With frequent lockdowns and pandemic fears, most men have resorted to leaving their beards untouched. And the result? A new superb style to stay hot has emerged. For a few men, facial growth is still an enigma. While facial hair growth depends on your genetics, there are still ways to override the issue. A few beard care tips can change the way your beard grows and alter your looks.
To understand beard hair growth, you need to know your beard follows a specific cycle of phases in which the hair grows, falls out, and regrows.
Beard growth stages
The four phases of beard growth are:
Anagen phase: Also known as ‘Growth Phase’, whereby your hair grows about half an inch per month and keeps growing for about 3 to 5 years.
Catagen phase: This signals the end of active hair growth and cuts individual hairs off from the blood supply and from the cells that produce new hair, which lasts up to 10 days.
Telogen phase: The hair follicle stays dormant for a few months or approximately 100 days.
Exogen phase: The final stage is when individual hair strands are released from their follicles and fall out. Now the whole process can begin again!
How to grow beard naturally at home
The enzyme 5-alpha reductase decides beard hair growth. This enzyme turns your body’s natural stores of testosterone into another hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT then attaches to receptors on each follicle of your beard hair to make it grow. Mostly, lower levels or lower sensitivity to this hormone leads to less beard growth. Men with higher levels of testosterone and DHT will have notably more facial hair than men with lower levels.
Beard hair growth is determined by how sensitive your follicles are to DHT. And this is based on your genes. You can also be genetically predetermined for a scant beard, even if your testosterone is normal. This is largely due to genetic variations, ethnicity, and heredity.
Here are some beard growth tips to help it grow and keep it healthy.
Maintain a proper diet
A balanced and nutritious diet is essential for your body and in turn, promotes beard growth. Some vitamins can aid dormant follicles to become active again. Add plenty of vitamin D to your diet through fish, eggs, fortified plant-based milk and biotin in whole grain bread, dairy, and nuts.
Vitamin B12 in meats and fish, lean protein; iron from the liver, whole grains and other healthy carbohydrates; foods high in zinc, such as nuts and chickpeas and healthy fats, such as those in avocados may all help with hair growth. It’s important to keep your body mass index in the normal range since obesity can lower testosterone.
Use beard growth supplements
Many supplements target beard growth directly. Taking a supplement or multivitamin with iron and zinc can be helpful if your diet does not provide you with the necessary nutrients. B vitamins like B-12, biotin, and niacin can strengthen and help condition hair. Also, incorporating vitamin B, B1, B6 and B12 in your diet are also natural ways to help grow a beard.
Exercise for beard growth
Exercise plays a significant role in beard growth by improving your metabolic rate and blood circulation. Improved blood circulation ensures that the vitamins are easily carried to your hair and skin and stimulate your hair follicles.
Workouts like weightlifting and strength training can help in boosting testosterone and encourage hair growth. Exercise also sheds excessive weight and increases testosterone.
Sleep well for beard hair growth
A good night’s sleep is significant for healthy beard hair growth. Besides helping your body to generate adequate amounts of growth hormone, sleeping produces melatonin. Hair follicles have melatonin receptors suggesting how this hormone helps in the hair growth cycle.
A restful night of sleep will serve to revive and integrate hair protein, generate enzymes and growth hormones. On the other hand, studies have shown that inadequate sleep creates havoc on your health and can lead to stress and hair loss. Sleep apnea also reduces testosterone levels and beard hair grows slower.
Quit smoking for beard growth
Say goodbye to smoking if you really want your hair back. Cigarette smoke contains toxic chemicals that shrink your blood vessels and block the blood circulation to your hair follicles. It causes damage to the DNA of the hair follicle and creates an imbalance in follicular growth. Once you quit smoking, your beard begins to grow by reducing blood vessel damage and inflammation.
Cleanse your beard
It is important that you wash your face regularly to keep it dirt-and-oil free. Wash it with warm water to open your pores and use a cleanser to remove the oil and dirt on the skin. A clean, moist skin promotes healthy hair growth.
After cleansing, use a moisturiser to eliminate dryness and improve your skin. Lotions with eucalyptus or oil such as castor oil or coconut oil are good alternatives. Exfoliate your skin once a week, using a scrub or an exfoliant, to remove all the dead skin cells and debris around each hair follicle. In the case of beard dandruff, use medicated dandruff shampoo and conditioner to nourish it.