How to Manage Skin Care When You Have Facial Hair
A good beard can be a shield for the face. It can protect you from the cold, block UV radiation(1) and even conceal your weak chin from those judgmental glances. You want to make sure it isn’t also stopping you from taking care of your skin. Some parts of your new skincare routine are going to look as different as your new profile pic. Others are going to remain essentially the same. Here’s a guide to making sure you and your beard are working together to protect your face.
Table of Contents
skincare with facial hair
Droppings
You’ve seen dandruff before. Your face has been dry and dirty before. But a beard presents a new challenge. The beard hair can draw moisture away from the skin and traps the flakes of dry skin. The beard seems to grab everything:
- Flakes of skin from other parts of the face.
- Stray debris from that quick snack you just ate.
- The spiderweb you just walked through.
Infuriatingly enough, one thing that the beard doesn’t seem able to hold onto is beard hairs, which are strewn about everywhere.
Clean around your beard, under your beard, and after your beard. Remember that charcoal face wash you’ve been using? I hope you still have it on speed dial. The dead skin you can gently exfoliate and grime you can wash away, the less will get stuck in your beard. And if you are putting fingers in your beard, you want them to be cleaning agents rather than just idle hands stirring up dandruff and further inflaming breakouts.
Some beard particles can dodge even a diligent washing. So buddy up with a brush or comb to help shake them loose. A good combing can dislodge the beard hairs that are due to parachute out that day anyway. You get to choose to weed them out during a grooming session instead of, say, lunch.
Read: Pros and Cons of Growing a Beard
Trimming
Just because your beard is growing, that doesn’t mean that you have stopped cutting beard hair. But you can’t take the same wholesale approach as you did before.
Whether you are cleaning up your neck or maintaining a goatee, there’s a good chance that you still are wielding your razor daily. Shave just like you used to, which means using a clean blade and protecting your skin with razor bump cream and moisturizer. The folds of your neck skin are especially prone to razor bumps, and the fringes of the beard are primarily liable to dry out, so be generous here.
