Beard split ends isn’t something new. In fact, every man who grows his facial hair may have experienced the exact same thing ever since the beginning of mankind.

Needless to say that split ends weren’t among a man’s top priorities back then.

Nowadays, with the continuous interest of men in growing their beards, certain facial hair problems started becoming of greater importance.

You should know by now that beards are cool. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it.

And there’s more than enough evidence that this strong interest in facial hair won’t diminish anytime soon.  Rather the opposite.

They’re everywhere. Men keep obsessing about them and women seem to love them.

Even this blog has covered extensively beard related topics, praising their beauty and the masculine look they give to a man.

I’ve had a beard for years, shaved it and then started growing it again. And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve got one too.

Growing your mane isn’t something easy to any man. And it’s not only about stop shaving like you’ve probably heard before. It’s also about having the patience to keep your beard healthy and well groomed.

Walk around and you can easily pick out men with the most patience.

You probably guessed that right, they’re the ones with long beards.

And we’re not talking about guys that forgot how razors look like but more like the ones that care about maintaining a presentable state of facial hair.

When was the last time you heard a man talking about split ends?

Beard split ends, beard itch and dandruff are a few of the problems that you can solve with a good beard oil

Image courtesy: GeorgeRudy/BigStock.com

Even though beards are cool and fashionable, most men sport trimmed beards that are no longer than an inch. There’s also a good chance your beard isn’t long enough to twist with a finger.

A routinely trimmed beard is very much mainstream and most men have a particular setting on their trimmer at home to keep it at exactly the length they like.

However, this article isn’t about the mainstream beard. So what the heck are we talking about all this time?

This one is about an issue that more men than you expect actually have to deal with – beard split ends.

As a man, split ends are the sort of issue you’ve heard about because of any one of three reasons:

  1. You have long hair
  2. You have a long beard
  3. You’ve heard your girlfriend talking about it

Besides being an annoying facial hair problem, there might be quite a few causes for beard split ends. Such problem that can ruin your well-crafted look rather quickly.

If you’ve gone down the less beaten path and patiently waited while your facial hair grew majestically long, you’re going to have to learn to deal with beard split ends.

Here’s what you need to know:

What are beard split ends and what causes them?

One tip for growing a beard is to look out for split ends early enough. Cure them before they become a bigger issue for the health of your facial hair

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Split ends, as the name suggests, is a case of hair strands splitting at the very end where they’re most visible.

Hair strands start to split up and look like a piece of string unraveling. The hair starts to fray at the edges and as one expects, it’s not the most attractive picture. It’s also easy to spot, which doesn’t really help if you want to keep your beard appear decently groomed.

Split ends is scientifically known as Trichoptilosis, and it happens mostly because of damage to your hair. In other words, it means that the hair is weak, it doesn’t hold up well and starts to split.

There’s a lot of reasons for beards -and generally speaking hair, to go weak.

It could be down to a bad diet or it could simply be because of exposure to some horrible sort of chemical.

Common chemicals in your shampoo, hair dye and hair styling products like pomade or gel could be making your hair weak, which makes it really likely to split down the middle.


Think of a tree and imagine if you tossed heavily toxic substances on it for a few years. You’d imagine that the leaves would fall away and the bark itself would start to come apart.

That’s what is happening at the hair root level. Apologies for the illustrative example.

Besides your diet and the use of hair styling products, beard split ends might be caused by a complete different reason.

Even though it’s highly unlikely, here’s another thing you should probably know: copper transport disorders such as Menkes disease and occipital horn syndrome are very likely to cause split ends.

I don’t want to worry you for no reason at all, but it’s good to keep this in mind if you happen to see excessive beard split ends. So, get checked for these diseases and see if that’s the reason your beard hair is fraying up.

But enough with the worrying. Let’s get back to less serious causes for split ends.

Since your beard hair is very similar to your head hair, it’s just as likely to split.

Although, for beards the reason is more likely to be lack of nutrition, since dyeing beards is not very common anyway. Excessive heat and mechanical stress is also a common reason for split ends.

Now that I picture this in my head, I highly doubt there are a lot of guys going around ironing their beards to straighten them.

How to cure beard split ends

Curing beard split ends by properly trimming it with a scissors or beard trimmer before applying any product

Image courtesy: Dean Drobot/BigStock.com

So, now that you know what split ends are and what causes them, let’s see how you can cure them and maintain a beard healthy.

Well, the simple answer is reverse the damage caused.

Go back to basics and really get your beard the nourishment it needs to start growing healthy again.

