Scratching at your face isn’t attractive. People might even think you have a real problem. When you’re stuck with an itchy beard after shaving, it’s the worst. Feeling like you want to tear at your skin or obliterate your beard isn’t the answer. Especially if you spent a long time growing it out, getting rid of an epic beard is sad, and it should only be a last resort. Luckily, I looked into the issue, and there are plenty of things you can do to scratch the itch or avoid it altogether.
The Simplest Solutions for Itchy Beard After a Shave
Just as frequently, the problem with an itchy beard after you shave is a different kind of hair poking your skin. When you shave, your razor cuts the hair off at an angle. This leaves a very sharp tip, which is a lot harder to see than loose pieces from your shave.
There are two solutions to this problem. The first is for hair outside the skin, and the second is for short, pointy hairs underneath your skin. You have to handle the different issues in different ways, or your face will still itch.
After Shaving Put This On Your Beard to Reduce Itch
Dry, coarse hair is naturally more abrasive and itchy, especially after shaving. With the longer, visible hairs, you need to treat the hair and soften it up. Interestingly, this has the added benefit of making your beard look outstanding. Fortunately, the fix is simple enough.
Use a product like St. Pierres Best Sandalwood Beard Oil after you shave will help condition and soften the hair, so those sharp ends are less firm and pokey. Not only will your hair and skin feel more agreeable, but it smells incredible, and softer hair won’t poke as much, which reduces itchiness. St. Pierres is so good it sells out fast, but you can check availability by clicking here.
Treat Your Skin to Reduce Itching After You Shave
To reduce beard itch below the surface, your beard oil helps, but there’s more you can do. When you shave, especially with a multibladed razor, the same action that lifts the hair and gives you such a close shave also causes a problem. Those hairs fall below the surface of your skin.
The result is that you can end up with thousands of hairs poking you from inside your own skin. An average man has over five million hair follicles on his body. Your beard has seven to fifteen thousand hairs. That’s as many individual hairs as a woman’s legs and underarms combined, so it’s a lot of itch.
Especially if you shave parts of your beard smooth, like the upper cheeks and neck, you need a great aftershave. Skip the stinging splash your grandfather kept in his medicine cabinet and opt for a modern upgrade.
My favorite is Lather & Wood Shaving Company’s Best After-shave Balm. The non-drying formula is a treat on dry, itchy skin. I also love that the ingredients are organic, which is good for your skin and the planet. You can get a bottle right here.
Grooming your beard is an involved process. If you skip steps, you’re more likely to end up feeling itchy and having additional irritation. You can even end up with ingrown hairs, acne, and rashes. That won’t help you reduce the itch at all.
Growing a New Beard is Itchy Regardless of Shaving
No matter what you do or how you shave, you should know that growing a new beard is always a little itchy. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort. New growth is a phase, and it will pass quickly enough. It only takes about one to three weeks to get past the stage where your previously shaved facial hair is irritating the follicles as it grows out.
The best thing you can give a new beard is your patience. After that, make sure you’re using an excellent beard-friendly wash for your face. Having the right beard wash is also essential, but we’ll get back to that in a moment. Most importantly, keep a bottle of excellent beard oil on hand at all times.
Detangling a mess of ingredients can be tricky. Simplify the process by looking for a product with all-natural ingredients. At least you’ll be able to pronounce everything on the label. Then find a beard oil that uses Argan or Jojoba as the main ingredient. These are known as carrier oils.
Jojoba is very similar to the natural sebum your skin produces. Hence, it has almost the same effect on hair and skin. Meanwhile, Argan oil is a fantastic natural thickener. Regardless of which you use, they’ll both help reduce tangles and itchiness. Moreover, these oils will help naturally strengthen your beard hair and cut down on breakage for a much better all over look and feel.
Saving an Itchy but Established Beard
New beard itch is one problem, but what about established beards? If you itch after every shave and other times as well, then you probably didn’t do all you could to keep your beard in great shape while it was growing out.
Stop! Before you grab a razor and waste all that effort, you should know there’s a simple solution. Pick up a container of Bluebeards Original Wonder Beard Intensive Repair by clicking here, and fix what ails you. It will only take a few minutes to rejuvenate your handsome whiskers and get them back on the right track.
