Nothing stinks more than when you are growing out an epic beard you have some noticeable patches through it.
Even with my own beard, I have two very noticeable distinct patches right below my lower lip.
While there are definitely options that can help resolve a patchy beard, its definitely worth mentioning that most men deal with this issue and that in most cases they just let their beard grow out which eventually will over up any sort of patches.
On the other hand though there are definitely guys that are extremely self conscious of a patchy beard – and thats absolutely ok too!
So how can you fix it?
Well you have a few options at your disposal – I will be going over each and every single one of them in a particular order.
Below are options that you can try out right now to the ultimate ‘nuclear’ option that will be the most effective way to spur on new follicle growth.
Brushing a Beard Over Combing One
The type of comb or brush can have a huge impact on how your beard appears.
Understanding the difference between the two is critical.
First off, a beard comb serves a very distinct purpose. Beard combs in general are used for styling purposes.
But with that, they also are a great way to train your hairs to grow in a particular direction.
For instance, when growing out a beard and in particular the mustache – more often than not, your mustache hairs will begin to curl into your mouth when they grow naturally.
This is where combs do an effective job in training your beard follicles to grow in a desired direction.
Therefore if you take this idea and apply it to a patch within your beard, you can start to see where you can cover up small patches.
While a comb is great for training your hairs to go in a direction – they do have a catch:
You see combs in general are all about style and training your beard hairs. However, they tend to somewhat matte the beard follicles on your face (i.e. pressing the hair follicle closer to your skin).
This will give the appearance that your beard is thinner, which is the exact opposite of the look at you are trying to achieve.
Brushes offer a stark contrast when it compared to combs. You see brushes aren’t so much for styling as they are for the natural distribution of the natural oils produced by your sebaceous glands (I will touch on this further in a minute).
In fact, brushes do a terrific job at making your beard look fuller due to the fact that they have individual bristles that won’t necessarily matte down the follicles.
They do give you some of the training advantages that combs provide, but not nearly as much. So often time, beardsmen may use the comb to train your hairs initially and then ultimately a brush to give the appearance of a fuller beard.
Proper Beard Health Through Balms
If you already are having a lengthy beard or are simply looking to cover up a small patch, combs and brushes are a great way to train your hairs accordingly.
However, as the day goes on, the beard follicles will more than likely redistribute throughout the day.
This is where products like beard balms can play an awesome role.
If you aren’t already familiar with beard balms, let me give you a quick primer.
Most beard balms contain four primary ingredients:
- butter
- wax
- carrier oils
- essential oils
The key ingredient listed above that will help when training a beard is going to be the wax.
In particular, most beard balms don’t contain the classic wax that is contained in most candles – instead they contain the all natural ingredient – beeswax.
Beeswax is a styling agent that will give you a slight hold throughout the day.
The other ingredients, primarily butter and carrier oils are going to give you a TON of moisture and nourishment as well.
The butter primarly acts as a spreadability agent making it easier to get the solution mixed into your beard and also an added layer of moisture.
Carrier oils are the real primary ingredient to a beard balm. Usually made up of jojoba or argan (there are hundreds of other carrier oils as well), they provide all the awesome benefits of getting rid of beardruff and softening up your beard.
A well nourished beard, just like the hair on top of your head, will appear much thichker and richer when treated properly.
So how does this all work together?
After applying a bit of beard balm ot your beard, you would want to use a brush as well to reap all sorts of benefits.
Here’s why:
Most quality beard brushes are made up of boars hair.
Boars hair, unlike synthetic hair from cheap brushes, is all natural and does a great job at trapping in oils.
When you trap in the oils and wax of the beard balm, you will evenly distribute the balm across your beard. This will prevent any particular area from having an increased amount of balm.
Naturally you will want to concentrate on the patchy area to ensure maximum coverage.
Essential oils just give you the scents of the balm – so if you want to have a deep woods or citrus smell – this is all coming from the essential oils, carrier oils are relatively muted in scent.
If its your first ever time checking out beard balm I would recommend checking out our list of some of the best beard balms.
Also to note, you will see beard oils when researching about beard balms. Beard oils only contain carrier and essential oils. These don’t have any sort of styling or holding agent within the solution – therefore if you ware trying to train beard follicles to cover up a patch, using this product won’t have any huge benefits.
Try The Natural Remedies First
Beard balms and brushes aside, hair follicles (and nails), are some of the quickest producing cells in the body and require essential protein to grow strong and appear healthy.
