Beard grooming does NOT need to be complicated. Similar to your head hair, you need to keep your beard clean, moisturized and styled. Just like a haircut, you need to trim your beard on occasion to keep it styled the way you want. 

Here at Live Bearded, we like to keep things simple, so I'm going to walk you through the beard grooming steps every guy should be implementing into his daily regimen, just like you brush your teeth and apply deodorant. Whether you have a short or long beard style, you should put your beard products into your beard and comb it out before you walk out the door.

A quick 5 minutes in front of the mirror is all you need to transform yourself from an unkept sasquatch looking dude, into a well-groomed sasquatch looking dude. #winning 

There are 3 steps to proper beard grooming (4 if you want to rock a sweet handlebar mustache). Again, these three or four things should really only take a few minutes, and by doing them daily your beard will look, feel, smell and grow better than ever before.

1. Clean = Beard Wash

Let me ask you a question. Do you wash your hair? What about your body? What about your beard? Well, you should be. But NOT with the same soap, you're using on your head or body. It can actually cause more harm than good. 

To keep this simple, the skin on your face is very different than the skin on your scalp and the rest of your body. So using bar soap, body wash, and normal shampoo can be much too harsh for your face. This is why beard wash exists. It will clean your beard without damaging it. 

A lot of guys ask if they need to wash daily, and that's a great question. The answer is most likely no, but it does vary. Do you wash your hair daily? You don't always have to. It really comes down to how dirty you get that day. I personally go to the gym every morning and because I sweat a lot, I find it best to wash afterward.

Our beard wash is designed to be able to wash your beard every day without stripping away necessary oils and causing damage, but if you skip a day or two it's not going to kill you and don't worry, we won't tell anyone.

2. Moisturize = Beard Oil

Don't listen to the trolls on the internet saying all you need for your beard is p*ssy juice and motor oil. First off, they are not speaking from experience on either front and secondly why would you want motor oil in your beard?

Beard oil was created to solve a problem. A problem that every guy goes through when growing a beard, and one that continues to exist throughout the life of that beard. That problem is simply DRY SKIN.

This isn't some crazy rocket science stuff here guys. You just have dry skin. Beard oil exists to moisturize the skin under the beard, which will eliminate beard itch and irritation, skin flakes in your cereal bowl, and create a healthier environment for your beard to grow. 

Of course, not all beard oils are created equally and you don't want to put any oil on your face. Fortunately for you, we did all the leg work to create an all-natural beard oil that closely mimics your natural skin oil (sebum oil). It quickly absorbs into your skin, moisturizes like crazy and offers tons of Vitamin-E to help support better beard growth. 

There are endless of other options out on the market as well, just do your research and read the ingredients to make sure what you're putting on your face is safe, made in the USA, all-natural and actually a good product.

3. Condition + Style = Beard Butter

If you're like me, you like to do things as efficiently as possible. The idea of "killing two birds with one stone" is something I've daydreamed about since I was a child. Well, Beard Butter is exactly that, a two for one powerhouse and it is an absolute must for every beard walking this planet. Pretty bold statement right? Let me explain...

Beard butter is one part deep conditioner and one part perfect styling + hold. It is a shea butter based formula which offers inane moisturizing benefits to your beard hairs, absorbing into your beard hairs giving your beard a much thicker appearance.

That alone would be worth the 30 seconds it takes to put in, but fortunately for you, Beard Butter, being the powerhouse it is, will give you the perfect amount of hold to tame those damn hairs that seem to spray all over the place AND give you that well-groomed sasquatch look I was talking about earlier. Winner-Winner, you know the rest.

Comb Your Beard

This one doesn't get a number because it should be common sense. Don't ever walk out the door without combing your beard, you're giving beards a bad name if you do.

Here's a little tip though to add fullness to your beard: Grab a beard comb (or brush), run it up first to separate the hairs and spread product, then comb your beard down and into place. A few quick passes and you're done. Throw your comb in your pocket and make sure you comb it once or twice throughout the day to keep it looking great.

4. Mustache Wax

This step can be skipped if you aren't growing a handlebar mustache, although I highly recommend you do. When it comes to applying mustache wax to a handlebar mustache, you want to start in the middle and work your way to the ends.

