beard? If so, you’re more likely to grow a thick beard yourself. Certain genetic markers, like DHT sensitivity, can help encourage beard growth. But on the flip side, it can also make it harder to grow hair on your scalp. Here’s what to do about that.
- Hormones – The hormone testosterone controls a lot of functions within the male body, including beard growth. Higher testosterone levels can make growing a beard easier, while low testosterone can drastically reduce your ability to grow facial hair.
How to Grow Facial Hair Faster
If you’re interested in learning how to grow facial hair faster, the first piece of advice I can give you is to be patient. Growing a beard the right way takes time, so stay patient and try not to trim or shave in the beginning.
Here are a few other important beard growth tips that can be helpful while you’re learning how to grow a beard faster:
- Sleep – Getting the right amount of sleep is important for a lot of reasons, not least of which is hair growth. Try to get at least 7-8 hours of rest each day.
- Exercise – Did you know that hitting the gym regularly can actually improve hair growth? Regular exercise improves blood circulation, which can stimulate hair growth on both the scalp and beard.
- Stress management – This one is a no-brainer. Excessive stress is tied to a lot of physical and mental issues. It can also inhibit hair growth and even lead to hair loss.
- Stop smoking – This is something everyone learning how to grow a beard should know. Smoking damages hair follicles and decreases blood circulation, both of which are bad for hair growth.
- Follow a healthy diet – Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, plus use a hair growth supplement. Here’s a list of the best hair growth supplements to try!
How to Take Care of Your Beard
One of the biggest lessons I can give you in how to grow facial hair faster involves proper beard maintenance. Here is my top maintenance and beard growth tips to get your beard into tip-top shape.
Have a Daily Routine
Maintaining a good hair care and beard routine every day is an important part of growing your beard. Zooming out of hair care, I also recommend creating a holistic daily routine that contributes to your health. Eating well, exercising regularly, and keeping your stress levels down are all important things you’ll want to consider when learning how to grow a beard.
Wash Your Beard Daily
As part of your daily routine, you’ll want to thoroughly wash your beard. Use a gentle beard shampoo to maintain the health of your hair while creating the ideal conditions for growing a beard. Choose a beard shampoo with density promoting ingredients for best beard growth results, such as the Wonder Beard™ Shampoo
Use Beard Growth Serum for Better Results
In addition to regular washing, using a beard growth serum is a great way to stimulate hair growth. I recommend the Hairlust Wonder Beard™ Growth Serum. Its formula includes CAPIXYL™ Peptide Complex plus caffeine to promote facial hair growth and increased thickness.
Reduce Itchiness and Breakage with Beard Oil
As anyone learning how to grow a beard faster will tell you, itchiness and breakage is a common issue. Beard itch is, unfortunately, a fact of growing a beard, but keeping your beard moisturized can help alleviate it. Using beard oil keeps your strands hydrated and nourished throughout the day so you can forget itching and breakage for good.
Use a Brush to Exfoliate, Stimulate, and Style
While I’m in the shower, I like to use a soft, silicone brush to gently exfoliate my beard and stimulate hair growth. I recommend Hairlust’s Scalp Delight™ Scalp Massage Brush to remove excess dirt, oil, and product buildup.
Exfoliate Weekly
Exfoliating once or twice a week is essential to prevent ingrown hairs and beard dandruff. An easy way to exfoliate your beard is to squeeze some of Scalp Delight™ Detox Scrub to gently slough away dead skin, oil, and buildup.
Beard Growth Products: Do They Work?
Minoxidil
If you want to know how to grow facial hair faster, some experts will recommend minoxidil. And while it’s very effective at stimulating hair growth, it can come with annoying side effects like redness, itching, or flaking. Plus, you have to keep using it to see effects, and it can lead to more hair loss if you stop.
Dermaroller
Dermarollers are made of tiny needles that pierce the skin to induce collagen growth. It’s been proven to have a great effect on the skin and potentially on stimulating hair growth on the scalp, but there is little evidence suggesting it has an impact on beards specifically.
Beard Growth Serum
A beard growth serum is one of the best products you can use when you’re figuring out how to grow a beard faster. With active ingredients like biotin and caffeine, Wonder Beard™ Growth Serum offers a multi-pronged approach to hair growth. Plus, it’s vegan certified and hormone-free!
Beard Oil
A great tip I recommend for how to grow facial hair faster is to keep your beard moisturized. Using beard oil is a great way to keep your beard soft and can even increase the density of your hair. Plus, if you’re dealing with itching or breakage, the right beard oil, such as Wonder Beard™ Grooming Oil featuring Densi’Beard™, can help alleviate those problems.
If you are looking for an all-in solution, I strongly suggest to look into beard care gift sets. Those contain all the products and ingredients you need to take good care of your growing beard. The Wonder Beard™ Bundle offers you three natural and efficient products for an easy beard care routine. By choosing the set you'll also save 20%!
Common Problems with Growing a Beard
If this is your first time learning how to grow facial hair faster, you might run into some issues during the process. Thankfully most of these common issues are easily remedied, but it’s helpful to be aware of them.
Patchiness
When I’ve grown out my beard before, I’ve noticed certain areas tend to grow faster than others. This can lead to a “patchy” appearance, and can often be disheartening for those figuring out how to grow a beard for the first time.
The good news is, patchiness is completely normal and happens because your hairs don’t all grow at the same pace. One of the best beard growth tips I can give you is to resist the urge to shave it all off and start again. When you can manage your expectations and be patient, you’ll realize that your beard may take a few extra weeks to fully come in, but it will come in.
Itching and Beard Dandruff
If you’re growing your beard out from scratch, it’s likely you’ll experience some itching along the way. Dryness and beard dandruff can also happen if you don’t keep your beard properly moisturized. An easy way to mitigate itching and beard dandruff is to follow a routine of washing, exfoliating, and moisturizing your beard every day. However, if you’re continuously dealing with itchiness and flaking, your skin might be trying to tell you something, similarly when you’re dealing with dandruff on your scalp.
Ingrown hairs
Ingrown hairs can be a painful, itchy, and downright annoying issue to have to deal with while figuring out how to grow a beard. Especially if you have curly hair, finding yourself with an ingrown hair or two can be much more common. This can happen during the anagen phase, when hairs first sprout out from their follicles and then curl back into the skin.
One of the best ways to prevent ingrown hairs is to keep your beard properly hydrated. Dryness can lead to flakiness and irritation, which makes the likelihood of developing ingrown hairs more likely to happen. Another great tip is to consistently exfoliate your beard.
At the end of the day, learning how to grow a beard faster can be an exciting experience. Especially if you’ve never experimented with facial hair before, growing a beard can help tie your look together and even give you more confidence. Now that you’re armed with the right information, go out there and grow that beard!
