5 Common Beard Care Mistakes and How to Fix Them

A seasoned beard grower has made every mistake in the book, they have learnt the hard way how to grow, cultivate and maintain a stylish beard with great shape and a healthy sheen. They may not admit to them, but at some point they have used the wrong products, neglected certain essential practices and overdone it with the good stuff.  

Growing and maintaining a beard is something of a work of art, and requires an element of improvisation in terms of responding to how your beard and skin reacts. In that sense, it is important to note that everyone’s skin is different and how everyone’s beard grows is different, but within that there are definitely some common mistakes that apply to everyone, and here we have listed the five we see the most: 

Using too much beard oil will make your beard go greasy and shiny. Beard oil, such as Guilded Dusk supplied by Darkside Grooming, is essential for hydrating the skin and replacing essential oils in your beard, but if your beard always looks damp or your friends start to style their own beard by using yours as a mirror, then you are using too much oil. It is important to apply beard oil every day – in the morning during your shower is ideal – but you can scale back the volume a little if your beard is becoming too greasy and shiny. Using a little bit less beard oil in a morning can make a big difference, and is more cost-effective also! 

Washing the beard too often will strip away any natural oils that are in the beard and leave it feeling dry and itchy. You may need to use a specialist beard oil to replace these natural oils and build your beard back up to full health. The longer your beard is the more frequently you will need to use a beard oil, but most people settle on once a day and find this is sufficient. The key is finding the right balance.  

Many people think that because the skin is covered up by a beard, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like, and this is a classic case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. There is a natural sense that the skin will look after itself, but most beard grooming products are as much about looking after your skin as they are the beard itself. Premium beard oils from Darkside Grooming can be used daily to exfoliate the skin and remove dead skin and flakiness. This is what we call beardruff. If this starts to develop it can become very irritating and also looks unsightly. Most conversations you have with people will be interspersed with their eyes involuntarily drifting towards the little flaky specs in your beard, and no one wants that. So don’t be fooled into thinking that growing a beard ensures your skin is protected and looked after, it still requires as much love and attention as your beard does.  

Our historic image of the beard might be rooted in the Middle Ages, when Viking and Saxon warriors had wild and voluminous facial hair, but today the beard is a much more refined feature. Gone are the days when a beard should be inconsistent and unruly with flyaway ends and an unkempt look, and someone would be characterised by how much food they caught in their beard at lunchtime. Today, beards should be blessed with a strict styling routine which starts with applying a beard oil in a morning, and continues with using a brush and/or comb to untangle and evenly distribute the oil. This should be finished with some scissors clipping away at stray ends, and using a beard balm to tame, nourish and shape the beard. Beard balms act to moisturise the skin and replenish the beard so that it feels soft and looks polished, and hopefully will stay that way.  

This is the cardinal sin, so we have kept it until last. Beard hair and head hair is very different and you need to understand that very quickly in your beard growing development. Using hair shampoo on your beard will remove its essential oils and cause beardruff, flaky skin and itchiness. This can become very uncomfortable and has been known to put many people off growing a beard before they have even really started. This is perhaps the biggest tragedy of all, in that people have given up on growing a beard simply because they are not looking after it properly. Beard oils nourish, soften and strengthen beard hair and hydrate it to reduce dryness and provide softness and vitality. So yes, you will need another bottle in the shower, but it is absolutely worth it. 

The best beard grooming products from Darkside Grooming 

Don’t make these same mistakes and ensure you have a healthy and consistent beard grooming routine with beard oils, beard balms and beard butter products from Darkside Grooming.