The lengths some guys go to achieve the perfect beard are surprising. Some luxury beard balms sell for over $300/lb. In a survey by OnePoll on behalf of Honest Amish, 18% of men said they would give up sexual intimacy for an entire year to achieve the perfect beard.
Right now, our culture is in the thick of a bearded renaissance. While a large part of our beard fascination might be trendy, it’s psychologically distressing for some men who don’t have the beards they want. Men who can’t naturally grow a satisfactory beard have three options:
- Stimulate new growth with supplements and skincare
- Get facial hair implants
- Get a facial hair transplant
Fortunately, the full beard you’ve always dreamed of is possible.
Beard Popularity
While the then-deemed “metrosexual” man of the early 2000s has been interred somewhere in a forgotten Napster graveyard, the more recent epitome of attraction is the “lumbersexual.” A rugged, flannel-clad man with a thick, shaped beard.
Men spend more time on social media, where appearance is central to the platform. Looks do matter. Men can only turn left or right if they see an advertisement for a straight-blade razor or a male beard grooming kit.
In the dating world, the odds are also in your favor. The dating service WhatsYourPrice.com surveyed over 2500 women and found that 60% liked facial hair. Just over 50% of the women who wanted facial hair liked both a beard and a mustache (as opposed to one or the other).
But what if you can’t grow sufficient beard hair? There are plenty of guys just like you who just can’t seem to grow a full beard. There is no shame in that (it’s mostly genetic).
How and Why Hair Grows
Androgens are hormones that give guys their male characteristics. Testosterone is the most common androgen, and it regulates hair follicles, changing hair follicles from growing tiny, invisible hairs to more prominent, pigmented hairs.
Hair protects you from UV damage from the sun. Hair helps keep you warm in the winter, camouflages you from predators, and was possibly even used to intimidate your rival ancestors. Scary.
When you hit puberty, testosterone and another androgen called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) stimulate hair growth on your face, pubic area, and armpits. And, if it stopped there, everything would be fine and dandy.
But, as some men age, a higher percentage of their testosterone converts into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is the androgen responsible for male pattern baldness. But here’s the kicker: DHT is also responsible for facial hair.
Your scalp follicles are sensitive to DHT, but your beard follicles are not. Your beard needs DHT to survive.
Reasons Why You Might Have Less Beard
Your full beard–or lack of it–usually comes down to something you can’t control: Genetics. Genetics plays an overwhelming role in what kind of beard you can have. If your ancestors had robust beards, you could also have strong beards. But, there can be actions you can personally take which inhibit beard growth.
To switch lanes for a second: One interesting theory for bald-headedness is that it’s a male thermoregulatory compensation for the heat trapped by your beard. Whatever the case, a common remedy for hair loss in men is to prescribe them a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor called “Finasteride.” The logic is simple. Block the production of DHT, and you’ll stop accelerated scalp hair loss.
Switching back: What often goes unrealized is that DHT is needed to promote ongoing beard growth. If you are taking a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor to slow scalp hair loss, you might also be inhibiting beard hair growth.
Natural Remedies for How to Grow a Thick Beard
Here are some natural ways to achieve your perfect beard (giving up sex for a year is not a recommendation):
- No matter how it looks, let your beard grow out for at least three months.
- Get a healthy amount of diet, exercise, and sleep. An unbalanced lifestyle that does not incorporate diet, exercise, and sleep will lead to stress. Stress affects hormone levels, and you don’t want less of it since DHT is responsible for beard growth.
- Take biotin supplements (but the efficacy research is limited).
- Use beard oil or facial skin moisturizer.
Facial Hair Transplant Surgery
If you have a patchy beard, no beard at all, maybe you want to:
- Look older & more refined
- Have more confidence
- Accentuate jawline
- Fill in spotty beard growth
- Disguise scars or aging
If these reasons resonate with you, you should consider a beard transplant. You have two options: Hair implants and Hair transplants.
Hair implants are synthetic hairs that are inserted into dead follicles. Your body might reject them, and they could even cause skin infections. We don’t recommend this. Perhaps the best option for you would be a facial hair transplant.
In a beard transplant, we harvest donor hairs from another part of your body, like your back or the side of your head, and graft them onto your beard. The procedure takes a few hours.
The transplanted hairs will start shedding over the next 1-5 weeks but regrow over the next several months. You can have the beard you always dreamed of.
Hair Restoration NYC
We are Hair Restoration NYC. We’re in the Upper East Side right down the street from Central Park on East 84th Street. We are the facial hair transplant NYC experts, and we can’t wait to begin your journey toward restored & revitalized hair.
Our team of resident doctors has many years of experience treating people like you get the beards they want. Contact us today to get the process started.
Sources:
[1][4] Kinter, K., Amraei, R., & Anekar, A. (2023, July 30). Biochemistry, Dihydrotestosterone. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557634/
[2] H;, C. M. (n.d.). Beards, baldness, and sweat secretion. European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3203673/
[3] A;, M. K. (n.d.). Finasteride: A review of its use in male pattern hair loss. Drugs. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9951956/
[4] Patel, D. P., Swink, S. M., & Castelo-Soccio, L. (2017, August). A review of the use of biotin for hair loss. Skin appendage disorders. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5582478/