You may not realise exactly how important it is to comb your beard. Combing your beard on a regular basis can quickly improve your beard and its health.
In this article we're going to discuss how combing your beard can stop it from becoming dry and damaged, how to make it appear thicker & fuller and also why combing your beard will help it to grow quicker.
- Speeds Up Beard Growth
- Keep It Healthy & Hydrated
- Removes Tangles & Knots
- Make It Appear Thicker & Fuller
- Keeps It Clean
Speeds Up Beard Growth
If you're growing a beard to reach that glorious 'yeard' (beard + year) milestone, then you'll want to read through this part with close attention.
Speeding up beard growth is probably the holy grail when it comes to beard care, because you want a beard and you want it now, and combing your beard on a daily basis is one of the best ways to speed up the process.
When you comb through your facial hair, you are stimulating the hair follicle and skin underneath. By stimulating the area you are encouraging blood flow to the cell from which the hair follicle grows.
This increased blood flow encourages more nutrients to reach the cell and so allows the cell to grow the hair follicle without restrictions, this means the hair growth is quicker.
Combing through your entire beard for around 5-15 minutes will give you the best results, ideally before bed when you are about to sleep.
You're not going to sprout a bunch of new facial hair growth overnight so you’ll need to persevere on a daily basis knowing that you ARE in fact helping your beard grow at its quickest possible rate.
Keep It Healthy & Hydrated
Some benefits of beard care aren't so obvious, but they should be done because you know it’s good for you.
Just as eating vegetables may not be the most exciting part of your meal, you know you should be eating them because they are good for your health.
It's the same when it comes to beard care, your beard has its own natural way to maintain itself, and usually this is enough to keep it healthy.
It does this by producing its own natural oil called Sebum Oil, this oil is secreted to coat the hairs of the beard and stops them from drying out.
If your beard is getting very long then this oil may be struggling to ensure the full length of the hair is coated sufficiently.
If your beard ends up drying out then the hairs of the beard become brittle and are susceptible to breaking. So if you are trying to grow your beard and keep it healthy then this is obviously not ideal.
By combing your beard you are actively helping to spread and distribute this oil across the entire length of the beard hairs where it may have struggled to reach before.
By doing this on a regular basis you are ensuring that your beard stays healthy due to the fact that it will be constantly hydrated and protected from drying out.
Removes Tangles & Knots
Once your beard reaches a certain length it will start to take on a life of its own and the hairs will start to become long enough to become entangled within each other.
Once this starts happening you will find that knots will begin to form in your beard or the hairs will generally become a more tangled.
All these tangles and knots may cause the hairs to bend out of shape, snap/break or even get caught on your clothing and pulled out by the root!
Obviously none of this are very good for your beard and will require you to spend a little more time to avoid any of these situations.
The best way to combat this is to comb your beard on a regular basis, and by combing frequently you will not allow the hairs of your beard to become too entangled.
The tangles may be somewhat uncomfortable to comb through, but be gentle and work the comb through them and slowly but surely your beard will be knot and tangle free.
Make It Appear Thicker, Fuller & Longer
Even if your beard is free of knots and tangles you may find that many hairs of your beard will become entangled and lost within the mass of the rest of your beard.
Ideally you want to help separate these hairs that have become a tangled so that your beard is displayed at its best.
Combing your beard will separate and lift the hairs of your beard instead of letting them lay on top of each other.
The result will leave your beard looking its thickest and fullest.
Combing will also help to stretch the hair out to its fullest length instead of curling up too much and hiding your long earned growth.
This will therefore also let your beard stay at its longest length.
You may be surprised at how much more beardy you can look after spending a bit of time combing through your facial hair.
Keeps It Clean
If you've ever grown a long beard before then you may also agree that it's incredible how many things end up getting caught up in the hairs of your beard.
From other peoples hairs, to clothing fluff, dandruff and even crumbs of food, it really is a bit of a magnets for these things.
Therefore you should be washing your beard on a regular basis, ideally with Beard Shampoo, and in between washes you can keep it clean in other ways.
One of the easiest ways is by using a comb to quite literally comb these particles out of your beard.
Ideally you'll want to use a comb that has fine teeth on it to avoid missing any of the smaller particles.
A Few Extra Tips
So now you know the importance of combing your beard, so which type of comb should you choose?
Well Groomed Wizard strongly recommends wooden combs over plastic. Plastic combs are mass manufactured using injection moulding machines.
The process means that the teeth of the comb can be covered in microscopic jagged edges. The teeth of the comb look fine to the naked eye, but they can damage your beard hairs as well as irritate your skin.
Wooden beard combs are also anti static, unlike plastic combs.
It’s also a good idea to ensure that your beard is fully dry before you comb it to avoid damaging the hairs which can happen when your beard is wet.
A Beard Brush can also give you most of these benefits so don't be afraid to use a Beard Brush instead of a comb.
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So there you go, a few tips to help you with your beard grooming.
We'd love to hear how you like to take care of your beard, why not let us and others know by commenting below.