The very first thing you need to do is trim it. That’s what most people do with split ends on the head.

Cutting the ends that have split apart makes it less likely to spread. In case you are wondering, yes split ends spread.

So, if you can go for a shorter beard style that requires a regular trim, you may be able to control this wildfire of splitting hair strands.

On the other hand, if you like to let your beard grow free and wild till it reaches biblical god proportions, you need to start looking after other aspects of your lifestyle.

Other natural ways to deal with beard split ends

One interesting way to cure your split ends is avocado. And I’m not talking about eating it.

The oils from avocado moisturises the hair and its proteins make the beard softer and prevents the hair from drying.

One way to do it is make smashed avocado and massage it onto your beard. Leave it for 10-15 minutes and wash it off with cold water. In our family we call it guacamole time 🙂 Although it doesn’t benefit from the great flavors brought by onion and garlic. You don’t want that in your beard!

Alternatively, if you want to stay out of the kitchen, you can also use avocado oil that is widely available in shops and online.

Another all natural way to reduce or even cure beard split ends is to start washing your face and hair with cold water without soaps that cause beard itch and dryness.

When you wash your beard with cold water, your hair cuticles lie flat and in turn, this can reduce the split ends.

How to prevent beard split ends from making their appearance.

Keeping a beard healthy and soft is a great way to reduce beard split ends eliminate beard itch and prevent beard dandruff

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As with everything, the best cure is prevention. Therefore, there are a few things you can do in order to avoid experiencing any split ends.

And the good thing is that you don’t have to do much to maintain your beard healthy.

Let’s take a look at a few ways to prevent them from making their appearance.

Hydration

One of the key ways to maintaining any part of your body healthy is to keep it hydrated.

That goes for your hair as well as your skin. Lock in the moisture and you’ll have healthier hair and skin than before.

Beard hydration can be done either by using a hair conditioner or a leave in treatment. Alternatively, you can also use natural oils like palm oil which makes a great job nourishing the hair.

Other natural oils that you can use is argan, jojoba, hemp seed, sweet almond, coconut oil. All these have been proven to be great for making beard softer (and hair). It’s no coincidence that the same oils are found in many skin care and hair care products of many popular brands.

Condition your beard

For your beard, that means using some sort of beard conditioner.

Luckily, there’s a ton of different sorts of great beard oils and you can take your time to pick the best. Just make sure you apply it daily after a shower and before you go to sleep.

Beard oil and balms contain the type ingredients that can make your beard soft. It’s the same kind that you find in hair conditioners and other type of hair care products.

Common ingredients in beard care products are the same oils we noted earlier. Oils such as sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, argan oil and coconut oil.

If you look carefully on the best beard oils and balms out there, they usually contain a combination of these oils in their mix. As mentioned, these have been proven to be beneficial for hair softening, promoting growth and moisturizing the skin.

We’re going to discuss later on how to use it effectively in a grooming routine.

Use quality beard grooming tools

Trim your beard when you want to go to a serious meeting. Very long beards don't look as professional as you might think

Now, if you remember, one of the most common reasons for split ends is mechanical pressure.

Fortunately, guys don’t have to worry about damage from ironing rods or hair straighteners. But there is one way to put your whiskers under pressure – combing and trimming.

Low quality beard grooming tools are the number one reason why guys get beard split ends. And they get them because they mistakenly think that the quality of their combs, brushes and trimmers isn’t of great importance.

Next thing you know, split ends appear and you’re still wondering how this happened in the first place.

If you’ve got a low-quality comb that tends to get tangled in your beard and pull it up from the root, you’re likely to get ingrown hairs and split ends. Cheap plastic combs tend to tear the hair with their uneven teeth.

One good way to start towards better grooming is by getting a better quality beard comb or brush (preferably one made with soft boar bristles). Then you can simply comb your beard after you’ve massaged in some beard oil.

Now with a natural hair brush, we’ve got a whole different story.

Boar bristles will make your beard noticeably softer after a few uses. Due to its good backbone, will also help with cleaning from dirt and any products you applied already.

Boar brushes are perfect to use them after you applied beard oil or your favorite beard balm and then spread it out evenly across your beard. This way the beard care product reaches every spot on your beard and in addition, you make your beard softer by repeatedly brushing the hair.

Trim your beard only with well maintained tools

A good and sharp pair of scissors is necessary for cutting the beard at the desired level and clearing it from split ends.

Avoid cheap scissors that aren’t sharp enough at all cost. They can damage the hair and it can be a cause of split ends more often than you can think of.

