How to take care of your beard
If you’re one of many men who grew a pandemic beard because it seemed like less effort than shaving, it’s time to rethink that. Unless the look you’re going for is unkempt mountain man — which, OK, anything goes these days — beard care takes time and effort.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that a beard has to be maintained; otherwise it looks ridiculous,” said Michael Gieseke, 40, of Pittsburgh, who couldn’t even trim his during quarantine as part of an agreement with his three sons not to cut their hair. “I don’t know that I would have had the willpower to do this if I had to go out in public.”
Newly reopened barber shops in many states can no longer offer beard trims (or hot towel shaves) because of the requirement that customers wear masks. So what’s a beard newbie to do?
You could just shave it all off. But if you want to keep yours — and make it presentable — here’s how.
First, let’s answer the mask question.
Beards can prevent the N95 mask from sealing correctly, but “having a beard is unlikely to make a big difference” in the protection offered by cloth masks and other face coverings, Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist and a clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, wrote in an email. (Cloth masks, he said, are also worn more to protect other people than you.) Nor is
Swartzberg aware of any greater risk of coronavirus transmission with a beard.
As for what mask to choose, Alex Brenard, who has both a beard and a job that requires him to wear a mask all day, has found that one with ear loops is more comfortable than one that ties in the back.
If you’re still on the fence about keeping the beard, consider: Dermatologists actually encourage growing them for men with curly hair (including Black men and those of Middle Eastern descent) because they tend to solve the problem of pseudofolliculitis barbae, aka the ingrown hairs that often come from shaving.
You’ll need tools of the trade.
To trim your beard, invest in some hair clippers — preferably ones with an adjustable lever and clip guards — and a pair of hair-cutting scissors, which have a pointed tip for precise cuts. Clippers are best for cutting a lot of hair uniformly; the scissors are for fine-tuning (such as flyaways and coarse gray hairs).
When cutting, err on the side of longer — you can cut more, but you can’t put hair back on. Curly hair may require some playing around with guards because it isn’t uniform length and probably curls differently on one side than the other.
The big tell of a rookie beard groom, experts agreed, is the neckline.
If it’s too high, “there’s no other way to describe it — your face and jaw look too full, your head looks big and your neck looks too long,” Whitely said. Too low and you can look “like a werewolf,” Brenard said. Ideally, the beard should end about one finger above your Adam’s apple, he said.
If all of this sounds tricky, take heart. If you make a mistake, you can always shave it off.