Does Brushing Beard Stimulate Growth? (Breaking Down Beard Care 101)
Does brushing a beard stimulate growth?
That’s the question, and when we’re looking to maximize how long and thick we can get our beards…
But, could this be the difference maker?
In this article, I’ll answer questions, provide you with some tips and give you some insight you may not have thought about when it comes to beard growth.
So, with that said, let’s get into it.
Does Brushing Beard Stimulate Growth?
The simple answer is, yes brushing brushing your beard can help to stimulate hair growth as well as train your beard to grow your beard in the direction you wish.
However, you shouldn’t expect it to perform miracles.
You won’t create crazy beard growth by brushing your beard.
It’s a great way to help maintain your beard which in term lays a great foundation for beard growth.
But how exactly does this work?
Does brushing the beard Help With growth?
Using a beard brush stimulates blood flow to the follicles by massaging the skin below your beard.
If your beard is shorter and your brush goes against the skin, this over a long period of time can be beneficial for you.
That extra blood flow allows more essential nutrients and oxygen to your skin.
You don’t even have to overbrush to get this effect (we’ll go through this later..)
There are some things that you do need to think about when it comes to stimulating beard growth.
Essentially this is how hair/beard growth takes place:
Hair is made up of tiny bulbs located under our skin. Each hair on our body grows independently and goes through three different stages during its life cycle.
The three stages are:
- Anegen
- Catagen
- Telogen
The first stage is called the Anagen phase, where your hair grows actively for about 2 to 5 months (for facial hair), and gets shaped as it grows naturally.
The second stage is called the Catagen phase, where your hair stops growing and the hair follicle base contracts, gradually pushing the hair up to the skin’s surface. This stage lasts for 2 to 6 weeks.
The third stage is called the Telogen phase, this is where the hair follicle gets shorter, then and new hair starts to grow at the same place where the old one was.
When the new hair grows enough to appear on the skin’s surface, the old hair falls out. This stage lasts for about 1.5 to 12 months
And all of this is dictated by genetics.
So you could have a long Anagen phase and the more you brush your beard it could greatly help with increasing how long your hair ends up reaching in the data phase.
But if your beard hair is in the Telopahse, then you can’t expect any crazy growth it’s pretty much set at that level.
And it will vary for everyone.
But on top of increasing blood flow, what are some other benefits?
We go through that next.
Brushing beard benefits
One of the main benefits of brushing your beard would be how well and how much you can clean and exfoliate your beard.
This is especially the case when you use a strong bristle brush such as a boar bristle brush:
Pick one up. You won’t regret it
Boar bristle brushes are also excellent for exfoliating the skin.
When you use them against your skin, they’re great at removing dead skin cells.
When brushed against the skin, they can remove flaking, dead hairs in general, and even remove stumped hairs that need to be removed to allow the next set to grow.
In general, it can just act as a great broom to your entire beard area.
And when you apply some beard oils as you brush, you can really message those nutrients into the skin which helps promote growth.
Brushing your beard as you wash it is also highly effective in cleaning your beard and overall keeping your hygiene up.
Next, we’ll go through this and how you can brush to train your beard growth.
Up next.
brushing beard for growth
Now there’s a conflicting opinion about whether you can control how your beard grows out.
Some say you simply cannot change the hair root and how it grows out as the hair root is embedded deep in the skin going down, 1/4 inch into the dermis.
Moving it around would detach from the root blood supply stopping it from growing and forcing it into the telophase and making fall out eventually.
Some say the only way to make this happen is through surgery only.
While to an extent I do agree, your genetics determine how your hair grows out for one, and when you do pull your hair, you are essentially making forcing your hair into the telophase which doesn’t even change the direction, it just matures the hair.
But I do believe once your hair has reached the telophase and it’s thick and fully grown out, you certainly can style it in whichever direction you want.
You can encourage beard hair to point in a specific direction above the surface in the same way you can encourage your head hair to point in a specific direction:
Feel free to Combing is part of that, as is the use of hair products and appliances like blow dryers and straightening irons.
You can also ‘train’ hairs to stay put above the skin and cover up some bald spots.
It takes time but it can work in the long run.
A few weeks of combing/blow drying upwards or downwards on that area can help reduce the visibility of the balding for example.
Use your boar bristle brush 2-3x per day combing your hair out for a few minutes.
You may come to like it and It can help ‘tame’ your beard in the process.
Good beard practices
Get yourself some all-natural beard products.
Beard oil/ beard balm – conditions and strengthens your beard leading to more growth.
Beard shampoo – keeps it clean without damaging or drying out your skin.
Beard brush – brings blood flow to the roots and removes any dust or flakes on the skin or in the beard.
Brush your beard daily if it’s not to stimulate growth at least it will help you look neat.
Conclusion
In this article we asked the question, does brushing a beard stimulate beard growth?
The simple answer is yes but not greatly.
It can help draw some added nutrients if you brush your beard to the skin thoroughly once or twice a day but that will not trigger any major growth.
The best way to get good beard growth is, to have good genetics and two take care of the skin your bard grows on as that’s the foundation on which everything grows.
If you have found this article helpful, please check out other articles on this topic below.
