Today, we are going to learn how to naturally grow a beard from nothing. Now, let’s begin.
- The Hair Hormone
Do you have a consistent sleep schedule? The quality of your sleep significantly impacts the health of your facial hair. Studies have shown that a healthy sleep cycle can increase the rate and consistency of hair growth on your head and on your face.
When you sleep, your body produces the most important hormone for male hair growth. That hormone is called testosterone. Testosterone controls tissue and organ development in men, but it also creates an array of physical characteristics that make men into men. Testosterone deepens your voice, increases your body’s muscle mass, and stimulates hair growth on your face and body. In other words, if your body is producing a healthy amount of testosterone, you can grow a fuller, healthier beard.
But what if you’re lacking testosterone? Sleep deprivation is one of the leading causes of testosterone deficiency. Your brain produces most of its testosterone while you’re asleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your body may not produce enough testosterone to develop masculine characteristics like facial hair. In other words, an unhealthy sleep cycle could affect your physical development. If you want to grow a beard from nothing, you need to improve the quality of your sleep.
Pay attention to your circadian rhythm. Wake up and go to bed at the same times every day. Maintain a healthy schedule and never neglect a good night’s sleep. Over time your sleep cycle will improve. Your body will begin producing more testosterone, and your hair follicles may grow like never before.
- Curbing Your Cortisol
Before you can grow a full, natural beard, you need to eliminate one destructive hormone from your life. Unlike testosterone, which facilitates hair growth, a hormone called cortisol damages the health of your hair. Cortisol negatively impacts the growth cycle of your hair follicles. Each hair follicle goes through three stages of development: the anagen phase, the catagen phase, and finally the telogen phase.
During the final telogen phase, your hair follicle stops growing and becomes dormant. Eventually, your old hair falls out, and your hair follicle restarts the growth cycle, returning to the anagen phase and cultivating new hair growth. An overabundance of cortisol in your body interferes with your follicle’s growth cycle. It shortens the anagen or growth phase and prolongs the telogen or dormancy phase, causing your hair follicle to remain dormant for longer periods of time.
Naturally, this decreases the growth rate of your facial hair and impacts the overall health of your hair follicles. But that’s not all. Cortisol also slows the body’s production of testosterone, which we know is essential to facial hair development. To make matters worse, cortisol inhibits the flow of vitamins to your hair, which causes even more damage to your hair follicles. So how do you stop this destructive hormone from impacting your facial hair?
Cortisol is often called the stress hormone. When you’re experiencing physical or psychological stress, your body releases cortisol as an alarm system. Think of cortisol like a fire alarm that tells your body when it’s stressed or in danger. In emergency situations, cortisol is an essential hormone that controls fear, motivation, and mood, but too much cortisol can wreak havoc on your body. If you want to protect your facial hair—and reduce the amount of cortisol in your body—practicing managing your stress. There are dozens of stress-relieving exercises, including creative outlets, daily meditation, and regular exercise, which you can use to control your stress. All these exercises will help you manage the stressors in your life. Less stress means less cortisol; and less cortisol keeps your hair follicles growing the way they’re supposed to.
- Nourishing Routines
Many men pay close attention to the health of their hair, but they neglect the health of their skin. Your hair and your skin are inextricably connected. Improving the health of one often improves the health of the other. For example, your skin collects oils and dirt throughout the day. Every time you touch your face or rub your arm, you’re slathering toxins onto your skin. These toxins damage your cells and threaten your hair follicles, causing dehydration, infection, and stunted growth.
If you want to grow a full and natural beard, you need to keep your skin healthy. In other words, it’s time to develop a skin-care routine. You need to disinfect and moisturize your skin on a regular basis. You need to remove oils, dirt, and dead cells that gather around your pores. This may sound like a hassle, but dry, cracked, and dirty skin will negatively impact the growth of your hair follicles. On the other hand, clean, hydrated skin, free from oils and bacteria, will foster stronger, faster-growing hair.
Luckily, there are a wide variety of skin cleaners, moisturizers, and disinfectants at your disposal. You may be reluctant to spend time or money on your skin, but a good skin-care routine is a long-term investment in the health of your hair.
- The Shaving Myth
One facial hair myth has spread like wildfire. You’ve probably heard this one before. Many people claim that shaving your facial hair will help you grow a fuller beard. But all shaving does is trim the length of your hair. It doesn’t make your beard grow back any faster or fuller. It doesn’t affect the growth cycle of your hair follicles. If anything, shaving slows down the growth of your beard, because every time you shave… you’re undoing all your hard work.
If you want to grow a beard from nothing, leave your facial hair alone. Don’t shave or trim your facial hair, no matter how patchy or uneven it gets. Because your hair follicles grow at different rates. Some follicles grow faster than others, causing your facial hair to grow in unexpected patterns.
So be patient with your hair. Your facial hair may grow slowly. It may look rough or unattractive at first, but shaving your beard is not the answer. You need to leave your beard alone. Ignore it for at least a few months. You may stare in the mirror wondering why your beard isn’t growing the way you wanted; but patience is the key.
If you want a full, natural beard, your hair follicles need time to grow. No matter how tempted you are, don’t shave your beard. Shaving doesn’t make your hair grow faster. All it does… is slow you down.
- Accidental Damage
In the first few months, your beard may look uneven and unkempt. It may feel rough to the touch, and it may irritate your skin. You may be tempted to scratch the skin under and around your beard, but the more often you touch your beard, the more damage you’re doing to your facial hair.
Remember those toxins that damage your skin and hair follicles? Your hands carry the bulk of those toxins. Every time you touch your face, you’re rubbing bacteria, dirt, and oil into your pores and follicles. But dirt isn’t the only problem. Whenever you scratch your beard, you’re also destroying the roots of your hair. Even if you scratch lightly, you may cause long-term damage to your hair follicles, leading to hair loss, brittleness, and stunted growth.
To cultivate strong, lasting facial hair, keep your hands away from your face, especially when they’re dirty or unwashed. If your beard feels itchy, resist the urge to scratch or pull at your facial hair. Instead, gently rub a moisturizer or skin cleaner into your hair. That way, you can relieve itchiness without damaging your hair follicles.
- Consistent Care
Growing a beard can feel like a psychological hurdle. Some men grow thick beards in just a few months. Others spend years doing all the right things with very little to show for it. The truth is… your facial hair growth isn’t entirely under your control.
Genetics play a major role in the growth of your beard. Certain genes can influence the thickness or patchiness of your hair, on your head and on your face. To get an idea of how genes affect your facial hair, look at the other men in your family. Do they have a history of hair loss? Is your family filled with patchy faces or full beards?
You may notice familiar growth patterns by looking at the men in your family. But what if your family struggles with hair growth? What if facial hair is not one of your natural talents? Should you give up on growing a thick, natural beard? Whether you have good genes or bad genes, don’t jump the gun. Genetics are important, but they aren’t everything. There are plenty of people who think they can’t grow a beard. But their problem has nothing to do with their facial hair. They just haven’t given their hair follicles enough time to grow.
With patience and the right routine, you can foster healthier hair that grows at a steady pace. You can moisturize and nourish your hair follicles while keeping harmful hormones at bay. You can prevent accidental hair damage and extract the dirt and oils that inhibit your growth. But don’t expect your beard to grow overnight.
Be as consistent as you can be. Give your new routine plenty of time to take effect. Then sit back and be patient. Your beard may not be full or thick now, or even a month from now, but the right hair habits can set you up for success down the road. Take care of your hair and skin, and growth will come.
credit: TopTink
