Deciding to grow a beard is a big decision. It takes time, effort and a lot of patience. Congrats on making the decision. With November quickly approaching using a charitable cause such as Movember or No-Shave November is a great "excuse" to start growing. In fact, that's exactly how I started my beard growing journey many years ago.
Whatever your reasons are, congrats and welcome to the club! Once you go beard you never go back! During the process of growing your beard you will have ups and down; one day you will feel epic and amazing... while others will be tough. The big thing to remember is to not give up. While growing your beard you will learn a lot about your own personal style and also about the type of beard you want. It might be a small to medium sized beard; or it might be a yeard or maybe even a tweard. Dare I say you might even want to go to Terminus!?
It is very important to set yourself up for your man mane growing success by taking care of your body, eating right, getting plenty of sleep and reducing the amount of stress in your life. Remember, the better you feel about yourself, the more confident you will feel increasing your likelihood of success!
So what can you do to prepare your face for growing?
1) Exfoliate your skin! Doing this will open up the pores on your face and help prevent those nasty ingrown hairs which can be super itchy.
2) Wash you face! Do this at minimum once a day. Typically its best to do in the shower when the water is warm and your pores are opened up.
3) Stock up on beard oil! This will help keep the skin under you beard moisturized and healthy. it will also help prevent "beardruff" which can lead to itchiness.
Above all else, what is required for growing your beard is patience. It will be a long process and if done right will be very rewarding.
So get growing my friends and don't look back. There will be haters and people that don't understand why you are growing your beard. Do not let them sway you or persuade you that you shouldn't. Growing a beard is a manly right of passage.
"Inside Every Man is a Grizzly Beard!"