Winter Beard Care

A winter beard will keep you warm, look manly and save you wasted time you'd have spent grooming in the outdoors.

But winter's affect on skin and hair also carries over into your beard. Avoid flakiness, dryness and more with these simple tips.

Cool showers

Advised for winter skin care issues, cool showers can prevent the loss of natural oils that the heat can strip away from your skin - especially skin covered by beard, where conventional moisturizers have a time getting through.

Leave Out the Soap

You've probably continued using the same soap you've always been using since ever, even after you grew out a beard.

A beard is hair. and using an ordinary body soap on your beard will dry it facial skin (under the beard), and lead to flaking. Instead, use shampoo, and rub it into your beard, just like your hair.

Change the shampoo if your usual isn't working - maybe something with added vitamin (B or E) and a bit of moisturizing ability. And don't be afraid to really clean out your beard, once in a while with dandruff shampoo.

If you do have beard dandruff, use a dandruff shampoo formulated with tar, coal, salicylic acid, sulfur, selenium sulfide, or zinc pyrithione. If your shampoo doesn't have even one of this, it's not a legitimate dandruff shampoo.

Dry Your Beard

Sounds obvious, but beard hair can really retain moisture. Since a lot of us are used to letting our hair dry out naturally, this carries over to our beards.

Completely drying out your beard is important because minerals in hard water can damage your skin's health. Blow dry if you're in a hurry, or get a brush, a dry towel (specifically for your beard) and dry, comb and dry some more until your beard is fluffy. Then use a beard oil a few times a week to help it grow strong and to moisturize it.