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You’ve been growing your beard for a while. But you just can’t seem to fill in those patches. You’ve been trying out everything but your beard isn’t really growing up to your expectations. We have all been there.
You are not looking to grow just any beard, you are looking to grow a full beard; a face full of hair. If you’re wondering how long does it to take to grow a full beard then you’ve arrived at the right place.
Today we debunk this mystery and uncover the truth once and for all. This is gonna be one long read so we advise you to grab your popcorn drinks. We will not only cover how long it takes to grow a full beard but also the factors affecting it.
As a bonus, we will also give you 12 maintenance tips so you can have a healthier and faster-growing beard in no time. So buckle up and slap your seatbelts cause this is gonna be a ride. Let’s dive in.
Facts About Beard Growth
First things first. We need to cover some facts about beard growth in general so you know what to expect. There are many factors that go into determining both the health and growth of your beard.
Understanding some of the characteristics of your hair might help you to better comprehend how long it will take for your beard to grow. Following are some of the characteristics and facts about a beard:
- If you’re wondering how fast does facial grow, then keep in mind that the average growth rate of facial hair is usually half an inch per month. It can be more or less depending on who you are and what your lifestyle is.
- Some people can experience a full 1 inch worth of beard growth over the same course of time an average individual would take to grow half an inch beard.
- The average length of a beard is anywhere from one to two inches so you might be having a beard that’s longer than average.
- Your beard will grow up to 36 inches at max because of the anagen phase (We’ll shed further light on this as we go on)
- If you’re wondering how long does a beard take to grow, then depending on what you consider to call a full-grown beard, the process of growing a beard can take you anywhere from 2-4 months.
- You’ll experience the biggest beard growth when you’re between 25 – 35 years of age.
- Testosterone drives the growth of a beard more than anything
How Long Does it Take to Grow a Full Beard?
If this is your first time growing a beard or have been for a while, you must have obviously asked yourself how long does it take to grow a full beard. Well, truth to be told there’s no clear cut answer or a one size fits all solution here.
Everyone’s beard is inherently different. What some people may grow in 3 weeks might take you 3 months to grow. Genetics plays an important role in this regard and the time to grow that beard can vary from two months to six years, depending on how long of a beard you are trying to grow. Nevertheless, go through the rest of this guide to form a better idea and understanding about beard growth.
Phases of Beard Growth Cycle
A beard growth cycle has 3 distinct stages. Your enrite beard life cycle follows and goes through these 3 stages only. Knowing this will help you get a better understanding about growing out your beard.Following are the different stages of beard growth:
Anagen
This is the first stage/phase of the beard growth cycle. In this stage, the hair keeps growing and then the cells divide rapidly in the hair follicles. This creates the hair shaft.
Duration of this stage is usually around 2 to 6 years. It can sooner or longer depending on your own individual genes though. During the anagen phase, your roots will divide continuously. Beard hair ceases to grow in this stage after a certain time.
At maximum, your beard will grow about ½ inch per month. (It is still subject to your individual hormones so growth rate will vary) But at the end of the day the duration is ultimately dependent on genetics.
Catagen
Catagen is the phase where your beard lies dormant and stops growing. The changes in catagen phase are not as rapid as its former anagen phase. Here the hair strands separate itself from the hair follicle. It attaches itself to the skin. This is also the shortest beard growth stage as well.
Sometimes, the blood supply to the roots can be completely cut off in this phase resulting in the hairs not growing anymore. This phase however is subjected to last for not more than 2-3 weeks.
Telogen
This is the final stage of your hair/beard growth. In this stage, new and upcoming hair works together on pushing the old or dead hair out of the skin causing it to fall off thus restarting the process of hair growth. The hair follicles grow back to the anagen stage once the old hair has shed.
The Telogen phase is basically making a switch to its anagen phase. This returning process is however slow and takes up to 2-4 months. The hair follicles slowly begin to return to the anagen phase. This means the telogen phase lasts somewhere between 2-4 months. It then begins the cycle of beard growth again.
