The Secret to Drying Your Beard
Drying your beard is an inevitable part of the grooming process, so it’s important to make sure it is done correctly. Taking an extra few minutes to dry your beard correctly can add volume, thickness, and control.
Surprisingly to some, properly drying your beard can include a blow dryer. In our eyes, the blow dryer is a valuable but often neglected tool for men. Some may even call it a beardsman’s secret weapon. Sometimes your beard oils, combs, and brushes are just not cutting it, and you may have to bring in the big guns to get your beard under control.
In this article, we answer the popular question - Can you Blow Dry your Beard? The answer - Absolutely, but it very much depends on how you plan to blow dry your hair. Too much heat you risk split ends and dry, brittle beard hair while drying your hair too slowly can create extra tension on the follicles.
Keep reading for the science behind using a blow dryer, the mega benefits, and how to add blow drying into your beard grooming routine safely.
Blow Drying A Beard - Do’s and Don’ts
To keep it simple, we’ve outlined the most important do’s and don’ts for blow drying a beard.
Beard Blow Drying - Do's
- Apply Beard Oil before blow drying as heat protection
- Gently towel dry your beard before beginning to blow dry
- Continually move the blow dryer while drying your beard - leaving it on one spot too long can lead to heat damage
- Hold the blow dryer 6-10 inches away from your beard
- Keep playing until your find the method that works for you
- Grab a towel if you don’t have time to do the full blow drying routine - Even just getting it to 50-70% dry with a towel is more beneficial to your beard than air drying
Beard Blow Drying - Don'ts
- Rub your beard dry with a towel
- Use your Blow Dryer on High Heat - The lowest heat setting is best for your beard
- Blow dry your hair when it is soaking wet or bone dry
- Hold the blow dryer closer than 6 inches from your beard
- Give up on your first try - this method takes a little getting used to
- Simply let your hair air dry - this adds extra tension to your follicles and can lead to damage
How to Blow Dry a Beard - 5 Damage- Free Steps
Following these steps for the right way to blow dry your beard will not only safely dry your beard but also train and shape it.
Step 1 - Gently Pat the Beard With a Towel
Pat, do not rub your beard until it is damp, not soaking wet. The gentler you are here, the better. You want your beard to be around 70% dry before you start blow drying. As we mentioned earlier, applying direct heat to water trapped in your hair will boil the hair and lead to that pesky heat damage.
Step 2 - Apply Beard Oil as a Heat Shield
Apply beard oil to help hold in moisture and protect your hair and skin from heat damage. You will want to evenly distribute the oil throughout your beard with your fingers. Make sure to work the product all the way to your skin. Learn more about the benefits of beard oil.
Step 3 - Start Blow Drying On Coolest Setting
Turn the temperature down to the coolest setting on your hair dryer. Hold the blow dryer about 6 - 10 inches from your face and start drying your beard with the nozzle pointing downward. Don’t forget to keep moving the blow dryer around and not camping in one spot.
Step 4 - Grab Your Comb to Straighten, Tame, and Add Volume
While blow drying, use your beard comb to direct your beard and straighten out any particularly difficult kinks. Comb your hair upward while waving the blow dryer back and forth on that section for extra volume.
Step 5 - Condition the Beard
Once your beard is dry, grab your beard balm to rehydrate your skin and facial hair. Beard balm also holds all your hard styling work in place for longer. Just Grab a nickel-sized scoop, warm up in your hands and then apply from top to bottom to condition your hair and keep those flyaways at bay.
To apply these same tips to your hair routine, check out this video on how to use a hair dryer for men.
Why Blow Dry Your Beard?- Here’s the science
You might be asking yourself, why should I blow dry my beard when I can just let it air dry? When you let your beard air dry, the follicles swell with water. The longer the swelling continues, the more pressure is put on the delicate proteins that bind your hair together. Ultimately, this weakens hair and makes it prone to breakage. Blow drying your beard eliminates this extra tension by using heat to evaporate the water from the follicles quickly.
On the other hand, too much heat damages the cuticle - the outermost protective layer of each hair- by trapping water inside the core of your hair and essentially causing the water to boil. Boiling your beard hair is not recommended either.
The Korean Society for Investigative Dermatology did a study to compare hair drying options and discovered “using a hair dryer at a distance of 6 inches (15 cm) with continuous motion causes less damage than drying hair naturally”.
Best to Worst Beard Drying Options
- Best: Towel dry first and then grab your blow dryer to finish the job
- Better: Towel Dry until damp and let air dry the rest of the way
- Worse: Allow beard to completely air dry
This means grabbing your blow dryer and applying low heat, at the proper distance with constant motion causes less damage than simply letting your beard air dry. The quicker you can evaporate the water trapped in your beard, the better. But we get it - you’re busy! Even if you don’t have time to do the full blow drying routine, grabbing a towel and patting it halfway or mostly dry is better than just letting it air dry.
Benefits of Blow Drying A Beard
Speed Up Drying Time
The obvious benefit of blow drying is that it speeds up drying time. Not only is blow drying your beard the most efficient way to dry it, but it is convenient when you are on the go or for particularly thick beards that take a while to dry.
Style Your Beard
Sometimes, no matter how much beard balm or beard oil you apply, your beard just refuses to be tamed. That’s when you need to grab your beard comb and blow dryer to flatten any stray hairs, reduce frizz, and direct hairs to lay the way you want.
Add Body and Volume
Much like you may grab a blow dryer to add volume to your hair, you can use it to add volume to your beard. Combing your beard hairs upward from root to tip while you blow dry can add fullness and length to your beard.
Train and Straighten Your Hair
Applying heat to your beard allows you to gain control over the overall texture, shape, and direction of your beard hairs. Doing this to your hair a few times a week can train your hair and create “muscle memory” for your hair cells, so styling them will get quicker and easier.
The Risk of Blow Drying Beard- Heat Damage
It is true; heat - when misapplied, heat is not great for your hair and skin. The combo of speed and heat can leave your beard brittle and your skin dry and flakey. This can lead to beardruff, beard split ends, and patchiness.
Signs of Heat Damage-
- Beard split ends
- Dry, brittle beard hair
- Tangled beard hair
Okay, so you may be asking- So is blow drying your beard bad? Short answer - not at all as long as you know what you’re doing. You can use a blow dryer to dry your beard by placing it on the lowest heat setting. Avoid blow drying too close to your face, and make sure to use constant motion to prevent major heat damage. Applying beard oil to damp hair before blow drying works as a great heat protectant for your beard as well.
Final Thoughts
You now know that blow drying your beard is the safest and quickest way to dry your beard. Using a blow dryer not only adds volume and thickness to your beard but it helps straighten and style your facial hairs speeding up grooming time. But don’t forget - it’s important to use the right technique with the right products and tools to prevent damage. You’ll want to make sure you have your beard comb, beard oil, and beard balm in hand before you start drying.
Luckily, choosing where to buy your beard care products is easy. Cremo Products are created with astonishingly high standards - to meet your standards. Check out our full line of Cremo Beard Products.