As you work your way to the ends, work the mustache wax through with your finger and thumb in a snapping motion to train the hairs to curl up and out, rather than growing down and into a sad-looking frown. If your mustache is a little hard to get to stay, just have some patience as it'll get easier with time.

How to Trim a Beard

When it comes to beard grooming, using beard products can get you most of the way to a seriously impressive beard. Some guys opt for the all-natural look with no trim at all and it can be a great look, however, an untrimmed beard is not necessarily a well-groomed beard.

It's completely normal for some hairs on your face to grow faster than others, so if you're looking to really take your beard to the next level you will likely need to trim and shape your beard. Now, this may be one of the more difficult parts about grooming a beard, so I'll walk you through a few steps to follow to help you avoid making mistakes.

It's absolutely worth stating that you need to apply your beard products and comb your beard as you do on a daily basis before you start trimming anything at all. This way your beard will fill out and lay down as it does normally so you can see what you really need to trim.

Treat Your Beard Like a Hedge

When it comes to trimming a beard, you can use a nice set of beard or hair scissors, or an electric beard trimmer, it really comes down to what you're most comfortable with. 

The idea is pretty straight forward, trim your beard like you would trim a hedge, and trim the hairs from the outside to trim back to where you want your beard to be. So any wild hairs that are sticking out like crazy and can't be controlled with products can simply be trimmed away.

In most cases, this is the area on the cheeks that can cause your face to look fat and any other areas where your beard hairs grow fastest. You will also want to even the bottom of your beard so the hairs all end at the same length. Doing so can actually make your beard look significantly fuller and healthier so don't be afraid to take a little length off.

Three lines to trimming your beard

When it comes to defining your beard shape, there are three primary lines that you'll need to trim or shave in to really pull it all together. For this, you will definitely need a good electric beard trimmer to lay the foundation, and you can follow with a razor if you want a really clean look.

Trimming your top-line

Trimming the top line of your beard is probably the easiest of the three to do on your own. You want to keep this line as high as naturally possible by trimming or shaving away any hairs growing above the bulk line of your cheek hairs. Usually, this is only a few hairs that get trimmed. The key here is to not go too low or you'll end up with a weird looking chin strap beard.

Trimming your back-line

This back line is honestly the one I have the most difficulty with simply because it's hard to see. What I've found to be helpful is to sue a second mirror to get a better look at it which you can see in the video above at 3:18. 

The idea is simple though, trim or shave the line in to run off the back of your sideburn. It's pretty common for beards to want to grow back towards the back of the neck so those are the hairs we are looking to trim. When you get to the bottom, you can square or round the corner depending on the beard style you like best. 

Trimming your neckline

When it comes to the neckline, it's most important when your beard is short as it will be VERY noticeable to everyone. As your beard grows longer, this line is less important as your beard will cover it up for the most part. 

The neckline should NOT be trimmed at your jawline, it will pinch your beard and make it look much too thin from the side profile. You want to trim your beard where your head connects to your neck which is usually just above the adam's apple. The hairs from your neck will be the foundation of a thick beard to come so keeping those hairs there is a must.

How to Trim a Mustache

If you're looking to grow a handlebar mustache, I'll go ahead and give you my secrets cause well, that's what we do around here. If you're not...well that's too bad. Keeping a short mustache is pretty simple. keep the mustache hairs at a length you desire by using your scissors or beard trimmers. 

For the handlebar wearers...

Final Thoughts

I know I said "Beard grooming made easy" and then I went and spat off a ton of stuff. But guys keep in mind these things literally only take about 5 minutes a day before you walk out the door and they make ALL the difference in your beard. 

I hope you found this helpful. If you haven't tried our products yet I ask that you give us a shot. Our mission here at Live Bearded is to help Beardsmen look, feel and be their best. That's why we offer FREE SHIPPING, returns, and exchanges. 

That's also why we stand behind our products with a LIFETIME guarantee. We truly mean what we say we tell you we have your back. 

If you have any questions about this or anything else, don't hesitate to contact us anytime. We are here to help support you with your beard, and anything else we can. 

Live Bearded, Brother!