How to Grow and Maintain a Lockdown Beard
Depending on when you’re reading this, you’re either in lockdown or have been in lockdown or even self-isolating due to coming in contact with someone who has the dreaded covid. For all its negatives, one welcome change in lockdown is the lack of a need to shave. We all have fewer social engagements and a bit more time to spend lounging around the house. There’s no reason to be picking up a razor on a morning.
And men are embracing it. Apparently, nearly two million more gents have grown beards during the pandemic. If you’re one of them, or are planning on joining the growing army of mo bros, we want to help. Because while anyone can grow facial hair, growing and maintaining a magnificent mane requires certain products, techniques and know-how.
In this post, you’ll find links to essential articles from this here blog, covering everything from science and styles to growing and grooming. It’s a beard resource that you can bookmark and return to at every stage of your beard journey.
Enjoy.
The beginning
To grow a healthy beard, it helps to understand exactly how a beard grows — what stimulates growth and the cycles hair goes through.
In Beard Growth: The Cycle, Stages and Tips we look at the science and break down the four growth stages of beard growth, from the awkwardness at the start to the glory days of being a full beardsman. Start with this post so you know what the deal is with your facial hair and what’s to come over the next few months.
Read: Beard growth: The cycle, stages and tips
The process
The simple answer to growing a beard is to stop shaving. But there’s more to it than that. It’s a process that requires patience (the itchiness in the early days can be irritating as hell), changes in diet and lifestyle (healthy mind + healthy body = healthy beard), a good maintenance routine and a bit of know-how with scissors.
Our beginner’s guide to growing a beard covers the essentials, including everything you need and need to do to grow a quarantine beard that you’ll want to keep for life.
Read: How to grow a beard: A beginner’s guide
The beginner’s guide also touches on why men grow beards, genetically, evolutionarily, psychologically and physically speaking. Genetically, it’s to do with testosterone and evolutionarily it’s all about sexual selection — women perceive men with beards as being older, stronger and more aggressive than non-bearded men. On the psychological and physical fronts, there are numerous reasons why men embrace facial hair. We surveyed over 1,400 Mo Bro’s customers to find out their biggest reasons for growing a beard and published our findings in a post. It makes for interesting reading.
Read: Why do men have beards?
The style
By following the process laid out in the beginner’s guide, you’ll have yourself a strong beard. But where initially you were focussed on growth, now you’ll need to think about the style. Not every type of beard suits every type of face. For example, if you have a rounder face, growing a long, full beard can put more emphasis on the roundness. A better option for this face shape is a goatee, which narrows your face at the sides.
Our post on the best styles for each kind of facial shape will help you find a beard type that complements your face.
Read: What kind of beard suits you best?
The routine
Once you have a beard, you need to maintain it. The process for doing this is something we’ve perfected over years of experimenting with different routines and products. We touch upon the Mo Bro’s 5 Step Process in our beginner’s guide to growing a beard, but it’s worth digging into in more depth.
Our post on taking care of your beard provides step-by-step instructions on washing, conditioning, hydrating, styling and combing your beard. Videos accompany each step so you can see the process in action.
Read: The Mo Bro’s 5 Step Process to better beard care
The last step in the Mo Bro’s 5 Step Process, combing, requires a certain type of comb or brush depending on the length of your beard. To help you get the right tool for the job, take a look at our post on beard combs and bristle brushes.
Read: What should I use: Beard comb or a bristle brush?
The trim
A beard, like hair (on your head), needs to be kept in check. And like hair, we recommend finding a good barber and visiting them every 3-4 weeks for a beard trim. That said, in the time in between trips to the barbers—which might be lengthy given the restrictions placed on barbers during lockdown—you’re probably going to have to do some home maintenance. This can be scary at first, but it does get easier.
We’ve dedicated a full post to the topic of trimming, including the tools you need and the steps to take to make sure your beard doesn’t take over your face and neck.
Read: How to Trim a Beard Like a Boss
We’re here if you need us
Understanding the what, why and how of beards and following the steps in the guides we’ve linked to in this post will help you grow a lockdown beard to be proud of. But we get that these resources may also throw up some questions, especially if you’re growing a beard for the first time. A search through the blog will provide answers to most queries, as we’ve covered just about everything there is to know about beards over the last several years. You can also get direct answers from the Mo Bro’s Beard Community on Facebook. We’re in there regularly along with over 2,200 other beard folks to chat about anything you want to.
Lockdown might have cancelled holidays, festivals and birthday plans, but there’s no cancelling your beard. Happy growing, brother.
(Main Photo by Mitchell Griest on Unsplash)