There are two basic alter egos at play when you have a beard. Those alter egos consist of the off-the-grid manly man and the man who lives within boundaries but who also breaks the rules. Let us explain.
One alter ego is the off-the-grid bearded man on weekends or vacations or when the time calls for it. Let's call him Mike. His beard serves a function and is decidedly not for fashion. It may help protect his face from punches, catch tasty tidbits that can be treated as surprise snacks later, or generally just inspire awe from the clean-shaven men who wish they could catch a fish with their bare hands. That’s the mindset Mike chooses, anyway. Anyone capable of growing a beard can evoke the sense of a wild and untamed brute. Just let it grow and forget about product. Maybe use some crushed berries and mud as a sort of poultice to both fend off insects and provide a little color.
However, when not on a weekend camping trip, another ego, let's say Dave, likes to look somewhat presentable when at work or in the grocery store. In these instances, Dave is the man capable enough to save the day when needed, yet refined enough to know that looking like a woodlands hermit who has come into the big city for provisions is not putting his best face forward. Literally. Any man who works in an office environment has to consider the state of their beard as a statement of their attention to detail, and then care for said beard accordingly.
The latter ego generally affords you the ability and space to live out the former ego, so let’s discuss how to tame a rogue beard and keep it supple and controlled until you can return to living back off the grid and letting your freak beard fly.
Comfort For You
When examining how to best control that thicket of hair residing on your face, you need to start with the essentials and that means starting with a beard wash. Now, we know what you might be thinking if you are just back from a three-week hunting trip. “Why can’t I just use soap?” We admire the machismo but what we want to do when washing our beard is to supply the roots and shaft of the hair with hydration. Most soaps do the opposite of that because it is designed to remove oils from the skin. A good beard wash brick (shaped like soap!) from Cliff Supply can provide that needed moisture to the base of the hair, while also cleaning away any dirt, grime, or dead skin cells from the surface skin upon which your beard grows.
Comfort For Her (Others?)
The next critical aspect of softening your beard hair is making sure that you use some beard oil to help make the hair more supple and malleable. This will have benefits for you, but really, this is more for those who may be feeling the beard hair against their cheek, for instance. Most women feel that the idea of hugging and kissing a man with a beard that feels similar to a boar’s hair brush is not the top item on their to-do list. You want to make the beard hair soft and inviting unless you want to constantly enter into negotiations of shaving the best part of you. Twice a day application of beard oil in a scent of your choosing (we offer four tantalizing scents) is recommended for maximum effectiveness, followed by good brushing and trimming of any straggling hairs using a pair of beard hair scissors or an electric beard trimmer with a guard or a steady hand.
Rebel With Control
While many men grow a beard as a sense of rebellion against a stiff white-collar environment, that doesn’t mean that you have to let your beard turn into something similar to what you would use to scrub cast iron pans with. Coarse hair is a fact for many beard growers and with it comes the uncontrollable direction of wild hairs that have a mind and direction of their own. When putting on your suit and tie for the boardroom, nothing is more frustrating than an uncontrollable beard shape. We like using the Bay Rum scent from Cliff Supply to give the weathering hold you need while still keeping you easy, breezy, island-guy scented.
To capitalize on previous treatments and keep your beard sculpted and looking sharp, you’re going to need to use some product like a beard balm to help keep the hair soft, and in turn, coiffed in a shape that matches your environment. The balm will provide needed nutrients and give a more firm sense of beard control and also add to the overall effectiveness of your olfactory profile.
Remember that having a beard is a privilege and not an excuse to look like a bum (unless it is the weekend or you are fighting bears). Treat your beard right for those times when you need to be presentable, so you can earn the slack to treat your beard as an unruly weird cousin when you don’t need to dress to impress. Keeping a consistent beard treatment regimen with beard wash, beard oil, brushing, trimming, and beard balm, will leave your beard looking like the facial adornment of a Fortune 500 executive during the week and a lumberjack who tends bees on the weekend. Your special lady friends will be thankful as well.
