It’s that time of the year where we welcome the holiday season with saying hello to pumpkin-flavored everything and goodbye to those beloved razors that kept our skin nice and smooth through those hot summer days. This month not only brings us the start of the holiday season, but it also brings No-Shave November, which means it’s time to throw out the razors for a few weeks to help embrace body and facial hair and help grow cancer awareness. No-Shave November or what’s also known as “Movember” (a combination of the Australian- English word “moustache” and “November”) is sparking men across the globe to grow their facial hair for 30 days to raise funds and awareness for men’s health.
Whether you’re a guy looking to grow out a simple mustache or someone aiming for Rick Ross beard goals, we spoke with gnaturals president, Roger Gore, to give you the best tips and products to serve you and your facial hair well this month.
PREP YOUR SKIN
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For the baby-faced gentleman starting out fresh with growing your beard, it’s important to prepare your skin before beginning the initial stage of growing out your facial hair. “There’s a couple of stages that African-American men go through that’s challenging in order for us to grow our beards because if they’re not addressed [you can potentially develop] skin irritations, razor bumps, as well as the frantic itch [if your skin isn’t prepared],” said Gore. If you’re in this stage of growing out your beard, look for products that will cleanse, condition and tone your skin, soothe any razor bumps and reduce inflammation in the skin. “Using products that conditions your skin and reduces inflammation, helps the hair grow out without any irritation,” said Gore.
Try: Anti-Bump Skin Tonic and Get It G Razor Relief
MOISTURIZING IS KEY
After prepping your skin for some time, your beard makes it to a second stage where it begins to grow out. As you begin to produce more facial hair, it’s extremely important to start focusing on maintaining moisture in your beard. One of the best places to apply your moisturizing products is in the shower where water is able to wet your beard, providing initial moisture. “While you’re in the shower, apply the moisturizer to the face while your face is wet [and] your beard is wet and let it stay for about two to three minutes while you’re doing everything else, and afterwards you rinse it off,” said Gore.
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Gore says adding a moisturizer to your beard while wet allows the product to penetrate while the hair follicles are open, ultimately providing your beard with a natural glow and affirming the growth. Depending on the stage you’re in with growing your beard, it may still be necessary to use products that conditions the skin and reduces inflammation as your facial hair continues to grow. However, as your beard grows longer, you’ll no longer need those type of products and should focus on continuing to use a moisturizer and add a natural oil when you get out of the shower.
Try: Black Beard Moisturizer and Black Beard Oil
MAINTAIN YOUR BEARD
If you’ve reached the stage where you have grown your desired look with your beard, you still have work to do to maintain it. While it’s a big deal to moisturize, a magnificent beard doesn’t just thrive on moisture alone, from time-to-time, it’s crucial to grab some shears to do a trim on your facial hair to help prevent breakage. “People benefit once they start cutting a little [hair] off,” said Gore. “Once it [grows] about an inch, you still want to trim the ends so your beard doesn’t grow backwards and [because] you can still get split ends on your beard.” According to Gore, a well-groomed beard should also include opening the pores consistently by doing steam treatments, or what’s commonly known as a “Hot Towel Toddy.” To do this method, once a day, carefully place a hot towel onto your face to open the pores of your beard to allow your products to go into the hair shaft and provide you with a natural shine to your beard.
Now, if you’re looking for the Rick Ross type of beard, Gore says to use a blow dryer to get the look. “Use the Alpha Club for Men [Black] Beard Oil, [on] your beard while it’s wet, take [an afro] pick and a blow dryer and pick out your beard while you’re drying,” said Gore. “Once your finished, take a small amount of the beard oil, put it in your beard, pick it out and you’ll have that nice, Rick Ross full beard.”
According to Gore, following these steps will not only get you a full beard but you’re also going to have moisture in the inner shaft of the beard, as well as external protection from the heat. In addition, Gore says your beard will also have a natural shine because the heat will make the beard penetrate the product and smooth out the beard more.
Try: Caribbean Hair Growth Pudding
Alpha Club 4 Men and gnaturals are participating in No Shave November as a way to raise cancer awareness for African-American men. African-Americans are slightly more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than any other ethnicity and this is especially for African-American men. If you’re seeking to grow out your beard for the long run or to participate in a worthy cause, remember to cleanse, condition, moisturize and maintain your beard in order to get the look you’re going for and use the hashtags #letitgoletitgrow this month to help raise cancer awareness.
