How to Grow a Beard Properly: Week by Week

Grow a beard by leaving it alone for the first six to eight weeks, oiling the skin daily through the itchy phase, then getting a barber to shape it at around eight to ten weeks. A full beard takes about four to six months. Genetics set how thick it gets; patience decides whether you get there.

How long does it take to grow a beard?

Most men have a beard worth shaping after eight to ten weeks and an established beard after four to six months, though the speed and thickness vary a lot from one man to the next.

Typical timings. Your own beard may be a few weeks ahead or behind.

How long does it take to grow a beard for the first time?

Allow the full four to six months, and expect the first attempt to feel slower than that, because weeks three to five are when many first beards get shaved off.

The itch and the patches both peak around week four, so a first beard usually looks its worst just before it starts looking good. If you are in your teens or early twenties, a first beard may also be thinner than the one you could grow five years later.

Why does my beard itch when it grows?

New beard hair itches because the short, sharp-cut ends curl back against the skin, and the skin underneath dries out now that it is covered.

The itch usually eases after week five, once the hairs are long enough to lie flat. Until then:

1. Rub a few drops of beard oil into the skin after every shower, then work it through the hair. Our beard oil guide compares oils by price per ml.
2. Wash the beard with a gentle shampoo or beard wash every two or three days rather than daily.
3. Pat it dry instead of rubbing.
4. If you have to scratch, use the backs of your fingers, not your nails.
5. Brush the beard downwards once it is long enough. Even a soft brush helps the hair lie flat.

If the skin is red, flaking badly or sore rather than just itchy, see a pharmacist.

When should you trim a beard you're growing out?

Leave the length alone for the first six to eight weeks and have the first proper shape done at around eight to ten weeks, ideally by a barber.

Trimming early makes the patches more obvious, and hair you cut from the cheek line or neckline takes weeks to come back. The common mistakes:

• Setting the cheek line too low in the first few weeks, which leaves a harsh line once the beard fills in.
• Cutting the neckline higher than it naturally sits. Once it's gone, you wait weeks for it to regrow.
• Snipping individual stray hairs. They are usually slower hairs that will catch up.
• Shaving the lot off after one bad day in week four, when most beards look their worst.

After that first shape, a barber visit every three to six weeks keeps the lines sharp, and a trimmer with a guard handles the length at home in between. Our beard trimmer guide compares the main options, and the guard sizes chart shows what each number leaves.

Does shaving make your beard grow back thicker?

No. Shaving doesn't change how many hairs you have or how fast they grow.

Stubble feels thicker after a shave because the razor cuts each hair straight across, leaving a blunt end instead of the natural tapered tip. The hair itself is the same as before, so shaving over and over to "train" a beard just resets the clock.

How do you grow a beard naturally?

Give it time and look after the skin, because beard density and growth speed are mostly set by your genes.

The things you can influence:

• Time. Many gaps you see in week four are less obvious by week twelve, when the hair around them is long enough to cover them.
• General health. Sleep, a reasonable diet and lower stress help hair growth in general, though only at the margins.
• The skin underneath. Dry, irritated skin makes the itchy phase harder to sit through, and that phase is when many men give up.

Some things are sold as growth aids but do less than the packaging suggests:

• "Growth" oils. Most are ordinary beard oil with a bolder label. They soften hair and skin, but oil cannot grow hair where there is no follicle. Our beard oil guide covers what oil does and doesn't do.
• Biotin supplements. A deficiency can cause hair loss, but most people aren't deficient, and extra biotin is unlikely to help if you already get enough.
• Beard rollers (microneedling). There is some research on scalp hair and very little on beards.
• Minoxidil. Some men use it on the beard, but that is an off-label use of a hair-loss treatment, with possible skin side effects, and results can fade if you stop. Speak to a pharmacist or GP before trying it.

How do you grow a beard as a teenager?

Let whatever grows grow for a few weeks, and accept that a teenage beard is often patchy because facial hair keeps filling in through the late teens and into the twenties.

Nothing speeds that up safely. A short, evenly trimmed stubble usually looks better than a patchy longer beard, so if the cheeks are sparse, keep the whole thing short with a trimmer guard and try again in a year or two.

Can you grow a beard with bad genetics?

Yes, you can grow a beard, but your genes decide how thick and even it gets, and no product changes that.

What you can change is the style. Keeping it at stubble or a short boxed beard makes thin cheeks less obvious, and a barber can set a cheek line that works with where your hair actually grows. A goatee or a moustache with stubble can suit men whose cheeks barely fill in. Give it at least three months before deciding: many beards look much fuller at month three than at week four.

Looking after an established beard

Once the beard is established, at four to six months, the job is keeping the shape your barber set:

• Trim the length every one to two weeks with a guard.
• Tidy the neckline weekly, following the line your barber left.
• Tidy the cheek line every two to three weeks. It grows out slowly.
• Oil and brush daily, and comb it when it gets longer.
• Wash it every two to three days.
• See a barber every three to six weeks to reset the shape. Our Turkish vs traditional barber guide explains which shops tend to do more beard work.