Hello, bearded gentlemen! Today we have a quick article exposing 7 bad beard habits you may not even know you’ve picked up, and how to avoid them. Avoiding unhealthy beard habits is a critical part of growing a beard and is the true test of willpower and patience in the beard growth journey.
Pulling at Your Beard
Pulling at your beard is one of the most common unhealthy beard habits on this list, and for good reason. Studies have shown that a man touches his facial hair at least 700 times a day when he grows it out. If even 10% of the time you touch it you pull your beard, you’ll have pulled your beard 70 times that day.
Pulling at your beard weakens the hair follicles and makes your hairs more likely to fall out. Over time, with enough tugging your beard could begin to develop patches or weak spots with less growth.
How to Stop
This one is tough to break, because a lot of times you won’t even know you’re doing it. The first step will be to make yourself aware. Spend time thinking about where you are and what you’re doing when you catch yourself pulling at your beard.
When you know where you are and what you’re doing when it happens you can fight it by placing distracting objects in those areas. Stress balls, grip trainers or fidget spinners could help. If you can’t resist the urge to do something with your beard get a nice wooden beard comb or boar’s bristle brush and brush your beard instead of pulling at it.
Plucking Hairs
Plucking hairs is a terrible habit that comes from a few different reasons. It’s hard to explain why people feel the need to pluck beard hairs out, but I’ve noticed a few things that have caused me to do it in the past. Plucking hairs can create bald spots in your beard and even damage follicles to the point that hair no longer grows there, so this is one you’ll definitely want to get away from if you do it now.
How to Stop
Again this one is really about testing your willpower. I noticed for myself, that I would pull out hairs that were different than the rest. They were either really curly, really coarse, or a different color than the rest. To stop this habit I really just focused on being aware of when I was about to pluck one out, and telling myself that I’m damaging the health of my beard for the long run. This was usually enough to stop me, but we all have our own methods.
Stroking Your Beard
Stroking your beard is not in itself a damaging habit. It’s actually great for keeping your beard coated in healthy oils and distributing your skin’s oils throughout your beard. However, this becomes an unhealthy beard habit when your hands are dirty and oily. When you’re dragging dirt and unclean oils through your beard you’re clogging the pores which can lead to ingrown hairs and all kinds of other problems.
How to Stop
Like I mentioned above, you don’t need to stop stroking your beard. Just make sure your hands are clean. Carry around some hand sanitizer and wash your hands frequently.
Letting Your Beard Dry Out
Keeping your beard hydrated is really important in maintaining a healthy beard. If you notice your beard drying out and you don’t do anything it can lead to itching, flaking, skin irritations, and unhealthy hairs/hair follicles. All of these lead to a weak and unhealthy beard.
How to Stop
This unhealthy beard habit is super easy to fix! All you need to do is get in the habit of staying hydrated by drinking enough water, and applying hydration straight to the beard using natural beard oil or beard butter.
Using Unnatural Products
There’s a sea of beard care products out there and not all of them are designed to help the health of your beard. Some products use synthetic ingredients to create the illusion of a healthy beard, but actually hurt your beard in the long term. For example, silicone used in products will coat your hairs and make your beard crazy soft, but also block oils from getting into them. This will dry out your beard, causing you to apply more oil, creating a vicious cycle that you need to break.
How to Stop
Do your research and find natural products that work with your beard, not against it. JC Grooming offers a full line of natural beard care products designed to keep your beard healthy using high quality natural ingredients that help your beard grow the way it’s meant to – naturally.
Using the Wrong Grooming Tools
Beard care tools are designed specifically for your beard. Combs should not be made of cheap plastic and picked up at a drugstore. They should be made of wood, ox horn, or an anti-static plastic compound that will keep from statically charging your beard. Static charge in your beard will make it tough to style and damage the health of your hair over the long term.
How to Stop
Find grooming tools specifically designed for your beard. They’ll be labeled as a “beard brush”, beard comb, etc. It will go a long way in keeping your beard in top shape.
Using Hair Shampoo on Your Beard
This one goes along the same lines as the previous unhealthy beard habit, but for different reasons. Hair shampoo is designed to strip your hair of oils, which are then replenished naturally throughout the day. There are only 30,000 follicles on your face, whereas your head has 150,000. This means your beard produces 5x less oils than your head hair, so when you use a shampoo designed for your head you’re leaving your beard dry and oil-free, which is not a good thing.
How to Stop
Find a natural soap bar or beard-specific beard wash. Use one with quality ingredients and only use it 1-2 times a week as needed to keep healthy oils in your beard. Always follow it up with beard oil.
There are a lot of dangers in the world that can leave your beard dry, dirty and unhealthy, don’t let yourself add to that list of dangers. Take care of your beard and it will take care of you. If you find yourself a victim of any of these unhealthy beard habits, try these tips and let us know how you fix them!