More Ways Shaving Can Make Your Beard & Face Itch
Beyond simply cutting off your hair, and causing the sharp ends to poke you, shaving can make your beard itch in other ways. If you notice any of the following problems, then you need to handle them accordingly so you won’t need to scratch all the time. Moreover, that much scratching will irritate your skin more, leading to a vicious cycle.
- Razor Rash- Men with sensitive skin or bad razors can quickly end up causing razor rash. An itchy red face is avoidable. Try switching out your shaving creme for something that is formulated to reduce rash.
- Nicks & Cuts- If you’re not careful, or you have bad techniques or equipment, you probably have some nicks and cuts. Healing is itchy as hell even when it’s tiny spots.
- Acne- Let me be clear. Shaving doesn’t cause acne. However, it can make acne worse. Be sure to use an appropriate acne treatment for your skin type if you have a lot of zits.
- Ingrown Hairs- Everyone gets an occasional ingrown hair, but men get more on their face. Shaving with a top of the line multi-blade razor might make your face feel smooth, but it also causes the cut hairs to fall further under the skin’s surface. That can lead to extra ingrown hairs and more scratching.
- Folliculitis- The condition known as Folliculitis is often mistaken for acne. Unfortunately, it’s not. Instead, your shaving routine is causing infected follicles in your hair. It’s time to clean and upgrade your shaving kit. In extreme cases, you may need to see a dermatologist.
All of these shaving related problems might be causing some of that itch. If it’s more noticeable after you shave, you should change up your grooming routine.
Use a Different Razor to Reduce Beard Itch
Perhaps the easiest and most overlooked way to reduce shaving related itchiness around your beard is to upgrade to a ‘throwback’ razor. A single blade safety razor might look like something your grandfather would own, but it has some pretty distinct advantages.
Modern guys have been sold a line by companies who say you ‘need’ more blades and a closer shave. Passing a razor over your skin two or five times with every swipe could be leading to more itchy skin.
For greater comfort, consider going back to a classic. My personal choice for the best safety razor is an Obsidian Black & Rose Gold Plated ‘The Chieftain Odin’ Double Edge Safety Razor by Vikings Blade. Not only is it gorgeous to look at, but it also leaves the skin feeling much less abused than a modern disposable. You can have one of these beauties for your own by clicking here.
Itchy Beard After Shaving: Brush it Off
Getting rid of your post-shave beard itch might be so simple that it’s ridiculous. It may seem obvious, but even the brightest guys miss things sometimes. When you shave, the loose hairs don’t always go where you’d expect. Often men who have an extra itchy beard after they shave are just bothered by some excess hair.
If you’re only suffering from cut hairs, there’s a super simple solution. You need a beard brush. Brushing out the excess hairs will take care of most of the problem, and a good beard wash while you shower off the little leftover hairs will handle the rest.
I suggest the Zeus 100% Boar Bristle Pocket Beard Brush for Men. You can get one right here. It’s small enough to be portable, and the first-cut boar bristles are outstanding. Even if you have a very short beard that doesn’t otherwise need brushing, a good boar-brush after you shave will get rid of the loose hairs.
The Other Benefits of Brushing
Getting rid of all those annoying little hairs will undoubtedly help you itch less and breathe a sigh of relief. However, regular brushing will help you in another way too. The skin replenishes itself over time, and the dead skin cells need somewhere to go.
You can’t shed like a snake. More importantly, the dead skin cells can get trapped on the surface of your skin. This leads to clogged pores, clogged follicles, and itching. Using a good boar bristle brush a couple of times a day helps remove those used up flakes of skin.
Not only will this make your beard and skin look better, but you’ll be less itchy over time too. Plus, a brush will scratch the surface of your skin a little, which feels great, and it looks much less creepy than clawing at your face.
Brushing your beard regularly will also help train the hair. Practice makes perfect as they say, and it’s true. Using a brush to ‘tell’ your beard, it needs to grow downward instead of straight out, will make it more manageable.
Shower Away an Itchy Post-Shave Beard
You can always opt to scrub only your beard, but most men prefer to shave and then shower. It cuts down on itching in other areas where those little beard hairs end up after you shave. Plenty of guys prefer to shave after they shower. The hair is clean and soft. Especially if the scratchy issues seem to go further than your face, you should switch up your routine.
