I happen to like the stubble look. I find it to a distinguished look that is slightly rough looking but not too abrupt and aggressive. When someone that is interested in you notices your stubble, their curiosity level increases. They are not exactly sure if they need to fear you or not, which can draw them in for a closer look and analysis.
I will guide you with a step by step plan for growing the best stubble beard that you can possibly grow. I will also explain how to maintain your stubble so that it will always look powerful.
1. Fresh Start
If you presently have a beard, you will need to trim it off completely and then shave so that you can have a fresh start with the growth of your stubble beard. Some men feel that they can simply trim down their present beard to a short length and then just call it a day. I feel that this not to the best way to go for stubble.
You need to start with a clean slate that you can build on. Your skin is not going to be in the best shape if you have a long beard. Skin maintenance is hindered just by the presence of a beard. Your skin is the foundation for the perfect stubble.
Use a beard trimmer on its lowest setting to remove most of the length of your beard whiskers. It is ok to take a quick peek to what your stubble will end looking like, but the next step is to shave your face. You should use a multi-blade razor like a Gillette Mach 3 or a Gillette razor that has 5 blades. Click here to see the pricing on the Gillette 5 blade Razor.
First of all, to shave off your present beard, hold a facecloth that has been soaked in hot water against your face for 30 seconds, and then for another 30 seconds, hold it up against your neck.
Now shave off your stubble going with the grain of whisker growth. Then, for the second pass, shave against the grain to ensure that you have the closest shave possible.
2. Exfoliate Your Face
Your facial skin will be full of dead skin cells since the dermis has an upper level that is made of almost exclusively dead cells. I know that that sounds revolting, but it is true. Before we allow the stubble to start to grow in, we want to make sure that be beard follicles are not going to be hindered in any way by these dead critters.
Add a small amount exfoliating cream onto your hands. It is OK to get a cream that has been designed for men such as Nivea Men (link to Amazon). I have noticed that quality is good enough and also it is less expensive than the creams that women can buy. Rub the cream onto your face using your fingertips.
To rub in the cream, using circular movements with your fingertips. There is no need to add lots of pressure, you just want to make sure that some of the cream has penetrated into each inch of your face. It will actually be absorbed by your facial skin quite quickly if you had just shaved. Shaving removes some of your natural skin oils leaving the surface relatively dried out.
Now just simply rinse off your face using warm water and then pad it dry with a clean hand towel.
3. Start to Grow in Some Stubble
This is the exciting step! You are going to start to grow in the stubble. There is not really a whole for you to do at this step. Although, you start to learn that growing the perfect stubble takes some patience.
After the first day, you will notice that your face is starting to look as if you simply had forgotten to shave it. That is probably what others are going to think also, so if anyone makes a comment, just smile and agree with them.
After 5 days, you will be well on your way to seeing the final result. The length is approaching one-half inch which is the average length of a good stubble beard. Nevertheless, if you look closely, you may see a few patchy areas that are going to frustrate you to no end if you were to over-analyze them.
Do not worry, if you notice any patches, just let your stubble grow for another day. Also, you need to realize that most people will not even notice the patchy spots such stubble is supposed to be more sparse when compared to a full-fledged beard.
Four to five days is just a guideline length of time, the period of growth could be longer or shorter. It depends on your genetics.
4. Deciding on the Perfect Stubble Length
Since genetics plays a major part in the look and feel of your stubble beard. You will have to decide on the perfect length for you. It will vary from person to person. Personally, I need to have a length that slightly longer than someone that has solely black whiskers. I am in my fifties and I have salt and pepper whiskers that cover my face.
My skin color is dark most of the year, especially if I am in the sun often during the summer and fall seasons. When I have stubble beard, the darker skin is highlighted by the black and white mixture in my beard. It is very noticeable.
For someone that has a dark beard, they can have relatively short whiskers that may only take a few days to grow to the perfect length. Black whiskers are apparent almost immediately, more along the lines of a 5 o’clock shadow. A 5 o’clock shadow happens when someone can grow a portion of a whisker within 10-12 hours.
If you have very light hair and an even lighter beard, the length that you will need will much longer than someone that has a dark beard. The whiskers are less visible from a distance and sometimes they may even be thinner. I have noticed that sometimes whiskers are quite thick if they are black. For a quick trim for the perfect stubble length, use a trimmer that works well for stubble. Click here to read my stubble trimmer picks.
5. Time to Add in Some Beard Oil
Once you have started to grow out your stubble beard, you also should start to add beard oil to your facial skin. Now wait a minute, you may be saying to yourself. Beard oil is a beard, not for stubble. This is a false statement. Beard oil is for facial skin, and do not do much for the beard. Whiskers are already oiled up. Follicles allow sebum to ooze onto the whiskers to keep them slick to protect them. I recommend the classic beard oil by Honest Amish (link to Amazon).
Beard oil is designed to penetrate the skin to protect it and to keep the follicles operating correctly.
When you are shopping for beard oil, your best bet would be to buy one that has natural ingredients. No one wants to add strange chemicals to their face because of the high-level sensitivity of the facial skin. If you were to read the label on a beard oil product and there was a list of strange chemical-sounding ingredients, put down that bottle or tube and move onto the next brand.
Personally, I only purchase beard oil that is 100 percent natural and that also has a slight fragrance. You will notice that when someone is attracted to you, they seem to more draw to you if you have a pleasant fragrance that is light. For instance, some beard oils contain a coconut fragrance, or that have a slight odor of lavender.
