Harmful Beard Habits Pt. 2
Stroking your beard
We all do it, while you’re sitting there thinking or sometimes when you’re just bored you like to stroke your beard. Maybe it’s you, maybe your girlfriend or wife likes to stroke your beard, but no matter who it is it can lead to some issues if you’re not careful. Now just to clarify, stroking your beard gently isn’t what’s causing the issues here, it’s what’s on your hands that is bad for your beard. As you know, your hands pick up quite a bit of bacteria throughout the day and if you’re touching your beard with those dirty hand then you’re adding that bacteria and oil to your beard. I know what you might be thinking, “But I thought I needed oil in my beard?” and you’d be right, except that the oil that you’re adding to your beard isn’t what your skin needs.
Unless you just washed your hands, the oil on them is dirty. Rubbing that dirty oil into your beard and skin is a quick way to give yourself beardruff and acne! Make sure you’re keeping those contaminates out of that beautiful face rug and give your skin a break. If you feel the need to stroke your beard then please wash your hands the way you should’ve been doing it since pre-k, use warm soapy water and scrub those mitts for at least thirty seconds!
Using a hairbrush on your beard
In a previous blog I explained why a normal plastic brush isn’t good for your beard, and now I’m going to elaborate on it. Pull out that plastic brush that you’ve been using and examine the bristles on it. I’m willing to bet that they are all the same length, aren’t they? That means that the bristles aren’t reaching all the hair in your beard. Since the bristles won’t reach all the hair in your beard that means that they aren’t distributing the oils evenly throughout your beard and that also means that they aren’t doing a good job cleaning the dust and dead skin cells out of your beard, and that’s the cause of beard enemy #1 itchy beardruff!
Most beard brushes are made out of horse or boar’s hair. The brushes have bristles that are cut at different lengths to make sure that none on your beard hair gets missed and the oils are evenly distributed throughout your entire beard leading to happy, moisturized skin! This also means that the bristles are brushing through your entire beard and sweeping all the loose dead skin away from your face helping to eliminate beardruff and itchy skin. The same rules apply for cheap combs. Cheap combs have very poorly sanded teeth (if they’re sanded at all) and all that rough plastic is snagging and pulling on your beard hairs causing damage to your skin and beard! This can easily lead to ingrown hairs and irritated skin! Go find yourself a nice handmade wooden comb that has nice smooth teeth.