You can always pre-soften your beard before you shave in other ways. Relax with a hot, slightly damp towel around your face just like you might at a salon. You’ll feel incredible, and the hair will be easier to shave.
Keep in mind, your beard is hair, and it needs washing as often as the top of your head. In fact, you might want to scrub your beard more often since the hair on your head doesn’t get food and other things on it as quickly as your facial hair does.
Shampoo & Conditioner for an Itchy Beard After You Shave
Just like your scalp, your face needs a particular type of shampoo. Don’t make the mistake of using soap since it can leave a residue that will contribute to itching. Similarly, you shouldn’t use your head-shampoo on your face.
If you want to avoid itchy-face, use a great beard wash and conditioner. I prefer the Polished Gentleman Beard Growth and Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner Set, which you can get from Amazon by clicking here. They work well together, and while the company may have a fantastic, humorous presentation, the products are effective. No joke.
Using the right wash and conditioner on your beard is an essential step. A great shampoo will get any residue, food, and excess oil off your hair. Meanwhile, using a beard conditioner designed for the coarser hair of your beard helps pre-soften before you add beard oil and styling products.
Styling Products Can Cause Itchy Beard
In the words of the iconic Jaleel White (Steve Urkel), “Oops! Did I do that?” Sadly, the truth is that you might be causing your own beard itch when you style after shaving. The products many men put in their beards can cause allergies. Likewise, the ingredients in certain products can cause further irritation.
Soap Makes Your Beard Itch
If you’ve been using regular soap on your face and beard, you need to cut it out. Ordinary soaps, like the kind you’d use in your armpits, are not suitable for your facial hair or skin. The drying effect of regular soap will cause your beard to become brittle. Likewise, a facial cleanser that dries out oily skin is bad news for your chin warmer because you need that oil to keep your hair soft.
Your body produces an oil called sebum. Women make it too, but a lot less than men because they have thinner skin and less face and body hair. The same oils that can make your skin greasy also help keep your beard from breaking off.
Unless split ends, unevenness and a generally scraggly and unkempt beard is the look you want; then you need to make sure you aren’t stripping all the sebum from your hair and face when you wash.
Hair Styling Products Can Make Your Beard Itch
The same thing I just said about soap is also true of many hair styling products. You should never use gel, like you would spike your hair with, to curl a mustache or tame a beard. Similarly, hairsprays and other typical head-hair holding products are meant to go on a different kind of hair and skin.
While some men mistakenly believe they don’t need any products for their facial hair, others think any-old-thing will do the job. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Think of your body as a complex machine. What works to seal the wheels is not useful for keeping the rust off your undercarriage. Use the products you need in each specific area, and you won’t need so much maintenance to keep things running.
When you’re looking for a great hold to sculpt or tame a beard, you need a beard-product. In this case, beard balm is your new best friend. A good balm gives you both the ability to style and a leave-in conditioner to soften that prickly hair. My top pick is Smooth Viking Beard Balm with Leave-in Conditioner. You can get your own tin by clicking right here and start treating your designer stubble like it belongs there.
Get Rid of an Itchy Beard Without Removing it
Shaving isn’t always the problem with an itchy beard. Luckily, it also doesn’t have to be the solution. There’s no need to let all that grooming, patience, and styling go to waste. Unless you think there’s a serious underlying problem, you should be able to resolve your beard-itch woes by changing the way you groom and manage that glorious face pelt.
Don’t give up until you’ve tried all these wonderful ways to reduce post-shave beard itch. Even then, consider talking to your doctor or dermatologist before you give up on rocking your beard like early 90s ZZTop. A beard is a terrible thing to waste.
Final Thoughts
There’s no good reason to suffer from an itchy beard after shaving. From moisturizing to addressing skin conditions and more, you can solve beard-itch problems with ease. The only reason to keep scratching is laziness.
Instead of suffering, take action. Upgrade your grooming to the next level. A healthy beard and face are more attractive. Plus, being annoyed all the time stresses you out and can affect your overall health.
It may be embarrassing, but if you try everything and you still can’t scratch the itch, maybe it’s time to see a dermatologist. Your doctor can help you determine if there’s something more than irritated skin. Don’t be afraid to ask. You’re worth it.
