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Everything You Need to Know About Growing Facial Hair Beyond Just Beards
Let’s start at the beginning.
We talk a lot in this blog about beards, but while facial hair includes beards is not exclusively about beards.
Facial hair includes everything from your moustache to your sideburns and the mutton chops in between.
So, while Lord of the Beards has extensively covered growing your beard, we thought it was time to create a guide to the broader subject of growing facial hair.
So, if you want facial hair but don’t want a full beard, this is your growing guide.
The Two Sides to Growing Facial Hair
There are two sides to growing facial hair. One is more obvious than the other. Most people realise the need for skincare but don’t realise that their lifestyle is just as important. You must take care of both sides to grow strong, healthy facial hair.
Skincare
Keep Your Face Clean
Healthy hair grows best when the skin is clean, and the hair follicles are unclogged. If dirt, dust, oil or dead skin cells clog the follicles, it makes it harder for hair to grow and encourages ingrown hairs.
Wash your face morning and night, every day, for the best results and the quickest hair growth.
Use warm water and a mild cleanser. Cold water isn’t effective at removing dirt and dust; hot water can dry out and irritate your skin. Warm water will loosen the dirt and dead skin without stripping away valuable hydrating oils.
Start Moisturising
Skin needs moisture to keep it healthy. A good quality moisturiser is the best way to hydrate your skin and balance the effects of pollution, weather, and artificial heat.
A dry environment is not a healthy one for growing any facial hair. When your skin loses moisture, it gets dry and flaky. This causes itching and inflames the skin.
If you want to grow full, thick facial hair, regardless of where on your face you want to grow it, invest in beard oil. Yes, you read that right. Even if you only grow a moustache, beard oil is still the best thing to moisturise your face.
Beard oil is designed to hydrate the hair and the skin underneath it. So it will work on the hairless parts of your cheeks and reach under that moustache or the sideburns.
Massage in some beard oil after your daily face wash.
Stimulate the Hair Follicles
Ready for some science:
Hair is produced by hair follicles, which in turn go through growth and rest phases. When a follicle becomes active, hair grows. The hair continues to grow until it reaches a predetermined length. The follicle then becomes inactive, the hair falls out, and the cycle starts again.
Sometimes for many and various reasons, hair follicles remain inactive and do not return to the growth phase. When this happens, they made need a little help. There are several ways you can stimulate the hair follicle and encourage new growth:
Apply beard oil – you should already do this as part of your daily skincare routine.
Face massage – move your fingertips lightly over your face in circular motions for about 15 minutes twice daily.
Homemade face mask – using lemon juice, coconut oil, mayonnaise, or onion juice, apply to your face and leave for 20 minutes. When the time is up, wash off the concoction with warm water.
Lifestyle
Living a healthier lifestyle helps you grow healthier facial hair.
It only takes a few small changes to see big differences in the amount and quality of your hair growth.
Basically, get a good night’s sleep, eat a balanced diet, and exercise regularly, and you are there. Let’s look at those in a little more detail.
Sleep
Sleep is vital for general well-being. If you don’t sleep well, you feel sluggish the next day. Sleep works wonders like general maintenance on your body, repairing and growing while you rest. Sleep also:
- Reduces stress
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improves memory
- Improves mood
- Helps with healthy weight maintenance
- Lowes your chance of diabetes, stroke and heart disease
The level of growth hormone in your body also increases while you sleep. This boosts cell reproduction and hair growth, helping you grow strong, healthy facial hair that bit quicker.
Peak cell reproduction happens around 2 am, so try to arrange your bedtime routine, so you are sound asleep by then. You should aim for at least eight hours of sleep a night. If you regularly have less than six, this will negatively affect your facial hair growth.
Exercise
Exercising raises your levels of DHT and testosterone. These travel to the androgen receptors and, from there, onto your hair follicles. Exercise, in short, helps provide the nutrients your facial hair needs to grow as DHT provides density and testosterone gives hair its thickness.
Any exercise is good for getting the blood pumping and the DHT and testosterone flowing. Anything from dancing to yoga or brisk walking is better than nothing, but running, swimming, or cycling is even better. Aim for 30 minutes a day that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat.
Eating a Balanced Diet
Protein and a coating of healthy fats and oils comprise most of your hair. Your facial hair is at its best when you keep the required balance of proteins, fats and oils. The best way to do this is through your diet.
Your diet should contain 50% carbohydrates from fruit, whole grains and potatoes. 30% of your diet should be monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, dairy products, and red meat.
Hair growth-supporting foods should make up the remained of your diet—foods like broccoli, carrots, and citrus fruits. Also include nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, and walnuts.
How to Grow Additional Facial Hair
You started with a simple moustache, but now you have the facial hair frenzy and want to grow more. Lord of the Beards totally understands that need. How you do it is simple – do more of what we discussed above.
Take note of your sleep pattern and adjust it, so you are getting your full eight hours as often as possible.
Keep a food diary to see if you are getting the vitamins and minerals that you need. Vitamins help you absorb the oils you need and help improve blood circulation, which in turn helps hair grow thicker and faster.
Below is a list of recommended vitamins and the foods you can find them in. Try foods first, but if you don’t like them, opt for good quality food supplements.
- Vitamin A maintains hair serum and follicles – broccoli, carrots, and green leafy vegetables.
- Vitamin B9 for thicker hair – cereals, green leafy vegetables and nuts.
- Vitamin C for the immune system and healthier hair – citrus fruits, dark green leafy vegetables, green peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.
- Vitamins E, B5, and B3 to improve blood circulation – avocado, beef, chicken, egg yolk, fish, and whole grains.
Increase your testosterone levels by increasing the intensity of your exercise by including activities like cross-fit, boxing, sprinting, or weightlifting.
Avoid habits that damage your facial hair, follicles or the skin underneath your hair, including:
- Coating the hair with relaxing creams kills off follicles. Manage frizzy or curly facial hair with moustache wax and beard balm.
- Overwashing strips the natural oils from your hair. Use a beard shampoo two or three times a week and no more.
- Picking or pulling at your facial hair damages the hair and leads to patchy growth.
