Most people who quit growing a beard quit somewhere in week three, and they quit because of itch. It is predictable, it peaks, and it passes. Knowing the shape of it makes it much easier to sit through.
Week one
Mostly comfortable. The hair is short enough that it has not started pressing back against skin yet. Nothing to do except stop shaving.
Weeks two and three: the peak
This is the hard part, and two separate things are happening at once.
First, every hair you shaved was cut to a blunt point, and as it grows out that blunt end drags against the skin around it. Second, the beard is now long enough to be wicking real amounts of oil off your face, so the skin underneath is getting drier by the day.
The first cause passes on its own. The second one does not, and it is why week three feels so much worse than it needs to. Almost all of the misery people attribute to "growing a beard" is just untreated dry skin.
- Balm daily, sometimes twice, worked in against the grain to the skin.
- Warm showers instead of hot, and keep them short.
- Keep scalp shampoo out of it.
- Pay attention to the neckline. It itches first and hardest.
Week four
Noticeably better. The blunt ends have grown past the point where they push on skin, and if you have been keeping the skin conditioned, the dryness itch is gone too. This is where most people realize they are through it.
Weeks five through eight
The itch is behind you and the beard starts looking like a decision rather than an accident. Balm every day or every other day is maintenance now, not damage control. This is also the point to stop touching it constantly, which is its own kind of irritation.
Why not just push through without anything?
You can, and people do. But the dry-skin half of the itch does not resolve on its own at any beard length, it just becomes the new normal and you stop registering that you are scratching your face all day. It also produces the flaking that gets mistaken for beard dandruff months later.
What to buy for a first beard
One tin of balm. That is genuinely it. Balm rather than oil, because at this stage every problem you have is a skin problem and oil mostly conditions hair.
Start with a fingertip, warm it in your palms until it turns to oil, work it in against the grain to the skin, then style with the grain. Details in how to use beard balm.
If you would rather not add fragrance to a face that is already irritated, Raw is unscented.
Made by hand in small batches in Wakarusa, Indiana. Seven ingredients, and 5% of every sale goes to FreedomSystem, which connects veterans through authentic camaraderie and meaningful programs.
