Bead dandruff is completely a real thing, just as you can have a dry and flaky scalp, you can have dry, flaky skin in your beard.
You might not have even had skin issues on your chin before your beard was there, but since you’ve grown a beard, you’ve found yourself making it snow like it’s Christmas Day from there.
It’s a harmless condition, but that’s not to say it’s pleasant or nice, it can be downright embarrassing if someone sees you shedding skin.
But you need not worry, it’s a common occurrence that affects more than 50% of the population and most of us guys have been through it atleast once in our lives.
The good news is that you don’t need to continue on with having beard dandruff and that there are ways to get rid of it completely.
Keep reading and we’ll go through what beard dandruff is, how it’s caused and how to get rid of it.
What Is Beard Dandruff?
Dandruff is a skin condition that mainly affects the scalp, but as we know by the title of this article, it can also affect the beard too.
It usually causes flaky skin that becomes itchy and red, and you’ll most likely be able to see the flakes of skin in your hair, or your beard.
It’s essentially just a build-up of dead skin cells, the flaky skin becomes much more noticeable when your body is shedding skin much faster than usual.
What Causes Beard Dandruff?
We all have a microbe in our skin called malassezia globosa, which is a type of fungus that grows and lives in very oily areas that have a lot of sebaceous glands, this of course includes your beard, along with your scalp.
This fungus isn’t actually the problem, it helps to break down sebum (the oil produced by your sebaceous glands).
The problem is the residue it leaves behind, which is called oleic acid and this can be very irritating for some people’s skin.
And, if you tend to have quite oily skin, you’ll also have more malassezia globosa, which will lead to much more oleic acid being produced.
You may also be prone to beard dandruff if your skin has a quicker turnover of cells. This is how fast you shed skin cells, and regenerate them.
A normal turnover of cells usually takes around 30 days and when the process is much faster than that, it leads to a build-up of dead skin cells.
If you find that your skin isn’t itchy, or not red but you’re still finding skin flakes in your beard, it could be that you don’t have beard dandruff, but you might just have dry skin.
Or it could be that you’re not washing your face and beard often enough, causing an accumulation of dead skin cells and oil.
Whatever is causing your skin to flake in your beard, you may find that it gets worse in hot, humid climates or during cold and dry weather, which is equally as annoying.
How To Get Rid Of Beard Dandruff?
Getting rid of beard dandruff isn’t a hard feat, all it takes is creating a routine to remove the dead skin cells whilst balancing more oil to stop any new dead skin flakes from forming.
For most people, a combination of exfoliating, washing and moisturizing works wonders and that routine is exactly what we’re going to discuss, so that you can get rid of those pesky flakes of skin.
Just remember, don’t be disheartened if after doing this routine for a few days you’re not seeing results, sometimes it can take weeks of a routine to finally see results.
Exfoliation
You’ve probably heard of exfoliation before, and thought it didn’t apply to you, but trust us when we say it does.
Exfoliation is a process that removes dead skin cells, including the dead skin cells that cause dandruff to form.
Exfoliation is super easy to start with since all you need is a beard brush, and you can get them for pretty cheap.
Not only will the beard brush help in removing dead skin cells, but it will also help to balance out the oils in your skin better.
Using the beard brush, gently rub the skin in your beard and gently is the operative word here.
You don’t want to aggressively scrub as this can make beard dandruff much worse.
Washing
If you don’t already wash your beard, then listen carefully to this next step.
Wash your beard the same way you do your hair, by using shampoo (you can use special shampoo that is designed to treat dandruff if you want).
Again, using gentle motions, rub the shampoo into your beard and ensure that it’s reaching the skin underneath your beard.
Make sure that the shampoo you’re using isn’t too rough on your face, especially if you have dry skin.
If the shampoo feels like it’s drying your face out, make the switch to a gentler formula or a beard cleanser.
Moisturizing
This step is possibly the most important as it’s critical for removing dandruff.
Using moisturizer allows your skin to rehydrate itself from the shampooing stage.
When thinking of moisturizer, you probably think of the creamy formulas, they are the most common but they can be quite hard to apply with all the beard hair in the way.
Instead, consider opting for a beard oil, as it’s much easier to apply.
After you’ve washed your beard, immediately apply the beard oil or moisturizer.
Using a few drops, gently rub it into the skin beneath your beard and work it right through to the end of your beard.
Remember, less is always more. Start off with less drops to ensure that you don’t get even more build-up.
You can always add more drops if it feels like it didn’t cover the skin effectively, but you can’t always remove the extra drops you’ve added if it was too much.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good, but there is such a lack of resources out there for men!
This website is for people like past me, who would have loved some guidance when first starting out.
Please enjoy my content. Trust me, bro - we’ll find you the perfect regime within no time.
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