The experience of growing a beard requires commitment and can even be a test of character or self-discovery. It requires courage, but it can easily help you raise your self-esteem and boost your confidence. I’ve been fully growing my beard for about 2 years now with occasionally trimming it. During that time I received a lot of questions about how to grow and maintain a beard. To answer them I visited the Brothers’ Barbershop in Vienna, where the Hamburg born photographer Silke Lapina portrayed me.
Beard Care Tips:
1. If you’re planning to grow a beard, just let it go and don’t do anything for at least 4 weeks. Most important thing at this point: Ignore everyone who wants you to shave. They will quickly change their minds after this first period.
2. Clean your beard with beard soap every morning. It not only helps you to clean your beard from grease, it also nurturs your hair and keeps it soft, healthy and clean. It
3. Style your beard to fix some out of control hairs. I recommend a balm or wax for spring/summer and beard oil for fall/winter, as it is much more shiny. Just gently massage it into your facial hair and bring everything in shape afterwards.
4. Comb your hair at least once a day using a beard brush! It brings your beard in check, massages your skin and softens your hair.
5. Keep your neckline clean. A lot of men tend to shave a terrible neckline. You will definitely make yourself look heavier and chunkier than you are by shaving it too high. So if you’re looking for a full beard that’s trimmed a bit for cleanliness, start at or just above your Adam’s apple and make a nice natural line up just behind your jaw bone.
