Beard Care Routine: How to Take Care of Your Beard in 10 Simple Steps

Beard tips · Ippos Beard

To take care of your beard: wash it two to three times a week with a mild shampoo, dry it without rubbing, add a few drops of beard oil, brush it every morning and trim it regularly. Five minutes a day is enough for a beard that is soft, tidy and does not itch.

A good beard has little to do with genetics or expensive products. It comes from a short routine, repeated often. Most beards that itch, frizz or look neglected are only missing two things: a bit of moisture and a quick brush. Here is the beard care routine I recommend to everyone who asks me, in order, with what to do every day and what can wait until Sunday.

01Wash your beard two to three times a week

A beard holds on to everything: dust, sweat, crumbs from lunch. But washing it every day dries it out, because washing strips the natural oil that protects the hair. Two to three washes a week are enough for most men. Use a mild shampoo or a beard wash, not your body wash, which is often too harsh for the skin on your face. Massage right down to the skin with your fingertips, that is what needs cleaning first. Expect to pay between €5 and €12 for a good beard wash.

02Rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry

Very hot water dries the skin and makes the hair brittle. Rinse with lukewarm water, and take your time, so that no shampoo is left behind. Leftover shampoo is a common cause of itching. Then pat your beard with a clean towel instead of rubbing it in every direction. Rubbing tangles the hair and creates frizz. If your beard is long, a hair dryer on medium heat, held at a good distance and pointed downward, helps set its shape for the day.

03Apply a few drops of beard oil

This is the step that changes the most. Oil feeds the hair, but above all the skin underneath, the skin that feels tight and itchy when it is dry. Three to five drops are enough for a short beard, a little more for a long one. Warm the oil between your palms, then massage from the roots to the tips, on a beard that is still slightly damp. The best moment is right after the shower. A decent beard oil costs between €10 and €25 and lasts for months.

04Brush your beard every morning

Brushing spreads the oil along the whole length, detangles, removes loose hairs and trains the beard to grow in the right direction. It also adds volume to a beard that looks patchy. Thirty seconds in the morning is enough: downward first, then outward on the cheeks. At Ippos Beard, our engraved beard brush is personalised by hand in our workshop in France, with a first name or a short message, for €39.99. Handy for yourself, and a good gift idea for a bearded man who already has everything. You can see the other engraved pieces in the personalised collection.

05Add a balm once the beard gets longer

Oil moisturises, balm holds. Once your beard is longer than two or three centimetres, the hairs go their own way and oil alone is no longer enough. Balm contains plant butter and a little wax: it nourishes and gives a light hold, without a stiff finish. Take a small amount, melt it between your fingers and apply it mostly to the lengths and the sides. With a short beard, you can skip it. Expect €10 to €20 for a tin.

06Comb the moustache and the lengths

The brush handles the whole beard, the comb handles the details. A small fine tooth comb is for styling the moustache toward the sides, so it does not hang over your lip. On a long beard, a wide tooth comb works through knots without breaking the hair, always starting at the tips and moving up toward the roots. Choose a wooden or horn comb over moulded plastic, which snags and creates static. You can find very good ones for under €10.

07Trim a little, but often

A beard that looks cared for is a beard that gets trimmed regularly, even when you are growing it out. Cutting the stray hairs every one to two weeks keeps a clean shape and avoids dry ends. The rule: always on a dry beard, with a longer guard than planned on the first pass. If you are new to this, I explain the whole method in how to trim your beard at home, from the neckline to the finishing touches with scissors.

08Keep the edges clean

The edges make the difference between a beard you chose and a beard you forgot about. Two areas matter: the neck and the top of the cheeks. On the neck, the beard stops about two fingers above the Adam's apple. On the cheeks, only remove the stray hairs above the natural line. A quick pass twice a week, with a trimmer and no guard or with a razor, is enough to keep your face looking sharp even with a full beard.

09Pick up the hair every time

Looking after your beard also means looking after the bathroom. Brushing and trimming always leave small hairs on the sink, and water only sticks them down or sends them into the drain. The Beard Sponge picks them up in one dry pass. Rinse it and it is ready for next time. It costs €9.99, it is reusable and there is a buy 2 get 1 free offer on the product page. More than 7 million views on TikTok and 4.8 out of 5 from over 1,300 reviews. If you trim often, the beard bib with suction cups catches the hair before it falls.

10Look after the skin under the beard

An itchy beard almost always means dry skin underneath. Once a week, use a gentle scrub and massage the skin through the beard: it removes dead skin and helps prevent ingrown hairs. The small white flakes in a beard often come from rinsing too quickly or from a lack of oil, not from poor hygiene. And if you are growing your beard out, know that the itching in the first few weeks is normal. It fades with oil, brushing and a little patience.