I feel that you need to add beard oil to your face at least once a day and also after every shower.
6. Start to Shave Underneath Your Chin and also Shave your Neck
Now it is time to start to shape your stubble beard to make it more apparent and structured. The portion of your beard that is under your chin and also your neck region need to be shaved each morning now. Besides those two areas, you should create an upper border to your stubble beard by shaving off any strays whiskers that have grown on your cheeks.
It is best to use a shape razor that has plenty of blades so that you will be able to remove as much of a whisker as possible. The cleaner the shave that you accomplish, the shaper looking your stubble beard will become.
If you do not shave adequately these regions, your stubble beard will have a messy look that may discourage you. Some people become discouraged at the prospect of daily shavings in a precise fashion. They may even give up on keeping their stubble. Once you have noticed how positively people react to a good stubble beard, you will gladly groom it.
7. Apply Sunscreen Daily and After Showering
A lot of men do not believe in using sunscreen. It may be true that a man’s skin is tougher than that of a woman, but that is not a good enough reason to allow your facial skin to become damaged by harmful UVA and UVB rays.
My mother is the person that was able to convince me that daily use of sunscreen is a good practice. Even when it is cold and cloudy, certain rays can cause skin damage. You need to protect your facial skin in order to have a healthy beard. You follicles penetrate into your dermis and your dermis is on the top layer of your skin. If your dermis is damaged, the integrity of your follicles could become compromised.
I am not suggesting that you squeeze a whole tube of tropical heavy-duty sunblock onto your face. Simply buy a sunscreen that has a rating of 15-30 SPF and massage some of it onto your beard area and even on the rest of your face to protect your skin. I recommend the sunscreen for men by Jack Black (click to see pricing on Amazon).
Personally, I have a relatively large nose and I need to add sunscreen of a level of 40+ SPF onto my nose. Otherwise, the sun will redden my nose and take away the attention from my stubble beard. This may be the case for you also.
8. Be Patient and You Will Succeed
If you are becoming impatient with the growth rate of your stubble beard, you are not alone. A lot of men fear that when they start to grow it out, others will notice that they have a messy looking growth on their face and that they will assume that they were simply too lazy to shave.
After several days, the structure of your stubble will start to look more organized.
What you need to realize is that we are all different. Your body may take longer to form strong stubble. Do not compare yourself to another man that seems to be able to grow a full beard in a few days. What is great about having a stubble beard is that it does not require long whiskers.
When growing a full beard, you will have to become innovative sometimes when dealing with different growth patterns based on the angle of follicles or even dreaded patches that have to be hidden.
As long as you are exfoliating, adding beard oil, and structuring the outline of your stubble beard, you are greatly increasing the probability that you will end up with a striking stubble beard that others will envy.
9. Good Food is the Key to Stubble Growth
You need to have healthy skin to sport a strong stubble beard that will be shiny and vibrant. I know that it might sound silly deducing that food is the secret key to healthy whiskers, but the health of the follicle that produces a whisker is crucial.
Here is a short list of foods that are great for the skin:
- Eating a few organic Brazilian nuts each day
- Having 2 hard boiled eggs daily that are high protein is great for the skin
- Eggs are also high in biotin which is beneficial to skin cells
- Beef, a red meat, has a high level of protein and also lots of saturated fat
- Both of these properties help to increase your level of testosterone which is great for beard growth in general
- Fish has protein and B vitamins
- B vitamins aid in hair and whisker production and they also apparently can help to repair skin damage
10. Maintenance – the Crucial Step
Now that you know how to grow your stubble beard, the next logical step is learning how to maintain it. I will explain to you how you can ensure that your stubble is always in tiptop shape.
Once your stubble is at its ultimate length for you personally, you will need to use an electric shaver on it on a daily basis. The best thing to do is to adjust your shaver to a low setting (not the lowest though) and to trim just a small portion of your stubble close to underneath your chin.
You are doing so to see if this particular setting is perfect or not. If you are finding that it is not low enough to cut into your stubble, adjust it to an even lower setting and attempt to trim under your chin again. Once the shaver starts to cut into your stubble, you will know that that setting is perfect for maintaining the correct length.
On a daily basis, you this setting, trim your stubble to keep it always at the same length.
Sometimes you will find that stray whiskers are going on your cheeks, it is best to use a bladed razor to remove this growth. You need to ensure that you remove as much of these whiskers as possible to maintain the structure of your stubble beard.
Also, inspect your nose from time to time. This might sound weird, but sometimes whiskers can grow on the surface of the nose. Again, use your trusty razor to keep these whiskers at bay.
The most important portion to shave with a razor blade is the neck region to keep your stubble highlighted. Do not use an electric razor, because it will be harder to remove completely a whisker with it. This would not matter if you were to grow a beard, but stubble is short and you do not want it to compete with the tiny whiskers that remain after using an electric razor.
Special Note: Be careful when using your razor around your Adam’s apple. This surface is not flat and you will need to shave it using a series of short strokes.
With respect to skin care when maintaining stubble, as mentioned in an earlier step, you need to exfoliate twice a week. Also, it is prudent to add sunscreen to your face each day even if it is cold and cloudy outside. Plus, add some beard oil to your stubble and to your face after tending to your stubble and also after each shower.
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