Your quickfire guide to growing a beard. Check it out.
Beards, huh. What are they good for?
Well, quite a lot of things, as it turns out. From banishing acne and ingrown hairs to reducing your risk of skin cancer, growing a beard makes you more than just a pretty face.
However, growing a beard sadly isn't as simple as putting down the razor. It comes with its tests of willpower and requires a fair dose of patience.
So, for the man hungry for results and keen to track his progress, we've pulled together the 5 Stages of Beard Growth. Read on, and be ready to kiss that smooth face goodbye.
Smooth to Beard in 5 Simple Steps - The Stages of Growing a Beard You Need to Know
Put down that razor and get ready to absorb some big bearded knowledge.
1. Stop Shaving, and Wait (...3-5 days).
Stopping shaving. It's the best thing since sliced beard.
And funnily enough, the first step to growing one is putting down your razor and embracing your face and its full stubbly goodness.
This stage is usually pretty simple, but you need to be prepared to look like you've been sleeping on your couch for a few days.
If you work in an office with a manager who's particularly picky on appearance, pushing from clean-shaven to stubble and beard might be a little difficult.
To be fair, who can blame them. Not all of us look good with stubble and unless you're Brad Pitt, you're probably going to look pretty rough.
As a result, it's best to go for the tactical stubble approach.
Time your last shave on Wednesday morning, leaving Thursday, Friday and the weekend for those facial follicles to run rampant. By Monday morning, you should be sitting pretty.
Getting kickback from the boss?
We've got you covered. Check out our quickfire guide to growing a beard at work - without losing your job.
2) Support that Stubble
Now your stubble's in full flow, it's time to give it the support it needs.
You've made it to the stubble stage, and your face is going to have some questions. Chances are it won't have seen stubble this long before, and it's going to start to kick off if you don't give it the resources it needs to stay healthy.
Cue unbearable itching and the dreaded beardruff (think white Christmas, but on your face).
Kiss goodbye to regular face wash and treat your baby beard to some proper beard wash. Don't worry about breaking the bank at this time - £10/$15 will get you a product that'll do the job well.
We'll be launching our beard wash soon, so stay tuned for that, too.
3) Ring that Bell, You've Grown a Beard
Welcome to Beard Town, population you.
What you want to define as a beard is completely up to you, but the MB Crew and I tend to call it at around 2.5-3cm in length (or an inch for our American bros out there).
However, your journey is far from over. Just like in the stubble stage, your facial and follicular health is still of paramount importance here.
Beard hair is thicker and coarser than the hair on your head, so anything you can do to moisturise it and tame it is going to make your life - and the life of anyone else who gets within beard proximity - much more comfortable.
This is where beard oil comes in.
Comprising of various beneficial carrier oils like sweet almond oil, jojoba oil and argan oil, beard oils give your skin, hair and follicles the nourishment they need to stay healthy, making them softer to the touch and easier to tame.
Simply add a few drops of beard oil into your palm after a shower and massage it from bottom-up into a towel-dried beard. For maximum effect, combine with a high-quality boar bristle beard brush to ensure even coverage.
4) Control That Beard
Growing a beard is a buzz, but quickly you'll notice hairs getting a little out of control.
Remember that electric razor you put down in step 1? Now's time to pick it back up. If you're feeling brave, remove the guard from your beard trimmer, stand in front of the mirror, and slowly and steadily begin to trim off any flyaway hairs and clear any unwanted bristles away from your mouth.
Trimming a beard well takes practice and how it's shaped is going to depend on your facial structure. If you're keen to tackle the task on your own, then check out our guide on how to maintain a beard.
If you're nervous about digging into your newly-acquired facial hair yourself, track down a decent barber in your local town or city that advertises beard trims. These guys will know what they're doing, and they'll be able to show you to where you should be trimming your cheek line and neckline.
From chiselled viking to the classic goatee, a barber will help you set a style you can maintain at home yourself. You shouldn't have to pay more than £20/$25 and trust us, it's well worth the money. Even if you trim your own beard, as a rule of thumb you should let it grow out untouched for a few weeks once every 2-3 months and book an appointment with your local barber so they can get the shape back into it.
5) Tame that Beard
As your beard gets longer and longer, you'll quickly come to realise your worst enemy - wind.
On a windy day, you're going to have a nightmare not looking like somebody on a law enforcement watchlist poster.
In this instance, beard balm is your best friend. Beard balm is halfway between beard oil and beard wax - it contains many of the same nourishing properties of high-quality beard oil, but gives you the hold you need to keep your beard under control in all weather conditions.
Since it's usually made with shea butter or beeswax, it's going to work better in colder conditions (as both of these become less solid the warmer they get), but you should still be able to use it in summer to decent effect.
In particularly turbulent conditions you can even add a little hairspray into the mix, although we wouldn't recommend this on a daily basis.
0 to Beard in 5 Simple Steps
There you have it - everything you need to know about what it takes to grow a beard. Hide that razor away in the back of your bathroom cabinet and Let it Grow, Bro.