The beard coloring market in the men’s grooming space has only been around for a few short decades. And within those decades, many products have popped up claiming the most natural and easy way to shave years off of a man’s appearance. And it’s true, a fully colored beard does make men look younger, after all, just look at the evidence in the picture below! That being said, some men have trouble with many beard coloring products out there simply because they make a beard look colored, and not exactly natural. We want to fix that today by giving you some good tips on how to make your beard color look more natural!
If you’re on the market for some beard coloring, scroll down the page to take the beard color quiz and find the perfect shade of natural Volt color for you!
Today, we’ll be covering:
- The type of Beard Color you use (Dyes vs Color).
- How to make whichever method you choose look natural.
Let’s get into it!
Beard Dyes vs Beard Coloring
In the beard coloring market, there are two main types of products: Hair dyes and temporary beard colors, and depending on which product you use, you’ll have a different method of getting natural-looking beard coloring.
Beard Dyes
Beard dyes are what you typically see from company’s like Just For Men. They use chemical compounds to open the protein layers in your hair in order to penetrate the strand and stain the color from the inside. They are permanent, take some time to master, and use somewhat harsh chemicals and potential allergens like PPD, ammonia, and more.
Generally, the problem most men have with beard dyes is that they tend to stain all the hair perfectly a single color, when in reality, your beard likely doesn’t consist of hairs that are exactly the same color. Beard hair is pretty diverse, and most men’s beards contain a blend of red, brown, and sometimes black hair. Dyeing all the hair a single color can often lead to an unnatural and “shoe-polish” looking beard. That’s not to say beard dyes will never look natural, all it takes is a good match for your hair color and some better prepping, but we’ll get into that later.
Temporary Beard Color
Temporary beard color, on the other hand, is exactly how it sounds. It’s a beard coloring that simply coats or “tints” the hair from the outside without having to penetrate the individual strands. This way, temporary color uses hypoallergenic ingredients without harsh chemicals or irritants, it’s instant and customizable, and has the potential to look more natural for reasons we’ll discuss later. Volt Instant Beard Color is just one example of a popular temporary color on the market. Temporary beard colors, however, don’t last as long as beard dyes and have to be reapplied often, although it is easy to do so. Temporary color strikes back with the advantage of being removable, unlike beard dyes.
Now this is not to say that both dyes and temporary beard color can’t look natural, because they absolutely can, but the method and tricks you use in order to get them to look more natural will vary based on the product you use. And in the case of Volt or other temporary beard colors, you’ll have an advantage.
How To Make Beard Dyes Look Natural
Beard dyes are permanent, which means you’ll have to take some serious measures to make it look natural or else you’ll be left with unsatisfactory results or worse, you’ll have to shave your beard. What a frightening concept that is. So, in order to avoid that awful fate, you’ll have to measure twice and cut once, as they say.
Beard dyes stain your hair by using certain chemical compounds to open the protein layers in your hair strand before staining from the inside out. Most dyes require you to mix certain pastes and leave them in your beard for a certain length of time. This gives us a clue as to how you can make your beard coloring appear more natural.
Put simply, the longer the beard dye solution sits in your beard, the more saturated the color will likely be. So, you’ll have to be very careful not to let the dye sit for too long, and you may even want to consider letting the dye sit slightly less than the recommended time, which will cause the color to not appear as bold and new, thus making your beard look more natural and not so synthetic or “shoe-polish.” The other option is to dilute the dye paste solution with hair conditioner which will both lessen the intensity of the color as well as give you more volume of coverage.
Other than that, there really is no other way to get a beard dye to look more natural other than to choose the best color possible for you by matching your beard with your hair. After all it would be strange for a person with brown, red, or blond hair to sport a black beard considering beards are typically lighter in color than your hair is.
How To Make Temporary Beard Color Look Natural
Like we’ve mentioned before, if you happen to use temporary color, you’ll have an advantage when it comes to getting a more natural look for a few reasons: 1) Opacity, 2) Removability, and 3) Placement. let’s go over these things to learn how you can get the best looking and most natural color with some easy tips and tricks.
Temporary beard color is unique because you can control the opacity of the color based on how much you brush into your beard. Unlike dyes, which need to soak in and be washed out before you can monitor the color, temporary colors can be brushed on lightly for a “salt & pepper” look, or brushed in heavier for a fully-colored look. This obviously helps you get a more natural look because you can incorporate as much of your pre-existing natural hair color as you want. Allowing some of your natural hair to peek through gives a much more natural look as opposed to evenly coloring your beard a single shade and getting a “shoe-polish” effect that many beard dyes result in.
Removability is important if you are unsatisfied with results, which is something that can’t be done with beard dyes unless you quite literally shave your beard off. Volt is removable with alcohol, meaning you can try again if something doesn’t look quite right.
Volt is easier when it comes to applying the beard color. After all, volt comes with a small applicator brush that lets you apply the color only exactly where you want it. Beard dyes, on the other hand, tend to require pastes and solutions to be rubbed into the beard in a way that’s difficult to control.
Remember that most men start graying in their beards near the chin, so you may want to brush the color lighter in that area for a more natural (but not entirely gray) look.
For the most natural looking results, click the button below to take a short quiz which will help you find your perfect beard color match!
Overall, the best way to make beard dye or temporary color look more natural is to control the opacity of the color. With dyes, this means limiting the amount of time the dye sits on your beard to penetrate the hair strands. With temporary beard color, this means brushing more lightly and applying color slowly until you get to a point you’re happy with.
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