As part of any beard grooming routine, cleansing your beard is an important step in ensuring it looks healthy. Good hygiene is essential to having a thriving, full, strong beard and to avoid irritable issues such as beard itch. But where do you start? Firstly, you need to invest in a good, gentle beard wash (beard shampoo). Normal hair shampoo does not count as it can be too harsh and the hair on your face needs a much gentler formula than the hair on your head, to avoid drying it out. As this isn’t as straightforward as you probably assumed it would be, take a look below for some useful information that should clear up a few questions up for you.

Why should you wash your beard?

A study that took place in 2019, in a small Swiss clinic found that beards contain more germs than dog’s fur! A bit extreme, but to avoid your facial tresses being compared to ‘man’s best friend’ giving your beard a good wash or two during the week wouldn’t go amiss - it’s particularly important if you live in the city (like me) and commute to work.

Like all important things in life, a beard's success depends on preparation, dedication and consistency. A great beard will always get you a bag of compliments, so it’s crucial to keep it clean and in a healthy condition; Especially if you enjoy having your ego stroked. Washing your beard with a gentle beard wash is a great way to remove dirt, food and dead skin cells which will also help a face prone to beard itch.

Can you just wash your beard with water?

When you wash your face, you can just quickly wash your beard too, right? Wrong! Beard washing should involve the use of a cleansing beard shampoo and conditioner. As you can imagine, beards hold onto a lot of crap - including germs. Being so close to your nose and mouth - two areas where disease-causing germs commonly enter the body, we would expect some harmful bacteria to be caught up in there throughout the busy day. Therefore, you need more than just water, to clean the strands and remove built up residue.

So how often should you be washing your beard?

The answer isn’t a simple one and varies depending on a few factors such as your skin type, beard length, hair type and lifestyle factors such as level of activity and diet. Assuming that our readers shower daily, it is not uncommon for your beard to get wet every day. However, you should not be washing your beard with a beard wash daily, (I know, there’s a lot of rules to this, but hear me out). Over washing your beard can strip the hair of all the natural oils that are crucial for keeping it nice and healthy. I recommend washing just 2-3 times a week (depending on the lifestyle), unless you drop some sort of sticky residue in it which needs to be removed asap with a wash!