Why Does My Beard Itch?
It’s bushy, it’s beautiful, you make it smell nice and it tickles anyone that sticks their face in it. But for some reason, it’s gotten to be crazy itchy.
Get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking about your beard.
Why does my beard itch? The fact is that all men with beards will experience spells of itchiness, just in varying degrees of severity and frequency. It’s much like your scalp. There are those days where you feel like you’re going to claw the skin off of your head for hours at a time and then the condition disappears for 6 months.
Let’s look at the reasons you can’t stop scratching your woo-woo fur.
Proper Hygiene
“Why does my beard itch” is the same reason people ask “Why does my head itch?” What happens to your head when you don’t shower for a while? It gets itchier, doesn’t it?
Now that you’ve decided to grow hair on your face, your face is going to be prone to the same issues as the top of your head. Prepare to overhaul your entire concept of what it means to wash your face.
Dirt, sweat, and grime can clog your skin pores and this leads to irritation and there you have it: itching. Just like your head requires shampoo, your beard will need regular treatment with beard and body wash. It will nourish and moisturize your hair as well as the skin underneath.
You’ll also have to take care to use water that is warm but not hot. Water that is too hot will excessively dry and perhaps even damage your skin.
Once you’ve rinsed the beard wash from your face, you want to use cool water to rinse. This will close the pores on your face and keep any remaining beard wash or loose hairs from clogging your pores.
Think you’re done yet? Not so fast. Just the same way you take care to comb your hair, you also need to groom your beard. Set aside money for a good beard brush and beard oil.
More Pointed Advice
For some men, the itchiness that’s in long before there’s a full beard. It can come as early as the 5:00 shadow. This is because when you shave, you cut your hair at an angle. This gives your whiskers sharp and ragged edges.
Well as your beard gets longer and those points come around to touch the skin, those tiny little spear points scrape and dig into your skin. Not only that, they accumulate particles such as dust and dead skin cells and debris from the food that you eat.
And if you’re not in the habit of taking care of your skin, the skin underneath your beard is probably drying out without getting proper attention. So the problem is only compounded.
Realistically, you can’t do anything about the pointed nature of your hair follicles, but you can soften them by using a beard shampoo and moisturizing your skin.
In extreme circumstances, the itch can be an indicator of something like a fungal infection. Which can be treated with over-the-counter topical ointments.
And in all other cases, sometimes the only thing you can do is wait for your beard to get longer. Why does my beard itch? If it’s barely above the shadow phase, it’s pulling at the skin as the pointy follicles emerge.
And if nothing you do alleviates the itch of your beard, then you might have to revert back to babyface mode and find other ways to accentuate your masculinity, like brewing craft beer at home.