With that being said, avoid using beard trimmers especially if they’re not well maintained.

Due to the way beard trimmers cut the hair, there’s a big chance that will damage your hair because of “chewing” the strand instead of slicing it.

If you’re not 100% sure that you’ve got the best beard trimmer possible and its blade is well oiled and decently maintained, prefer only scissors when it comes to shaping your facial hair.

Wash and condition your beard with the proper products

Of course, all this is going to be useless if you haven’t paid attention to the way you clean your beard.

Dirt and debris doesn’t have much to do with split ends. However, the chemicals in your beard wash or shampoo may be causing some accumulating damage. It doesn’t seem obvious in the beginning but you start noticing it when it’s already too late.

In fact, if you use some sort of heavy-duty, hyper aggressive shampoo while bathing, there are high chances that this might be the root cause of your problem.

Read the labels on your shampoos and make sure to switch between them to find one that cleans the best and does the least -if any, damage to your beard.

All natural and completely organic shampoos work the best. Again, that’s only in my opinion and based on my personal experience.

Alternative methods to reduce beard split ends

Maintain a healthy beard free of split ends and beard dandruff. Moisturise and soften on daily basis and your beard will love it

Image courtesy: Oleg Baliuk/BigStock.com

For some guys, a deep-conditioning hair mask might work better. These are just like your regular face mask creams, but they are designed to mask your beard hair and keep it conditioned.

Apply it and leave it to soak for at least half an hour before rinsing it out.

Improve your diet

Another thing you’ll have to consider is whether or not you’re getting your daily dose of protein.

A lack of protein is very likely to be the reason your beard hair is giving up and losing integrity.

Hair is basically made of protein (keratin) and this means that it would be a great idea to include a lot of eggs, meat, soy milk, beans and fish in your diet to keep your hair healthy.

A great way to combine those last two remedies is to make a hair mask at home using eggs.

What you want to do is mix 2 teaspoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of coconut oil and crack one egg, mix it all together in a bowl and apply it to your hair. Leave it in for a quarter of an hour and then rinse it out.

Avoid habits that make your beard dry

Finally, if you want to reduce beard split ends, don’t dehydrate your beard by using a hair dryer to dry it after a shower.

Or at least if you do it, make sure you use beard oil right after so you keep your beard moisturized.

Grab a hand towel to dry your face after showers and nothing else.

And dry your face before you get out in the cold. We already mentioned earlier that wind and cold temperature can make your skin and hair dry and finally gets split ends.

Routine that can help you

Routine works best when you want to start making lasting changes to the way your beard looks.

Here’s a basic weekly routine for your beard that can prevent split ends step by step:

  1. Trim your beard once in two weeks and make sure it’s an even length throughout, preferably with a sharp pair of scissors. Cut out the hair strands that are starting to show signs of splitting the minute you notice them. This helps tame the spread of split ends.
  2. Shampoo every couple days with a chemical-free, natural shampoo. Once you’re done, make sure you dry your beard well.
  3. As noted, dry up the beard only with a towel (not a hair dryer).
  4. Use a beard oil or beard balm in the morning and beard oil once again just before you go to sleep. Only apply these products on a clean and towel dry beard.
  5. Brush your beard with a natural hair brush. Boar bristle brushes carry the natural oils of your skin and facial hair and spread it across. It will make your beard softer and healthier.
  6. Use the beard brush before and after you apply beard oil or balm. Before, to straighten, detangle and clean your beard and after to spread the product evenly across the face.

That’s the most basic and simple routine you could stick with to prevent beard split ends, beard itch and potentially even hair loss.

Products that can help you with your beard grooming routine

We’ve already talked about several products that you can use on daily basis. Not only for getting rid of split ends but also for your overall beard grooming routine.

Among these products, you’ll need some beard oil, conditioner, a top quality beard comb with wide teeth or beard brush and a trimmer and finally, why not, a hair mask.

None of these are rare items and you’ll find a ton of variety in every department or men’s grooming store. But here’s a list of some of my favorite products that can help you curb split ends:

Get rid of beard split ends for good

Split ends are annoying and unattractive, but with a little TLC you can get rid of them completely and curb them forever.

Follow a simple routine with discipline or adopt a few things that we talked about in your current routine. With patience and time, your facial hair will get healthier and stronger which will prevent beard splits ends make their appearance again.

If you have any routine that you’d like to share with us and it isn’t included already in this article, feel free to share it at the comment section.

 

Main image courtesy: GeorgeRudy/BigStock.com