Growing is a learning process and as you learn, you are bound to make some mistakes.
Below are some common mistakes that people make while growing out their beard.
- Impatience:
We can’t stop singing this song. It takes some time to grow a beard. Experts say it takes up to 13 weeks to grow a beard while others say hair grows approximately half an inch every month. Genetics and beard care have a lot to do with this though and it is different for everyone.
During the first 3-6 months of growing a beard, you may be tempted to speed up growth with ‘miracle oils’ or tagging and pulling on your hair. This is a bad idea! You may also want to give up and shave it off entirely.
We recommend that you exercise some patience and let your hair grow naturally.
2. Being too ‘patient’:
There is the dangerous side of being chill and letting your hair grow. Being patient does not mean that you should let your hair grow wildly.
Even as it grows out, you will still need to wash it, comb it, and apply balm and oil so that your hair gets the necessary nutrients as it grows.
Trimming and combing help your beard look neater and help cover up the patches that are very visible during the first stages of growing your beard.
3. Dehydrating your beard:
Just like your body, your beard needs some hydration. Moisture is a big factor that contributes to hair growth.
This moisture is easy to find and all you need is your beard wash once or twice a week and daily use of beard oil and beard balm.
4. Overhydrating your beard:
Have you noticed how we always specify that beard wash should be used once or twice a week at most? The reason for this is that washing it with your cleanser every day will cause dryness which causes itchiness and completely messes up your beard growth process and makes the journey harder than it should be.
5. Neglecting your neckline:
This is for the men that are hairy. Your beard hair and chest hair should not connect. A hairy man can achieve this especially during the period when you are trying to grow out your beard and not shaving at all.
You should always shave any hair below Adam’s apple to avoid growing a beard + chin hair combination that would just not be appealing.
6. Comparing:
Finally, do not compare your journey to anyone else’s. Just because your homie grew his beard in less than 2 months does not mean that you are behind or that it’s not working for you. This is a very individual process, and you will need to remember this when you see beard goals online or on someone else.(hard as it may be)
Mandevu’s got your growth tips!
Words: Ciku Kimani