If you’re worried about the fact that you have sores under your beard, then worry no more! There are ways you can get rid of and combat these kinds of sores popping up and we wanted to take some time to share them with you.
Whenever you have a beard, it’s like having an entire ecosystem that lives on your face. It’s a place for a beautiful mane to grow, or a place where bacteria and other nasties thrive. If you’re reading this because you have sores under your beard, then for your situation it’s probably the latter. It’s perfectly normal and perfectly treatable, however.
Let’s go ahead and go into more detail about the sores or red bumps in your beard, address what causes sores under your beard, and how to get rid of those nasty bumps in your beard, that way this isn’t a problem that keeps popping up even after using a remedy.
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Growing Out Your Beard
Growing a beard is a modern and historical cornerstone to manhood – it’s something us men are proud of. With growing a beard also comes some issues that can pop up that cause you to get bumps in the beard area, or dry skin under the beard.
First of all, when you grow out your beard, especially if it’s the first time or if you’ve been clean shaven prior to attempting to grow one, it’s very likely that you are just experience the regular side effects that come with beard growth.
Whenever you grow a beard from a fresh-faced canvas, it is very common to get ingrown hairs or beard acne that are very irritating.
Since you’ve been shaving your facial hair regularly before growing out a beard, you’ve never actually let your beard hairs grow out – you always chop them before they reach their fullest potential.
Because of this, you probably had no idea that the way we shave in the modern day – disposable razors and/or multi blade razor cartridges are massive contributors to ingrown hairs and beard acne.
Whenever you shave with your run-of-the-mill multi blade razor, the blades actually tend to pull your facial hair slightly out of its follicle, chops it, and then the cut facial hair retracts back into the follicle, hidden under the skin.
Once you start growing out your beard, the hair that is hiding inside your hair follicles has a harder time growing past the “opening” at the surface of your skin, oftentimes growing under the skin or curling back into the hair follicle.
As a result, you’ll notice red bumps under your beard.
All of this goes to show, if you’ve started growing your beard out recently and noticed sores under your beard, they are probably just ingrown hairs! A way to prevent this from happening in the future when you shave your neck or touch up your beard is to use a safety razor.
Safety razors are a single blade razor that shave your facial hair at a different angle and without pulling your beard hair out of it’s follicle – it just chops the hair evenly at the skin level, much like a straight razor shave.
This type of shave dates back to the 1880s whenever safety razors were first invented. Not only are you protecting your face, but you’re taking part of a shaving tradition that has been taking place over more than 120 years.
How to Get Rid of Ingrown Hairs Caused by Beard Growth
Ingrown hairs under the beard can occur to even us seasoned beardsmen, so it is important that regardless of whether or not you are a new beard grower or you’ve had a long term relationship with your mane, you have a way to reduce and get rid of ingrown hairs that grow under the beard.
The process is simple: get something like this be-bop and use it to massage a beard wash and conditioner like this one into your beard while showering.
This will help massage the follicles and clean any debris that may be causing the ingrown hairs to not dislodge out of the pore or follicle they’re stuck in.
DO NOT use traditional shampoos or conditioners on your beard, as they will strip it of vital oils and dry out your facial hair and skin, making the problem worse.
Dry Skin Under Your Beard
Believe it or not, the skin under your beard needs to be taken care of.
Let’s make an analogy: the skin under your beard is like the soil under a plant. It provides all the necessary nutrients, fertilizer, and hydration for proper and healthy growth.
Whenever your skin under your beard is dry, it’s like not watering your garden…except this one is on your face.
As a result of dehydrated skin below your beard, you may be experiencing some sores and bumps under your beard. Before we address the problem at hand, let’s take a look at why dry skin may be causing these bumps in the beard area.
Your skin naturally produces an oil called sebum. This oil hydrates your skin and helps keep the skin flexible and healthy.
Whenever you grow a beard, the sebum in your face is getting absorbed by your luxurious new mane. As a result, there is less sebum left to absorb into your skin and keep it healthy, causing the skin under your beard to dry out as a result.
Once this happens, you may be more prone to red bumps or sores under your beard.
How to Get Rid of Bumps Under Your Beard Due to Dry Skin
All of this can be offset and fixed by one simple thing: beard oil. Most beard oils include jojoba oil, which is a carrier oil that is the same consistency as the oils produced by your skin naturally.
This means that jojoba oil will be properly absorbed by your skin and beard without clogging your pores and without leaving your face or beard super oily.
The beard oil below is one of our favorite beard oils that has jojoba oil in it:
The Isner Mile Beard Oil Variety Kit is a great intro kit to any man looking to keep the skin under their beard hydrated and healthy. You get a couple different fragrances in this kit (listed below) which will give you a chance to figure out which scents you like best in your beard. Even better, this will be the foundation you need to combat sores under your beard.
- Sandalwood
- Cedarwood
- Sweet Orange
- Sage
If you want to explore different brands, check out our article going over the best beard oils for growth, as a lot of these have jojoba as a main carrier oil.
Using a jojoba-based beard oil regularly will help replenish the natural oils your skin is losing from your growing beard and ultimately, help get rid of those sores you’re getting underneath your facial hair.
Still Have Sores Under Your Beard?
The Gentleman’s Playbook makes sure to only share information that has worked on our staff members, but every individual is unique and even the solutions we listed above may not help you get rid of the red bumps under your beard.
If this is the case, we highly recommend talking to a dermatologist in your area.
A lot of dermatologists are costly, so if that is financially out of the question for you, we recommend taking a look at Curology. Curology let’s you have access to your own personal dermatologist at a low monthly rate. All you do is sign up, send in pictures of the problems on your face you want to get rid of, and they’ll prescribe you a face cream custom-designed to help you fight against that problem!
Conclusion
The main takeaways you should have here are that the most common ways to handle sores under the beard are by making sure you take care of both your beard and the skin underneath.
Through use of beard oils and proper beard washes and conditioners, you can help fight against or even prevent red bumps under your beard or just beard bumps in general!
If you found this helpful, show us the love! Feel free to share this article with friends or family that may be experiencing beard sores, or share this article on your favorite social media platforms!
Article last updated May 5th, 2021.
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