Therefore, you want to make sure that you are getting a diet in ample protein.
Generally you will want to gravitate to having a diet focused around meats such as lean beef (i.e. filet), chicken, fish, and pork.
These foods are stacked with protein that will help in general body hair growth.
Meats aside, other foods that you can snack on throughout the day to get a continuous supply of protein will be nuts (i.e. peanuts, walnuts, almonds, etc).
Lastly, if you are a vegetarian, in addition to nuts, a great source of protein will be legumes – so load up your plate with kiney beans!
Now here’s the catch:
When you load up your plate with all sorts of proteins, like I mentioned at the beginning, your hair and nails will be growing much quicker. Therefore, don’t be alarmed if you notice that you need to clip your nails more often, or up your appointment to the barbershop on a more frequent basis to cut your hair.
Check Out a Natural Supplement
Now while we all want to eat the perfect protein packed diet to fuel our beard growth – but sometimes being swamped with work, school, life, etc. You simply don’t have the time to make sure that you have an effective diet for a beard. This is where all natural vitamins will come into play.
You see vitamins are supplements to your daily diet.
If you are missing out on a particular vitamin or mineral through your meals – they act as a supplement – not a full replacement.
With that being said, and the wide world of vitamins – which one might help with a patchy beard?
One option at your disposal would be a beard growth vitamin that contains Biotin.
You see Biotin has been around for years and is simply a B complex vitamin.
There was an interesting study that was done that did report that there was a loss of hair when Biotin was removed from a subject’s diet – therefore leaving people to think that Biotin may indeed be a critical part of hair growth.
There are no definitive studies that have shown Biotin has directly correlated to hair growth – but plenty of people do report terrific hair (and beard) growth when taking the vitamin.
Now while this is simply a B complex vitamin that you ingest there are a few things to note:
First off, this will effect all the hair on your body, not just facial hair.
Therefore if you are terribly conscious of having a bit thicker head of hair, or generally more body hair – keep this in mind if you decide to use this solution.
One word of caution with vitamins. There has been some recent studies debating what is actually contained within a vitamin capsule and in some instances manufacturers were inserting low quality or fillers.
Therefore, I would highly recommend you get one that is USP Verified – this is a voluntary program by vitamin manufacturers that regularly audits the contents within the capsules.
Lastly Minoxidil as The Nuclear Option
The last, yet likely the most effective option to resolve a patchy beard would be to use a product like minoxidil.
You might not be familiar with the active ingredient minoxidil – but likely heard of the popular product Rogaine.
Minoxidil is effective because it does actually work and was approved by the FDA.
There are a few different brands that manufacturer minoxidil. Typically all you are going to want to look out for is that they contain the same percentage of the active ingredient of minoxidil:
So long as they contain the same percentage, then it really doesn’t matter which brand you go with – as the results will be the same.
The main advantage that minoxidil has over a natural supplement like Biotin is that you can apply it directly to the patch area of your beard. The bottle itself usually comes in a dropper and can be applied and rubbed in.
Of course when applying minoxidil you will want to follow the instructions – but typically its just a topical solution that you will apply to the beard patch twice a day – usually once in the morning after your shower and once before you go to bed at night.
Here is what others have experienced when using minoxidil to resolve a patchy beard:
How Long Will Any of These Remedies Last?
One of the most common questions I get when talking about beard growth products is about the duration that it will work for.
While it would be great that we could take one magic pill or one drop of minoxidil and all our beard worries are resolved – unfortunately that just simply isn’t the case.
Genetics will always win – especially in this case.
Therefore, if you want to always have an epic beard, you will have to continuously have Biotin (usually 3 times a day) or apply the minoxidil twice a day.
Most guys this isn’t a problem as they can easily work it into their daily routine – but its definitely something to be aware of when deciding how to handle your beard.
This is what makes the first option pretty appealing as well – a brush + beard balm will always make your beard well nourished and moisturized and is generally great for your skin.
Ultimately every beard is completely different – if you are looking to treat a large patch, Biotin or Minoxidil likely be the best bet. If you are looking to treat a very small patch, when your beard gets longer, simply train your beard follicles through the added use of beard balm and a boars hair brush to cover it up (no one is going to know).
Have you tried out any other methods to getting your beard back on track?
If so, I am sure the readers would love to heard about them – drop a line in the comment section below and let us know!
