Who hasn’t lived through a bad beard day? When your beard feels like it has a life of its own, and its only purpose is to mess up your perfectly pleasant day. But fear not brave warrior, for we have the answer to your beard struggle. All you have to do is learn how to train your beard.
There are a lot of beard types and styles, but in essence, all beard hair has the same characteristics. Your facial hair is strongly influenced by hormones like DHT (dihydrotestosterone), and it has a different structure than the hair on your scalp.
Beard hair tends to grow curly due to tightly bound keratin coating its surface. This makes it coil up and grow haphazardly. The best solution is to tame your beard hair and train it to grow in a certain direction. With some patience, the right products, techniques, and beard care routine, you’ll be the proud owner of a legendary Viking beard. Read on to find out more.
Understanding Which Products to Use
Training your beard can be worth the effort because, let’s face it, taming a bushy beard is time-consuming. It can start feeling like a chore that you’ll be tempted to put off doing. A trained beard will require less work and will give you a more polished look. And using the right tools and products can help you save time and energy.
Beard Straightening Heat Brush
This is a new type of beard care product, but the idea is not quite revolutionary. Women have been using similar tools for years. Straightening irons or brushes use heat to tame curly hair and give it a straight and polished finish.
Heated beard brushes are a bit different from a regular hair straightener because they are adapted for beard use. Your facial hair is more sensitive than your scalp hair. Its structure makes it vulnerable to heat damage and moisture loss. This means that you should always use products that were specifically designed for beard use.
Using a beard straightening heat brush will feel like using cheat codes. It’s the fastest way to straighten your facial hair, and regular use can help tame your bushy beard.
Use your heat brush after a shower, when your beard is nice and clean. Just remember to make sure that your facial hair is completely dry. You can use a blow-dryer and comb to get started. You can also use a heat protectant spray to help prevent heat damage.
How to use a beard straightener:
Power up your brush and choose your desired heat setting. You should start with the lowest one, and go up as needed. The level of heat you need depends on your beard hair type. Thicker and curlier beard hairs will probably need a higher heat setting.
Wait for your straightener to heat up, then brush your beard in a downward motion and let the heat do its work. The result will be immediate and really satisfying.
TBS Recommended Product:
The Væringjar brush, straightener, and volumizer is a 3-in-1 heated beard brush. It’s the only beard brush with a heated hair pick, created for easy and comfortable use. You can use it to tame even the most stubborn beard, and give it a smooth, polished look.
Beard Wax
Taming your beard hair is only half of the struggle. The next problem you’ll face is trying to make it stay in the right direction. A great product for your beard training is beard wax.
Beard wax is similar to beard balm, but the difference lies in its concentration of natural waxes. A higher amount of beeswax and lanolin gives the product a much stronger hold. This makes it perfect for taming stubborn beard hairs.
How to use beard wax to tame your beard:
Press against the wax and scoop out the amount you need. Warm up the wax with your fingers until it starts to melt, then spread it on your beard hair. Avoid applying the wax to your skin, and focus more on distributing the wax evenly on the whole length of your hair. After the wax begins to harden, you can start styling your beard.
TBS Recommended Product:
The Gentlemen’s Beard & Moustache Wax is a great product for beard styling and taming. It’s made from natural ingredients that help shape and strengthen your unruly beard and moustache hairs.
Beard Brush
Brushing your beard should already be a part of your beard care routine. It’s a great way to evenly distribute your natural oils and your beard care products across your beard hair strands. Regular brushing also helps remove dirt and dead skin cells. It helps release natural sebum oils from your skin and stimulates local blood flow, which, in turn, promotes hair growth. The benefits are endless.
Brushing your beard is also a great way of training your whiskers. If you keep rearranging your hair in a certain direction, you’ll eventually change the pattern, and get lasting results.
TBS Recommended Product:
The Viking Savage beard brush is specifically designed for detangling and preventing frizziness. It’s a perfect tool for beard conditioning and care, and it can handle even the bushies of beards.
Step 1: Trimming Your Beard
Trimming is an essential part of beard hair training. After picking a beard style, you’ll need to invest some time in its upkeep. You should trim the stray hairs on your cheeks and neck to maintain a clean finish. This will help maintain your beard shape, and ensure that you’re eliminating unruly hairs that refuse to grow in the right direction.
Step 2: Prepping Your Beard
Having a good beard care routine is very important. A clean, healthy beard will always be easier to tame. You’ll need to wash your beard regularly and use hydrating products like beard oils.
Daily beard care will keep your facial hair from drying out and prevent itchiness. But most importantly, it will help stop your hair from turning curly.
A clean and hydrated beard will feel and look smooth. You’ll be able to style it without spending an endless amount of time in front of a mirror.
Step 3: Brush to Train
Brushing your beard in a certain direction will help align your hair, and, in time, encourage it to keep growing in that direction as well.
A beard brush is a useful tool for beard training, and you should use it by brushing in a downward direction, towards your chin. This will help align your beard hairs and shape your beard into your desired style.
Even when you’re taking the right steps and using the right products, there are also some additional factors to consider:
Texture
Beard hair can have many textures. Ranging from thin to thick, from straight to curly, the hair you end up with is due to the magical mysticism of the genetic lottery.
Your facial hair texture can play a huge role in the process of beard training. If your beard hairs are thick and curly, they will need more care and time to tame into shape.
Length
Shorter beards will need regular brushing and trimming to encourage facial hair to grow in the right direction. It’s easier if you start the training early in the growth process, and you’ll end up saving time and energy in the long run.
Style
The more complicated your beard style, the more upkeep it will need. This might mean more frequent trimming and brushing to keep your beard hair from growing in the wrong direction and messing up your look.
Weather
The elements have a huge influence on your beard hair. Hot and cold temperatures can cause dryness and lead to hair curling. This will make it hard to tame your facial hair into shape. One way to counter the effects of humidity and temperature is by having a good beard care routine.
Step 4: Downwards Works Best
Brushing your facial hair in a downward motion can help shape your beard and align your hair. Brushing can also be a great way to help evenly distribute your beard care products. Beard oil and beard balm can be used to hydrate your hair fibers and prevent curling. When you’re applying your beard care products, make sure to use the same downwards motion. This will encourage your hair to stay in a certain direction.
How to apply beard balm:
Scoop out a sufficient amount of product and warm it up between your palms. You want the product to become a bit melted and easily spreadable. Apply your beard balm by spreading it evenly on the whole length of the hair fibers. Make sure to do this by using downwards strokes.
Step 5: Knowing What to Avoid
It’s always easier to prevent a problem than to solve it. You should avoid using products that were not specifically designed for beard care. Products like soap, shampoo for scalp hair, and care products with harsh chemicals should definitely be black-listed.
Using the wrong products can cause a great deal of damage to your hair and skin, and may also impede hair growth. Dry, damaged hair will be harder to train and tame, and is something you will definitely want to avoid.
Conclusion
Training your beard requires some work and perseverance. But if you take the time to do it, the results are well worth it. A trained beard is easier to style and maintain and your future self will someday thank you for the effort. All it takes is a bit of patience, the right tools, and techniques. Nothing that a Viking warrior can’t conquer.
Learn How To Tame Your Beard Hair And Say Goodbye To Bad Beard Days
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