Factors Affecting Beard Growth
A lot is going on when you’re trying to grow a beard and some of it isn’t under your control. That’s no different than hair growth in general, whether it’s on your scalp, face, or elsewhere, and many factors come into play:
Not letting it grow out
You see in order to assess the real growth of you beard you need to give it time. Sometimes it takes weeks and months to get your beard hair growing to a noticeable stage. Remember we said it takes at least 2-4 months for your beard to grow?
Some people end up cutting their beard or trimming it out of frustration before that timeline. This halts the beard growth altogether. So not letting your beard grow out is perhaps the number 1 reason that you are not growing a beard in the first place. This is one factor that you have control over. So, just have patience and let time do its magic.
Testosterone
We have already mentioned that testosterone influences beard growth and perhaps plays the biggest role in it. It is a key male hormone that regulates muscle mass, red blood cells, fertility, and fat distribution. Females do have small amounts of testosterone in their bodies, though not quite as high as those present in males.
The brain and pituitary gland regulate the development and amount of testosterone. This travels into the blood to fulfil the other essential activities.
So the question is how does this impact the growth of your beard. Well,for starters, testosterone plays a key role in the health of facial and scalp hair. People with more testosterone, at least in most situations, will develop thicker, broader beards than others.
DHT
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is also something that plays a vital role in hair growth and consistency of your beard. DHT is an androgen which tends to give people its masculine properties. Like testosterone, DHT also leads to the development of the beard. However, it can also damage your hair and scalp.
DHT is one of the major causes of male pattern baldness. Yikes! It reduces the scalp hair follicles which leads to it. So, a guy with a healthy and good looking beard may even be going bald due to elevated levels of testosterone and DHT.
Note that poor testosterone levels not only mean that you will get a patchy beard and moustache but also means you might not be able to develop one at all. So that also indicates that the growth rate of your hair is slower than that of a guy who has testosterone growing in his bloodstream.
Testosterone rates continue to decline as people age. Testosterone rates appear to decline by 1.6 percent per year after the age of 40. Ironically, the number of people living with low testosterone is not really uncommon. In fact, their numbers have risen up in the last few decades.
The good news is you can boost your testosterone rates, both naturally and artificially. However, the latter approach can include drugs, so proceed with care.
While they may be prescribed to treat specific conditions, we do not recommend you to try it out to counteract the age-related drop in testosterone levels.
Genetics
Of course! You knew this was gonna be on our list before you even arrived here. But we are only giving you the scientific explanation. So bear with us.
Your genetics tell us a lot about you. There’s that age-old mythical saying that if your dad went bald, you’ll have a premature bald too. If your father has a patchy beard and bald spots in places then that’s a good reason why you have the same too.
Again just because our father had a handsome luscious beard, doesn’t mean you’ll rock a thick one too. There’s a good chance his genes will lie dormant. Turns out your grandfather had patchy beards and his genes To put it into perspective, your genes may indicate the overall health and quality of your beard.
Age
Time is something that won’t stop. When time stops for us it ultimately results in our death. With every passing time, we grow older. We age. We mature.
Believe it or not, but to some extent, your age affects your beard growth. As we have said before that generally when you’re between 25-35 years of age, you’ll experience the maximum beard growth. However, there might be cases where people might still be able to grow it at a health pace even beyond the general age limit.
Smoking
Yes you’ve read that right. Smoking. We all know about the endless list of health hazards posed by smoking cigarettes. While smoking is linked to lung cancers, it also influences beard growth and there’s evidence that smoking may lead to hair loss. So this might be a good reason why you should opt-out of smoking
Stress
Multiple studies show that excess stress can result in slower hair development, or even hair loss on your scalp. Stress reduces immunity and a lowered immunity means less hair growth on the face and scalp. Do yoga/meditation to relieve yourself of your stress and effectively manage the growth of your beard.
Loss of hair because of hair is only just temporary. If you have lost hair due to stress or anxiety, there is every hope that it will start growing back until the stress rates return to usual.Loss of hair attributable to tension is usually just temporary. If you have lost hair due to stress or anxiety, there is every hope that it will start growing back until the stress rates return to usual.
