In a world facing a corona pandemic, we are going through extraordinary times. While the lockdowns and quarantines pose quite a few challenges, they do offer some never-seen opportunities. You can enjoy and try activities that require no particular social interaction such as fishing, kayaking, photography, hiking, or even painting.
One such opportunity is growing your facial hair and maybe turn that into a royal beard. Yes, if you have never grown a beard before due to the fear of how people would react, now is your time.
Growing a scene-stealing beard takes time and patience and that’s what we have at our hands nowadays.
People are embracing their facial hair in these uncertain times for different reasons. It may be because they won’t be going out or barbershops are closed. Some are even loving their scruffy look. Jim Carrey says no beard until he gets back to work.
However, you may already have a beard and may be wondering what you need to do to maintain it. Nonetheless, whatever are your reasons, below is what you need to do.
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Beard Maintenance and Hygiene In Quarantine – A Simple Guide
You might have seen an infographic from CDC which shows if you are wearing masks or respirators, it is better to be clean-shaven. However, they say it is mostly for health workers. Moreover, if you are staying at home and are not as exposed to ill people, you can keep your beard and facial hair intact.
What follows are some of the hygiene routines you can manage to keep your facial hair clean.
Keep Your Hands Away From Beard
If you are growing facial hair for the first time, you may experience an itch, and with that comes the tendency to scratch. However, those of us who already have a beard know particularly well the urge to run our hands through your beard every now and then.
Keep Your Beard Clean
This needs no mention, but we can’t stress its importance enough. As we know the repeated instruction of washing your hands in these times, keeping your beard clean is also important.
Beards can play a host to germs as it provides a larger surface area. However, the beard itself poses no threat. Thus, if you are able to keep your beard clean, you are safe.
To keep your beard clean, we would recommend washing it every day to every other day.
Exfoliate And Beard Itch Will Stay Away
When you shave regularly, you keep removing dead skin cells. However, when you are growing facial hair, these dead skin cells build up and this causes the notorious beard itch.
The best way you can get rid of this beard itch is to exfoliate. There are many simple and easy ways to exfoliate your skin. Exfoliators are used such as soaps and you massage them under your facial hair and make a nice lather. Preferably, wash that in a hot shower.
Remember to be gentle and use circular motions when exfoliating and scrubbing.
Give It Time and Embrace Your Scruffy Look At First
Turning your unruly facial hair into a meaningful mane is no easy task. It can be quite a transformation if you have not tried a beard before both emotionally and physically.
If you have bald patches or tend to have a patchy beard, the best way to deal with that is to give it time. With time, your hairs will grow out and will likely cover the bald patches. However, before that time it may just be a stubble with no real shape to it.
Apart from embracing your scruffy look, also embrace your hair texture and hair color. Yes, you may have those beard models in mind with their royal beards, but everybody does not have the genetic makeup to get there. Moreover, with them, you are seeing the end product.
Thus, if you would give your facial hair, you may never know what it would turn out to be. Maybe, you will have modeling contracts lined up for your beards, Okay, okay! I am getting way ahead, but the point is you will never know until you will give it enough time and a real try.
Groom It and Shape It But Don’t Overdo It
Once you have had facial hair for two to three weeks, now it is time to put the first scissor or trimmer to it. Let a comb be your guide. Put a comb on and if the hairs grow out of it, trim them with a scissor.
If you have hair growing way into your cheeks or below your Adam’s apple, you can even put a razor to those areas.
Set a certain length in mind that you want your beard to grow to. However, I would suggest keeping the length option open and see how your beard turns out to be and then decide.
Summary – Maintaining Facial Hair and Beard Hygiene in Quarantine
We are in unprecedented times, we are seeing things which have not happened at least in our lifetimes. If you are in businesses that involve public interaction, companies often associate facial hair with some sort of unprofessionalism. I know this is unfair, to say the least, but that’s what it is.
However, with lockdowns and quarantine, work from home is a norm now and maybe in the future too it will constitute a major portion of our working style. Working from home means you don’t have to be that much “professional” when it comes to your looks and attire.
This gives you an opportunity to grow your facial hair and try some new styles which you probably always wanted. However, growing eye-catching facial hair is a work of art and requires patience.
In addition, there are all sorts of news growing in these times and this spares nothing including facial hair and beards. Let’s be honest here, facial hairs do lead to compromised efficiency of masks and respirators if they are at the sealing points but if you are staying at home they themselves are no threat.
In this piece here, we have outlined what you need to do to maintain beard hygiene. In addition, we have gone through what you need to do embrace and maintain your #coronabeard.
