Love the way a long beard makes you look and feel? We hear you! The longer your beard is the more effort will need to be put into daily and weekly maintenance. If you have a medium-length wavy, curly, or kinky beard or a long beard of any hair type—your beard care routine will require detangling. Here’s everything you need to know to take both a proactive and reactive approach to beard tangles and knots.
What Causes Beard Tangles And Knots?
Understanding what is causing your tangles is the first step. Whether your beard knots daily or on occasion, it is likely due to one or more of the causes below:
- You have wavy, curly, or kinky hair
- Your beard is mid-length or long
- Your beard is dry or damaged
- Your beard is not clean
- You sleep on your stomach at night
Now let’s dive into how to adjust your grooming routine to minimize and manage tangles and knots.
#1 Clean And Condition Your Beard
All beards must be cleansed morning and night, but especially long beards. Why? Even when eating with a fork or spoon, food particles, sauces, and beverages will get trapped in your beard. Especially when you eat handheld foods. If an excessive amount of food gets in your beard, maybe after eating a loaded hotdog, you should at least rinse your beard. Then wash your beard when you get home.
All beards should be washed every morning and evening. If you have wavy, curly, or kinky hair you must limit how often you shampoo the hair on your head, but regardless of your beard length, you must wash your beard each morning and evening. If you prefer you can co-wash with a beard conditioner in the morning. This will cleanse your skin underneath and wash away bacteria-causing food particles and daily grime.
Regardless of your hair type, all men with mid-length and long beards must condition their beards daily. You can get away with conditioning shorter beards a few days a week as you are constantly trimming your beard down. But with long beards, you are only trimming the edges so you must apply a leave-in conditioner or beard softener daily to keep it soft, healthy, and shiny. Brush through before applying beard oil or beard balm.
#2 Invest In Both A Comb And Brush
When it comes to combs and brushes, most men use whatever is most comfortable and easiest to use. If you use a comb to style the hair on your head, you likely use it on your beard too. Continue to use your comb on your mustache and to detangle your knots, but a beard brush is a must for mid-length and longer beards.
A beard brush makes it easier and more comfortable to comb through your entire beard. This is essential for minimizing knots. Select a brush that is stiff but flexible, such as horsehair or boar bristle. The stiff brush will also exfoliate your skin, improve facial circulation, remove flakey skin from your beard, and evenly distribute your products. It will also distribute more of your skin’s natural protective barrier sebum from root to tip.
Always brush with the grain of your hair, especially if your beard is long, wavy, curly, or kinky. The longer your beard, the longer the bristles of your brush should be. Ensure your brush bristles make contact with your skin, but don’t press too hard against your face or it may lead to irritation.
#3 Trim Your Beard
If you are trying to grow your beard, you may be tempted to skip trimming it. However, you must trim your beard every 6 to 8 weeks to minimize split ends. If split ends aren’t trimmed, they will travel up the length of your beard. This will increase knots and leave your beard looking less than its best. Even with proper conditioning, split ends are inevitable.
If your objective is to keep your beard looking great, your beard will need to be reshaped every 6 to 8 weeks anyway. Even if the shape looks great, the split ends will start to look scraggly and unkempt if you don’t prioritize trimming. Not a lot needs to be trimmed. If it’s easier head to the barbershop for your trim and reshape.
#4 Sleep Tips
There are a few things you can do at night to minimize morning tangles. We already discussed applying beard oil or beard balm after you wash your face in the morning and evening. This will ensure that your beard is moisturized when you head to bed.
Also consider:
Upgrading to a silk pillowcase—hear me out! Even organic cotton and bamboo will zap the moisture from your skin, the hair on your head, and your beard. Upgrade to silk and moisture stays put.
Sleep on your stomach—if silk’s not your thing, at least try to sleep on your stomach. This will minimize contact with moisture-zapping fibers and decrease the friction that contributes to morning knots.
Braid your beard—if you are rocking a beard that is long enough to braid, braid it while you sleep. This will minimize knots and has the added bonus of providing straight-haired gents with a bit more texture and volume.
#5 Detangling
Now it’s time to detangle! Follow the steps below:
- Never detangle when your beard is dry as this will increase breakage.
- Cleanse your beard, pat it dry, and apply beard softener.
- Gently separate the tangle or knot with your fingers.
- Use a comb to break apart the knot from bottom to top.
- Gently comb through your beard from bottom to top.
- Once you are tangle-free, apply oil or balm and brush to shape.
- Feel free to apply facial moisturizer before you apply your oil or balm.
Looking For Quality Beard Products To Maintain Your Beard?
Uncle Jimmy has everything you need to simplify your daily grooming routine! This includes step-by-step regimens for your hair, beard, and body. Our products are formulated with natural ingredients that won’t strip your skin or hair. We invite you to browse our products now!
SAVE 20% TODAY
USE PROMO CODE: JULYBLOG
OFFER ENDS July 15, 2022
CLICK HERE
WRITE FOR US
Think you've got a fresh perspective that will challenge our readers to engage and educate themselves on how to attain a healthier self, beard, hair, and skin included? We're always looking for authors who can deliver quality articles and blog posts. Thousands of men and women will read your work, and you will level up in the process.