Race and Ethnicity
The race and ethnicity is another aspect that may affect the development of the beard, but it has more to do with your beard’s thickness than with how rapidly it develops.
Asians have a tough time growing a complete beard whereas the Caucasians tend to easily grow a thick facial hair. African-American people may often consider it difficult to develop a complete beard (in length) although in any situation, again, that is not real.
Diet
Diet influences other facets of the life of one man, including his hair. A good diet will reduce the time it takes for a beard to develop, which lets the hair last longer in the anagen process. Foods high in vitamins A, B , C and E help boost the health of the bearde, as do foods containing magnesium, copper , zinc, selenium and silica.
Eat regular fruits and vegetables. They are high in vitamins, fiber, sodium and potassium. There’s a reason why they are included in every diet. Try to consume as much fruits as you can starting from apple, banana, strawberries, grapes and also vegetables like spinach, broccoli and others.
Most specifically, if you want to improve the growth of your hair, you need to eat a lot of protein. Foods such as beef , chicken, eggs, salmon, yoghurt, tofu, and others are a significant source of protein. Most health sources suggest that the amount of protein you eat every day should be about 25% of your caloric intake.
Exercise
Doing regular exercise not only keeps your strong and fit but also helps you maintain a healthy lifestyle. A healthy man faces fewer issues of growing out a beard as opposed to the ones who live an unhealthy life.
Doing regular exercises raises your testosterone levels which is the primary hormone responsible for beard growth as we mentioned above. Exercising also helps to improve your blood circulation which allows the blood to reach individual hair follicles and ensures an overall facial growth.
Deadlifts, squats, barbell rows, shoulder press, bench press – these 5 compound exercises and lifts will greatly impact your testosterone levels and send it skyrocketing. In addition, it’s recommended you do high-intensity interval training or HIIT training once or twice a week to keep your blood pumping.
For example, a HIIT workout might consist of 15 – 20 seconds of all-out effort followed by a 40 seconds rest period. Exercise is also a great way to relieve stress and anxiety which we already linked to hair loss.
Sleep
One that is often underestimated and often overlooked is the importance of sleep. During sleep, the temperature of the body decreases, leading to improved blood circulation, which in effect induces faster and fuller growth of the hair. Sleep recovers and heals your body and promotes the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) resulting in you having elevated levels of testosterone thus contributing to overall hair development.
You should add enough sleep to the ways you can improve your beard growth rate. Ideally, you can get eight to nine hours of uninterrupted daily sleep, as it helps to improve immune function and relieve stress.
Quality of Skin
Development and health of the beard also depend on the quality of the skin underneath. Sometimes people have beardruff, bumps and rashes which halts the hair growth process and might lead to infection, causing you to lose the entire hair itself. So keep your face clean with a moisturizer and regularly apply beard oil and beard balm.
12 Maintenance Tips for Growing Your Beard Long
This goes without saying that you’ll enhance your beard’s growth by properly maintaining it throughout the whole journey. Put the time in and take care of your beard and you’ll grow the best beard you can. Growing a longer beard is hard and maintaining it is harder. Follow these 12 easy to follow maintenance tips and you’ll be rocking face full of hair in no time
- Don’t trim your beard
- Keep it moisturized
- Avoid looking at the mirror
- Use Beard Oil regularly
- Develop your own total care regimen early
- Brush and/or comb your beard every day
- Judge your own beard, not get influenced by others beard
- Be patient
- Maintain a balanced diet
- Figure out the best way to eat with your beard and moustache
- Exercise regularly.
- Track your progress
You may also like: How to Soften Your Beard
There you have it. Beard Science at its finest. The mystery of the growth of your beard revealed. So now you know exactly how long it takes to grow your beard. Not only that but you also have a rough idea about the factors halting its growth and also how to prevent them and maintain your healthy-looking beard in the long run.
It is needless to say you will grow your beard if you have patience and follow all our above guidelines. We are hopeful you will have an amazing beard growth journey. Before leaving tell us and share with us your beard growing journey. How long did it take you to grow your beard to its full extent? Did you have any struggles while growing? Do you like a long beard or a shorter one?