Whether your beard is where you want it to be and you’d like to maintain it and improve the health of your current fuzzy pride or you’re beginning the beard growth journey, making sure you implement some nighttime TLC is a great addition to your daily beard care regimen. We’ll go over our suggested nightly beard routine that will help your beard stay healthy, strong, and improve growth.
Keep in mind some of these steps only need to be performed every couple of night, which we will signify with an asterisk (*). We’ll also go over why some of these steps don’t need to be performed every night in your new nightly beard routine.
The Routine:
Step 1: Trim Up & Maintain
First order of business is cleaning up any stray facial hair. There are a few main things you want to keep an eye out for when it comes to your routine nightly grooming session. Let’s cover the basics:
- Mustache – Visually inspect your mustache. Is it hanging down into your mouth? Are there stray mustache hairs sticking out from the crowd? If so, go ahead and clean these up. Some men prefer to keep their staches long, and that’s fine – but it’s a great idea to keep it at least out of your fork’s line of fire to prevent any mustache damage and combat weird beard smells.
- Neck – The longer you grow your beard and the older you become, you’ll notice your neck begins to grow hair faster than it used to. While you may only need to trim your neck once a month as a teen, you may be finding your neck beard comes in full swing within a week or less the closer you get to your 30s. Make sure to visually inspect your neck nightly to keep that neck nice and clean shaven, looking sharp.
- Cheeks – Check the beard line on your cheeks; small hairs will grow in there and trimming them will help your facial hair remain shaped and clean looking before it becomes too unruly.
- Whole Beard – Take a look at your entire beard. Try even stepping back a stride length from the mirror. Make sure your beard isn’t longer than you’d like it to be. If it is, trim it down to your preferred length or schedule an appointment with your barber. If you prefer to hire a barber, we recommend monthly visits to help control the length and overall shape of your beard. The other checks can still be done on a nightly basis (mustache, neck, and cheeks).
Once you inspect your beard and have it trimmed and clean like you prefer, it’s time to start on the rest of your nightly beard routine: cleaning and hydrating.
Step 2: Rinse Beard
Every night, rinse your beard before bed with lukewarm water. Hot water will damage your facial hair and cold water will constrict your blood vessels, slowing down growth. If you shower every night before bed, then you can do the rinsing in the shower.
Give your beard a light massage with your fingertips under water, without soap. This helps distribute the oils in your beard, remove debris, and exfoliate dead skin cells.
Step 3: Wash Beard*
After rinsing your beard, you will want to wash it. Please note: do not soap wash your beard every night. This will cause you to strip your beard of natural oils, making it brittle over time. Brittle and splitting facial hair doesn’t grow as well as healthy and hydrated facial hair.
We recommend washing your beard 2-3 times per week with an appropriate beard wash. Do NOT use regular hair shampoos, hand soaps, or any harsh cleansers. We even avoid face wash just to be safe.
Read all about beard hygiene as well as the proper kinds of washes or conditioners you need for your nightly beard routine by clicking here.
Wash your beard by gently massaging a small amount of beard wash into your facial hair, using your fingertips to gently massage it into the skin and your beard. Try to avoid tugging or pulling on your beard, as it can cause torn hair or impact growth. Once you’re done, rinse out your facial hair of all wash and move on to Step 4!
Step 4: Condition Beard*
Next up is to condition your beard – again, do not condition every night. There’s a way to moisturize your beard nightly, but it’s not with a beard conditioner. Beard conditioner is only to be used after using a beard wash, to help protect and reinforce the freshly cleaned hair.
We recommend conditioning your beard 2-3 times per week with an appropriate beard conditioner, only after using beard wash. Read our beard hygiene guide for more in-depth info on the nuance of beard cleaning.
Massage a small amount of conditioner into your beard, starting at the root and working your way down, just as you would with the head on your hair (just gentler). Once you have made sure your entire beard is conditioned, let it sit for 2 to 3 minutes. This will allow the conditioner to replenish nutrients and protect your facial hair.
Once you’re done waiting, rinse the conditioner out with lukewarm water until your beard is fully rinsed. You’re now ready for Step 5.
Step 5: Apply Beard Oil
While you only want to wash and condition your beard only a handful of times per week, you’ll want to apply beard oil daily. The Gentleman’s Playbook recommends using beard oil in the morning before getting your day going and a second time at night as part of your nightly beard routine.
If you’re on a night where you aren’t washing or conditioning, you’d jump straight from Step 2: Rinse Beard to here.
Add a few drops of beard oil to the palm of your hand. Work your palms together until the oil is covering your palms, but not soaked into your skin. Run your fingers gently up into your beard, palming your hand against the skin under your facial hair. Now, work your hands down flat, with the grain of your beard growth.
For longer beards, you may have to use a bit more beard oil and work the beard oil into the length of your beard using your fingers and palms like a comb. You don’t want to be overly oily – just enough to hydrate your beard and give it a sheen. You’ll notice it’s quite shiny!
Once you’re done applying your beard oil, you’re ready for the last and final step of your nightly beard routine: Comb Your Beard.
Further Reading: Should You Use Beard Oil Before Bed?
Step 6: Comb Beard
The last step before you’re done with your nightly beard routine is to comb your beard! You want to be gentle, starting at the bottom most lengths of your beard, working out any knots or tangles gently, and progressively combing higher up until the comb runs through the length of your beard without issue.
For shorter beards, you may not even need to comb. If you can easily grab your facial hair with your hands, we recommend combing. This will help your beard lay a bit more gently before bed, helping prevent any snags or discomfort while sleeping.
We recommend using a natural, wooden beard comb for your nighttime beard regimen.
May Rest be Abundant and Your Beard Grow Strong!
There it is! Your simple, 6 Step (some nights) nightly beard routine! It’s pretty simple, but yields great results for both beard health and beard growth. You can work this into your nightly routine without it taking up much of your night and nothing beats a little daily dose of self-care.
Our recommended nightly beard routine is:
- Trim Up & Maintain
- Rinse Beard
- Wash Beard (only 2-3 times per week)
- Condition Beard (only 2-3 times per week)
- Apply Beard Oil
- Comb Beard
We hope you’ll find the benefits of your efforts worth it! Want to learn more about how to grow an excellent beard that’s healthy, thick, and luxurious? Check out The Beard Playbook, our free guide on everything beard!