Split ends are the worst! We know! But where do split ends come from and how do you prevent it from happening?
Well, to recognize split ends occurring on your beard, you need to first figure out if you?ve got split ends. After your beard crosses a certain length ? it?s different for every guy ? your beard becomes rough. Now you wouldn?t want anyone your getting intimate with to feel that your beards poking them, right? :3
The second way to know you have split ends is that your beard will look like it?s unkempt. And no matter how legendary your beard looks, it needs to be kept tamed.
Lack of proper nourishment due to lack of Sebum Oil
When your beard follicles becomes too coarse and brittle, the tips of the follicles will eventually fray causing a split end. Every beard strand has glands called sebaceous glands at the root of every beard follicle. These sebaceous glands are finite in size and can only produce a certain amount of sebum oil every day.
There comes a point, and for every guy its different, where your beard gets so long that the sebaceous glands can?t produce enough sebum oil in order to keep the root and the entire shaft of the beard follicle well nourished.
This lack of proper nourishment from the sebum oil will cause your beard follicles, and in particular the tips of them, to dry out since not enough sebum oil is making it to the tip of the hair.
Eventually when your beard gets too long, it will gradually get more brittle and course, ultimately making split ends much more likely to occur.
Blow Drying Your Beard
DO NOT do this! Blow drying your hair completely dries off all your the entire shaft of your follicle. Having a dry beard means, SPLIT ENDS! And you don?t want that.
Blow Drying your beard also increases chances of breaking down your beard follicles as well.
Using Hair Shampoo As Your Beard Shampoo
Shampoos, just like beard coloring are loaded with bad chemicals that do a terrible amount of damage to your beard.
Shampoos usually will contain ingredients like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). SLS is used as a detergent in most shampoos and has the core purpose of completely stripping out any sort of sebum oils and moisture from your beard (or head).
In fact there have been recent articles that say that you likely aren?t receiving any benefits from a daily scrub on your head.
So How Do We Prevent Split Ends From Happening?
Combing Or Brushing Your Beard
Combing Your Beard
Combing your beard every day 3 to 4 times a day is rather enough for you to keep your beard healthy. But if you have a long beard, make sure that the space between the teeth are wide as you wouldn?t want tug and twist your beard split ends.
Your comb type is that you use one that is sawcut as opposed to stamped out of a giant plastic mold.
Plastic combs have micro-fissures that will tear and your entire beard follicle shaft with each stroke. Sawcut wooden combs are hand polished to ensure the teeth are incredibly smooth.
Using shears to trim your beard
I personally like using shears to trim off my split ends as it helps me to trim them out perfectly with ease, while shaping my beard the way I want it.
Beard Oils & Beard Balms
Beard product such as beard oil and balms do an incredible job in ensuring that split ends don?t occur.
These glands only produce a finite amount of sebum oil ? therefore only nourishing your beard to a certain extent.
When you apply harsh chemicals on your beard like shampoo, this effecitvely will strip out othe sebum oil. In addition, drying your beard with a blow dryer on the hot setting will also dry up the follicle as well.
This is where products like beard oil and beard balm exist in the first place.
They are wonderful supplements to the natural sebum oil that your skin is already producing.
There comes a time for every man that grows a beard where the beard length will out pace the the amount of sebum oil required.
This is when you know that you need a beard oils. All beard oils and beard balms are generally made of the same thing.
Beard Oils:1. Carrier Oils- To combat split ends, ?beardruff? and provide nourishment.2. Essential Oils- Fragrance.
The carrier oils in these beard oils are main source of nourishment to the beard. Carrier oils are the real thing. They keep your beard hydrated for hours. The essential oils only contribute to the smell and have little to do with the nourishment.
