Stages Of Beard Growth

Stubble

Although not technically a beard by the standards of many bearded men, growing your stubble out can be quite a nice feature in itself since it adds a great feature to your face with a small amount of facial hair. It is very low maintenance too, you can use a beard trimmer every few days to keep it at the length you wish and doesn't impact your day to day life much at all.

If you've never grown your beard out then you may experience itchiness at this stage. The best remedy for this will be to apply a moisturising cream to the area.  This will help to soothe the skin underneath and keep the itchy feeling at a minimum since it contains ingredients like Olive Oil and Shea Butter.

Getting to this stage is pretty self explanatory (just don't shave) and there isn't alot you can do to speed this process up, however the results are noticable in the mirror every day.

This stubbly style can take as little as a weekend and up to 3-4 weeks to achieve, depending on the length of stubble you wish to have and the time it takes your beard to grow.

Filling Out

At this point you may be used to the itching stage or simply passed it.  What was once a patch of stubble has begun to take shape and fill out.  During the day you will catch yourself playing with it and in the mornings you may begin to start trying to style it. Your beard is now a noticeable feature on your face and you can proudly state that you are a bearded man!  Here is where grooming becomes an essential daily habit if you want to maintain a healthy beard and keep it growing consistently.  

Introducing Beard Shampoo to your showering routine will go a long way to keeping your facial hair fresh.  You may also consider using a high quality beard oil to ensure the hair follicles are well nourished and hydrated, as well as the skin underneath.

Growing your beard to this length will take you around 4-12 weeks.  Once you're at this stage you may not want to let you beard get any longer, if that's the case then be sure to add a beard trimming session to your grooming routine every few weeks.  You can read more about the best way to trim your beard here.

A Wizard Beard!

Congratulations!  You will now have a great big bushy beard!  Now you'll be getting to the point where your beard hair is getting very long.  The main factor with having a beard this long is that it will begin to get annoying during your day to day routines, such as eating etc.  A beard of this length will take some serious grooming to keep it healthy and looking its best.  You will need spend time each day to keep it clean and healthy.  You may also find yourself asking your barber to trim your beard every time that you visit him to get a haircut.

 A mane of facial hair like this will take you 6-12 months to grow, so its quite a commitment!

So now you know a bit about the main stages of beard growth you can decide what length of beard you wish to grow.  But how do you get there quickly?  Below we'll discuss a few things you can do to help you along the way...

Tips For Speeding Up Beard Growth

So now we're onto the main topic of this article, the ways in which you can speed up the growth of your beard.  It is important to note that these tips need to be put into practice frequently and consistently over a long enough period of time to really see the kind of results you want.

Brush & Comb Frequently

Brushing and combing your beard is probably the cheapest, easiest and most rewarding way to speed up the growth of your beard.  Running a comb or brush through your beard on a daily basis will help in the following ways:

1. Stimulates Hair Follicles

By combing your beard you are stimulating your hair follicles and encouraging blood flow to the cell from which the hair itself grows. The more blood that flows to the cell, the greater the abundance of nutrients there are that the cell will be able to receive when it needs them, and therefore the quicker the hair will be able to grow out from the cell, as it will not be limited by any lack of nutrients.  These nutrients are the building blocks of the hair follicle.

By spending just 5 minutes a day brushing or combing your beard you will be helping your beard to grow out and ensuring that your beard can grow at its maximum capacity. The difference may be slight but over the course of months these results will add up and make a noticeable difference.

2. Straightens The Hairs

Okay this concept is pretty simple but it works. Your beard hairs may be rather long but they have a tendency to curl up as they grow. If you regularly brush and comb them then it will help to straighten them out and therefore have your overall beard appear longer, rather than the hairs being curled up and your beard being shorter and denser.

Believe it or not but there is a proper way to brush/comb your beard. If you want to read the full guide then you can check it our here.

See our full range of Combs & Brushes here.

Applying Beard Oil

Your beard hair follicles will naturally secrete their own oil to help nourish your beard, this oil is known as sebum and is produced by the sebacious gland.  When your beard hairs are relatively short this oil will coat the entire length of the hair, but once these hairs get too long then the oil will struggle to coat the entire length of them, and once this is the case it's time to bring in some outside help, in the form of some high quality beard oil.

Ensuring the hairs of your beard are 'well-oiled' will help to speed up the growth of your beard by:

1. Keeping the hairs healthy

If your beard hairs aren't coated in oil (either natural sebum oil or a high quality store bought beard oil) then you will find that the hairs will dry out, either partially or completely.  If this happens then the hair will turn brittle and will break and fall out.  This is disastrous as your hard gained results will simply be dropping off your face one by one!

Why not prevent this from happening by applying some beard oil?

3. Keeps Skin Cells Healthy

This is similar to the point made when combing your beard.  If you keep the cell that the beard hair grows from healthy then your beard will be able to grow at its maximum speed.  You can ensure this by using beard oil.  The oil will nourish the hair itself but the oil will also travel along the hair to the skin underneath, once in contact with the skin the oil will be able to start nourishing, hydrating and repairing the sebaceous cells that the hair follicle grows from.

You can read more about the benefits of beard oil and how to apply it here.

Don't Trim Your Beard

It may sound obvious, but many people get frustrated with their beard as is starts getting longer than they are used to, the main culprit being the moustache! The main times a beard will frustrate/annoy you is when you are eating, sleeping etc. Therefore it becomes tempting to trim some of the longer hairs to help with this, with the idea that you're not really getting rid of your beard, just a few annoying hairs.  

Another reason you may end up trimming your beard a bit is to neaten it up a little.  While your beard is still growing out you may not be fully satisfied with your appearance, you may look in the mirror and decide to try and neaten your facial hair up a little.  The more you trim however, the longer you will have to spend growing it. The best advice is to put up with it until your beard is long enough to brush out of the way and style it the way you wish.

Healthy Diet & Lifestyle

A healthy diet is always a key part of life, and it plays a role in your bodies growth and repair process. Your beard is no exception to this rule, be sure to eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals to help support the growth process of your beard.  These vitamins and minerals are essential for various functions throughout your body and a lack of them may slow down your bodies ability to grow your beard.

Things like spending times outdoors in the sunlight and getting enough sleep is also a factor in the process, since sunlight is a main source of vitamin D, and sleep is the time that your body will carry out its growth and repair process.

So eat a nutrient rich diet and make sure you get plenty of sleep, if not for yourself then do it for your beard!

Patience

Everything in our current world is fast paced and on-demand.  This instant gratification lifestyle means that people want results and they want them NOW!  Because of this you may be endlessly frustrated that your beard isn't where you want it to be, the solution?  Patience.  

Okay so this isn't something that you can actively put into practice like the other tips but it is key. You need to be patient on your journey to growing a beard, it will take many weeks, months or even years! Great beards are built over time and the best way to cope with this fact is by developing a sense of patience.  If you do it will be much easier to sit back, relax while you watch your progress over time.  Before long you'll start seeing great results!

Final Thoughts