Post date: July 1, 2022 | Adventure
How To Prepare Your Beard For Summer
Summer has now officially started! The days are getting longer, warmer, and brighter, and with these changes comes the distress of many beardsman out in the world. Beards can quickly become uncomfortable in the hot, dry, or excessively humid environments that summer often brings. So, today we’re going to talk about how you can prepare for the perfect summer beard that stays comfortable and manageable throughout the season.
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Now, before you run out and shave off your precious beard to fend off the heat, let’s clarify a few misconceptions about having beards in the first place!
Do Beards Get Hot In The Summer?
It’s commonly thought that beards will make a man feel overall warmer as opposed to their clean-shaven brethren. However, this is not exactly the case. Turns out that there are a few reasons why beards will not inherently make you feel warmer than being clean-shaven.
The first reason a beard doesn’t actually make you feel warmer is the fact that beards protect your bare skin from the suns rays. In this way, beards act as a kind of natural sunblock by protecting your face from UV and infrared rays that heat up your skin and can potentially cause skin damage (Sunburns, etc.). After all, your hair doesn’t have nerve-endings, meaning that the sun’s rays that hit your beard do not cause the same feeling of heat that would occur if the rays hit your bare skin. It’s like the difference between being in the shade vs. the direct sunlight.
The second reason why beards don’t typically make you feel warmer in the summer has to do with sweat/moisture, and it’s ability to evaporate. Humans stay cool by sweating, and the evaporation of that sweat gives a cooling sensation that lowers our body temperatures when we feel too hot. Well, because beards don’t allow direct sun to touch our skin and evaporate our sweat to quickly, the sweat and moisture that we trap under our facial hair has more time to cool us off.
So, overall, beards won’t actually make you feel any warmer than you otherwise would if you didn’t have one, even in the summer months.
But, that’s not to say having any kind of facial hair is perfectly comfortable in the summer months! As we know, your environment plays a huge role in the condition of your beard. Beards in dry weather will tend to be dry, and vice versa in humid weather. Both of which can cause your beard to get uncomfortable. So, how do we combat this?
How To Prepare Your Beard For Summer
Step 1: Trim
Just because a beard doesn’t make you feel any warmer doesn’t mean it’s comfortable to have long dense facial hair in the summertime. During the hot dry months of summer, longer beards tend not to behave very well. The longer your beard is, the higher the chance that your hair will become more and more dry. This is because longer hair is further away from your skin, which produces the natural oils that keep your beard moisturized. And as we know, dryness is never a good thing.
A lot of men out there will change their beard style when it comes to the summer months to avoid the dry and wild hairs that come with longer beards. After a while of struggling to keep your beard on point and orderly, it’s only natural to want an easier and more laid-back solution. Trimming your beard to shorten it even just a small amount will work wonders for the ease and controllability of your hair during dry hot weather.
Step 2: Manage Moisture
One thing that helps the health and style of any beard out there is properly managed moisture. And as you can imagine, this is a large problem during the summer months which typically have huge swings between dry and humid weather. Dry weather will dry out your facial hair, and humid weather may cause too much sweating or moisture.
Dry beards are going to feel itchy, flaky, irritated, and/or scratchy and excessive dryness can lead to things like dandruff, breakouts, and even rashes. On the other hand, beards with too much moisture are going to feel oily, dirty, or damp and can also cause breakouts, rashes, or even infection in the worst cases.
When it comes to hydrating and moisturizing your beard, the most important thing is to be able to manage moisture to ensure that you are centered on a healthy spectrum between too dry and excessively oily. All of this comes down to two main factors: your climate, and your genetics.
Summertime can be extremely dry in one area of the world, and extremely humid in another, making climate a huge factor in how your beard behaves in the summertime. Genetics also has a huge role to play regarding how oily or dry your skin tends to be. Dry skin in dry weather is a bad combination that almost guarantees an uncomfortable beard, just like having oily skin in humid weather.
Put simply, always invest in a high quality beard oil or balm that allows you to carefully manage how much moisture is in your beard at a given moment. Pair this with step 3 and you can handle anything that summer throws your way!
Step 3: Wash Your Beard More Often
Despite the climate you live in or whether your beard is naturally dry or oily, Summer is going to necessitate that you wash your beard more often. Not only does this allow you to more closely and consistently manage the amount of moisture in your beard, but it also helps you exfoliate and get rid of debris, skin cells, and other contaminants.
Think of it this way, dry beards tend to be flaky. It’s important to wash and remove the flakes and oils that are clumping those flakes together before you apply oil and reintroduce some clean hydration to your beard. Otherwise, beard oil can actually cause flakes and debris to clump even more and cause breakouts or rashes.
Oily beards tend to do the same thing, which is why it’s important to wash your beard more often and remove excess sweat and oils before applying clean beard oil to reintroduce the hydration. Essentially, anyone and everyone can benefit from washing their beards more often in the summertime.
Overall, prepping your beard for summer means upping the frequency and dedication to your beard maintenance! Hot summer days are going to require a little more beard care than usual, but it will be worth it to have a healthy and hydrated beard throughout the season!
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