Bearded men might have half of their face covered up with hair, but that doesn’t mean that the skin underneath can be ignored. Ignoring the skin underneath your beard can lead to dryness, itching, and even beard dandruff. So, it’s imperative to build a grooming regimen that not only nourishes your beard, but also supports the skin beneath it. 

After all, that’s the same skin that houses your facial hair follicles, so keeping it healthy will benefit hair growth. Plus, if and when you do shave, you want to make sure the skin under there looks as firm and youthful as ever, so don’t ignore it just because it’s covered up.

But any guy with a bushy beard knows how hard it can be to hydrate the skin underneath with a regular cream or gel moisturizer. It clumps up, and rarely reaches the skin. Your whiskers seem to be sabotaging the effort. Luckily, there are a few simple adjustments that can be made to enjoy the benefits of a full skin care routine.

Here are our skincare tips for bearded men. Keep them in mind as you grow out your whiskers, or if your beard (as well as the skin underneath it) is feeling parched.

You will still want to use a regular moisturizer on the exposed parts of your face, ideally one that is SPF-packed during the daytime. Apply it all the way into your beard line so that you know you covered everything that the sun touches. (Cardon’s won’t leave a chalky residue and absorbs easily, sans clumping.)

But then, swap in beard oil for the bottom half of your face. Beard oil easily reaches the skin, absorbs just as simply, and also hydrates the whiskers themselves. This strengthens and softens them, to prevent breakage and itching. Beard oil is effective even if you have naturally oily skin. It is lightweight and won’t clog the pores or leave skin suffocating—assuming you’re buying a tested, FDA-approved blend (and not some janky brand with un-researched results).

That’s one big misconception about face and beard oils—that they’re counterproductive for people with oily skin. In fact, they often help tone oil levels and reduce sebum production, since the skin is extremely responsive to any products applied.

Put a few drops on your fingertips and massage them across your skin (under the beard), then comb through it all to evenly distribute the oils around the hairs. We recommend incorporating a beard oil treatment at least once weekly into your regimen, too. Do this at the same time as wearing a hydrating mask, after cleansing in the evening. Cardon’s Bamboo Charcoal Mask combines both steps (the mask and the beard oil treatment), and even includes a beard-friendly mask that won’t dangle off your fuzzy face. And on that topic…

In the same way your scalp gets dandruff, so does the skin under your beard. This can be caused by either too much sweat and oil building up (causing fungus), or a lack of nourishment and hydration (causing dryness). Suddenly your beard looks like you dipped it in a snowglobe. Hydrating the skin under the beard is one imperative first step (as outlined in the first two tips), but exfoliating is another step that helps lift the dead skin cells. It can be done easily in two ways, as opposed to the standard-fare facial scrubs which will only get trapped in your beard.

First, you can brush out the beard with a boar brush, ensuring you whisk the brush across the skin itself. This will help keep dead skin off the face and can be rinsed out in the shower. (It also helps detangle the beard and coach it into place, though it should never replace a beard comb which will help style the beard and distribute beard oil.) 

Secondly, you can apply an exfoliating serum to the skin under the beard after cleansing and drying the face, or use a face wash with the key chemical exfoliation ingredients (as long as it doesn’t dry out the skin). Look for ingredients like salicylic acid, lactic acid, or glycolic acid, which will dissolve dead skin cells all over the face and promote a healthy, clear complexion (salicylic acid serum in particular helps unclog pores, and is great at treating active dandruff). Regardless of how you choose to minimize flaking and dryness, be sure that exfoliation is part of your weekly regimen, and aim to exfoliate once or twice a week.

Unlike moisturizer, cleanser is easy to distribute all throughout the beard since it builds a lather and has less viscosity. However, you do not want to use a cleanser that dries the skin out and aggravates beard dandruff or itching. Instead, choose a face wash that nourishes while it cleanses. 

Use a beard oil to condition your beard, as well as the skin underneath it. It can absorb easily into the strands, helping to soften them and reduce itchiness and brittleness, as well as to improve natural shine. Beard oils can also help prevent beard dandruff by nourishing the skin beneath the facial hair.

Yes, you should moisturize your beard every day (and the skin underneath it, too). And you should wash it every day, as well as exfoliate the skin under there 2-3 times per week. It is important to maintain a full skincare regimen, even when the skin is hidden beneath facial hair.

Skincare for bearded men isn’t all that different from skincare for bare faces. The main difference is the means of moisturizing the skin, which is difficult to do while using regular cream hydrators. So, prioritize beard oils for this aspect, which will also condition beard hairs. The oil is easy to apply past the hairs and onto the skin. Use a beard brush to exfoliate the skin underneath the beard, and regular cleansers that build an easy lather in order to reach the skin under there.