Growing facial hair for the first time takes a lot of patience. The average beard growth still takes weeks to come in fully. You likely may not reach an inch of growth within a month, but that doesn’t mean you should stop now. Knowing if your beard grows fast or slow is just the beginning!
There are many ways to speed up your beard growth, whether or not it’s No Shave November. We have some shaving and grooming tips to improve the look of your beard, including methods to grow beard hair faster.
How Fast Do Beards Grow? Experts Say
If you’ve ever wondered how long does it take to grow a beard, the experts have figured it out based on a study that measured average beard growth. Much like scalp hair, facial hair grows incrementally in stages.
One study found that facial hair grows roughly ¼ inch (6.35mm) to ½ inch (12.7mm) each month. Therefore, a full beard typically takes 2 to 4 months to grow long and thick in density. The individual rate of growth depends on largely genetics, diet, and skin health.
Beard Growth Facts
- Depending on your genetics, it may only take 2 to 4 months to grow a full beard. However, longer beard styles such as a yeard beard may take years to grow.
- Regardless of how you trim or shave your hair, it grows at roughly the same rate for everyone, according to hair growth studies.
- Beards never grow longer than about six years of full growth.
- Many men can’t grow a full beard until they’re well out of puberty and past the age of 25. In many cases, beards won’t fully grow in until you’re in late 20s to early 30s.
- Testosterone levels are a contributing factor to healthy beard growth, more than anything else in your body. Check with your doctor if your beard stops growing or shows signs of alopecia barbae.
- If you stop trimming your beard for good, studies show that a beard can reach 3 feet in length.
- Beards grow slightly faster than the hair on your head.
How to Speed Up Beard Growth
Some men have reported successfully filling in their slow-growing beards by using various products and techniques. These mostly include hair restoration methods, hair loss shampoos, or even vitamins for beard growth.
You may want to look into a DHT blocker cream if you think hair loss is related, but check with your doctor before using any medicated creams.
There are several factors for why your beard may not be coming in quickly, and in some cases, you may not be able to fight your own genetics. These include:
- Genetics
- Young age
- Ethnicity
- Diet and exercise
- Allergies or sensitivities to hair care or skin care products
- Stress
- Low testosterone
If you want to speed up your facial hair growth (Quora), there are a few methods purportedly working for men. Here are our tips mixed with experiences of men who have difficulty growing their beards:
1. Don’t Shave
Even if it itches or you heard shaving makes your hair grow in thicker next time, don’t do it. Shaving takes away all of your progress. If you have beard itch, invest in a great beard oil or moisturizer to heal the irritation. You don’t have to suffer while growing out your beard.
If you have to shave to keep your cheek lines neat or want to tidy up your beard style, go for it. Trimming around your prominent facial hair is an excellent method for growing a long beard patiently.
Keep beard growth phases in mind, as it’s normal for hair to fall out and regrow. However, you may not enter the catagen phase for many years. See below:
- Anagen: This is the beginning stage where hair just starts to grow. If you feel your beard doesn’t grow past a certain length, it could last several years.
- Catagen: This period lasts 2 to 3 weeks when your beard no longer grows, cutting off blood supply to prepare for the telogen phase.
- Telogen: The final stage in hair growth is a resting phase that lasts three months. The hair follicle will go inactive before returning to anagen phase to grow new hair.
2. Optimize Your Beard Care Routine
Most men have a regimen that dictates what they do every day with their beards. If you’re looking to improve beard growth, then following this routine can help:
- Use a high-quality beard wash
- Apply beard oil or beard balm to moisturize your skin and hair
- Wash your beard daily
- Brush your beard using a boar bristle brush
- Comb or brush your hair towards patches to direct hair where to grow
This is a basic beard care routine that can improve your beard’s health, but it’s not the most advanced routine.
3. Add Biotin into Your Beard Regimen
There are a number of biotin for beard lotions and biotin hair growth products. Biotin is a naturally occurring vitamin that you can ingest through eggs and red meat, but it’s also a supplement and ingredient in a variety of hair care products.
Research has shown that biotin can improve hair growth and even stop hair less by improving the keratin structure of your hair and skin. It’s worth looking into biotin or beard growth oils if you want to see significant change in your hair growth.
4. Use Rogaine for Beards
We’ve studied Rogaine or minoxidil for beards in the past and found good results. While there are some side effects, you can apply minoxidil creams to a thinning beard and see noticeably thicker results.
5. Microneedle Your Beard
In the past year, we’ve looked into microneedling derma rollers for beards. These are handy microneedle devices once used to improve skin tone and wrinkles that have also shown to improve hair growth.
We reviewed some of the best beard derma rollers and provided a guide to how these work for hair regrowth.
6. Change Your Diet
An unknown food allergy or a vitamin deficiency could be the reason behind your slow growth. Some men who don’t get enough folic acid, biotin, and zinc in their diets are prone to thinning hair.
You can change to a beard growth diet and add more leafy greens, among other ingredients, for hair growth.
How Fast Do Beards Grow After Puberty?
With teenage beards, slow growth is normal for younger hair follicles. It’s also not like you’ll start growing a beard after you turn 18 either. There’s no switch to flip, but your body does build up more testosterone and hair growth as you age.
In your mid-20s, you should have more significant facial hair growth, possibly up to a half inch per month, which is normal.
The best advice for young men with patchy beards or even slower growth is to trim your facial hair into a beard style you like for the moment (there are hundreds of ways to style your beard).
Once you enter your late 20s to early 30s, you should see significantly faster hair growth, but you’ll still likely have to wait 2 to 3 months for a full beard. The right beard length for you may be something short and thick, such as a Van Dyke beard style or even an extended goatee.
