When you’re a bearded man, each season of the year has its own ups and downs. The end of summer can be a beautiful thing, saving you from sweaty facial hair and harsh pool and ocean water. However, the fall and winter often mean the onset of intense dryness for your beard, possibly even leading to uncomfortable itchiness, tightness, and flaking skin.
So why is it that cold weather leads to dryness? The answer is a one-two bunch of cold, irritating wind outside and dry, recycled hot air inside. When you put the two together, the natural moisture is sapped right out of your skin and hair, leaving you with that unpleasant parched feeling. Luckily, with the right beard care routine, you can keep the dryness at bay! You may find that you need to adjust your routine during the seasons to get the results you want, which is normal for many men. Here are some ideas for how to keep your beard from getting dry or flaky this fall and winter!
Limit Washing
For healthy facial hair in the colder months, hydration is the name of the game, and too much washing is definitely not the way to go. Washing is an important part of your beard care routine– it cleans out dirt, debris, and bacteria that could lead to acne, irritation, and funky smells. However, washing also strips your hair and skin of the natural oils they produce to regulate their own moisture, so you want to limit how often you’re washing to maintain the benefits of that oil. In fact, overwashing can sometimes lead to your beard and face becoming extra oily! While this may seem counterintuitive, it’s the result of forcing your oil glands to overcompensate because you’ve so frequently stripped the oil away.
During the winter months, washing your beard once or twice a week is often sufficient. You can adjust this frequency if you have a particularly dirty or sweaty job or if you feel like it’s just not enough for you, but try to find the minimum amount of beard washing you can do to stay clean and comfortable and stick to that. A good beard wash that’s not overly drying will also go a long way!
Comb and Brush Often
Combing and brushing your beard serves more of a purpose than just busting tangles in long facial hair. The oils produced by glands in your skin are essential to keeping your beard healthy, hydrated, and manageable. However, the longer your beard is, the harder it is for those oils to make their way down each individual strand of hair where they’re needed. It can end up sitting on your face, clogging up your pores and making you feel greasy. If you find that your facial hair is very dry and brittle but your skin is oily, distribution is probably the root of your issue!
Combing and brushing will help to address this problem by spreading those natural oils down your hair strands, getting them away from your face and into the ends of your beard where they belong. If you wear your beard any longer than a short crop, you can probably benefit from regular brushing and combing sessions, especially in between washes and especially in the cold, dry winter months. This will also help to keep your beard cleaner in between washes, helping to get rid of dust, dirt, dead skin cells, and bits of junk like crumbs that can end up in there.
Use Moisturizing Products
Some lucky men might find that a regular wash and a quick comb-out is enough to keep their facial hair looking fantastic. However, for most men, this just isn’t the case, especially during tricky seasons like winter! Most beards will need a little extra love in the form of moisturizing products to pack in extra hydration and keep frizz at bay.
There are many different kinds of beard products out there that offer different levels of hydration. A beard oil will give you the most moisture, followed closely by a beard butter. Beard balms will also act as a moisturizer for your skin and hair, but can act as a styling product as well by giving you a light hold. You’ll have many options available to you, but the best products to choose are going to be ones that prioritize natural ingredients like shea butters, seed and nut oils, essential oils, and genuine beeswax. They’ll be the easiest for your hair and skin to absorb and pack the most punch in terms of the moisturizing benefits they offer! The hand-crafted beard care products from Fresh Beards are a great place to start.
Don’t let the fall and winter months bring your beard down! With these small changes to your routine, you can keep dry, flaking, untidy facial hair at bay until springtime.
