Time for Season 2 [Bearding it up]

The Ender

I've been clean shaven forever. It's been more of a comfort thing than anything else - my facial hair has tended to get pretty scratchy if I let it grow at all.

I swear to God, though, it's become more and more tenacious each month for maybe the past half a year, and it hasn't made my skin irritable the few times I let it go for a couple of days. I think it may be time to give-up this struggle and accept The Beard's arrival in 2014.


What do I need to get in order to prevent a beard / mustache from going full bush man on me? And how difficult are such beasts to tame?

Rend

What kind of style are you looking at?

As long as you keep it properly trimmed it never actually itches at all. In fact, itching is a pretty good sign that you need to perform some maintenance. Your facial hair is kind of like a cat- both of them sit on your face until you give them the attention they want.

Typhoid Manny

It's pretty easy to keep a beard neat. All you gotta do is trim it with a pair of scissors or electric clippers whenever you think it's getting too shaggy. Also remember that Beards are Hair, and that you have to wash hair. Shampoo/condition your beard with the same frequency that you wash your top-of-head hair.


just so you know you can trust me, here are my beard credentials:

jefe414

Are you a revolutionary?

Anyway, nice beard. my problem is I go:
Clean shaven -> sweet ass scruff (1 day) -> almost beard (1 week)-> mostly stops growing before it becomes a nice, full beard.

I need some beard steroids or something.

The Ender

Rend wrote: »

What kind of style are you looking at?

As long as you keep it properly trimmed it never actually itches at all. In fact, itching is a pretty good sign that you need to perform some maintenance. Your facial hair is kind of like a cat- both of them sit on your face until you give them the attention they want.

That's a good question. I'm thinking the full Riker would be right up my alley; it's what my hair seems to want to do.

I definitely don't want too much 'stache. I heard that the bigger you let him get, the more of your food he tries to steal.

badpoet

Electric clippers/beard trimmer that is adjustable/has adjustable attachment. You can pretty much keep it at your target length with the minimum of work.

I couldn't grow a beard in my 20's (would come in patchy). A couple years ago, I decided to do two things. First, lay off the sauce for a month. Second, grow a beard. I was successful in both and I've kept the beard (the laying off the sauce not so much).

Typhoid Manny

I definitely don't want too much 'stache. I heard that the bigger you let him get, the more of your food he tries to steal.

This is truth. Either keep the 'stache trimmed or get some wax to keep it in place

Djeet

Have you ever let it go more than a few days or a week before shaving? If you want the couple days stubble look then that's pretty easy to groom with a trimmer every few days. But if you want to see what you have to work with I'd just let it go for 4-6 weeks (unless you have gifted facial hair genetics) and just trim the 'stache enough so it doesn't interfere with eating. You will go from stubble, to looking unshaven, to really itchy, and then as the whiskers get long enough to turn it'll get less itchy. Then you have a full beard to work with and can set a neck and cheek line, trim for shape and decide if you want to do a van dyke or a chopstache. If you want any length you need to shampoo and condition it for softness.

bloatedhippo

Give it 8-12 weeks, brush with a boar bristle brush, shampoo/condition as wanted/needed (might not want to shampoo/condition everyday, just like with head hair), possibly try jojoba oil as well.

flowerhoney

Get a beard trimmer! If you keep it neat then it won't itch you (or more importantly, it won't itch the people getting close to your face).

A lot of guys look handsome with a bit of stubble, you should experiment with various lengths and see what looks good on you!

Shawnasee

Every person I talk to echoes my own experience: it's going to fucking itch.

However, this was in the early stages of my two year beard growing, but probably the 2nd month or so and I started carrying a comb around to just get in there and scratch the shit out my face...also, to keep it from tangling up into something you might find on a forest dwelling zombie.

My wife tells her coworkers I have an 'epic beard' and I have been stopped outside of Albertson's by old men asking me about Duck Dynasty so my anecdotal is waaay better than Typhoids little girly growth (do I need to write JK or does that go without saying? Cause I am only kidding...kinda) but the itching stopped for me once it got longer. I don't carry that comb anymore.

But, just to reiterate, it IS going to fucking itch...buy a comb.


And maybe some conditioner.

The Ender

Well, my neck was the fist thing to start getting really appreciable hair growth. Said 'nope' to that.

Face is currently in what I would call the 'shaggy stubble' phase. Another week (if the growth is constant) and I think I'll have what i want.


Thanks for the tips so far.