beard help

[WorkingMike]

Any of you fellas have experience with growing a beard? I'm 3 months in and it's getting pretty unruly. I'm aiming for an epic viking biker he-man beard, so i don't want to trim it back, but I grow a Hagrid apparently. I'm starting to feel like Peter Griffin here, family of birds and all

Anything you guys use to tame it and keep it soft? Conditioner just makes my beard greasy.

thanks for any help, my Man-ucation didn't cover this

[PeteRock]

There are various specialty beard conditioners and cleaning products on the market and you might be able to find them at places like Ulta or local salons that offer specialty services for men.  You can also find them online by doing a basic Google search in case you can't find what you're looking for at a nearby brick-and-mortar store.  They're designed to avoid that greasy film left from regular conditioners and are also supposed to be gentler on your face.  I'd also recommend using a quality beard trimmer to hone things in and tame the scraggly look.  But that's more an aesthetics question based upon your ultimate beard goals, although shaping and trimming can make a beard more comfortable and certainly more visually appealing.  Shaping/trimming will also help you to guide your beard into the direction you're going for while avoiding that "I'm just letting things grow without restraint and will find time to shape it up later" look. 

[leo8877]

I'm rocking the beard right now, but I keep it at the #3 trimmer level. 

[Covenant]

I would shoot for something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi24D9lHqc

[USMC Kato]

Lol and good job to Pete for posting his reply 10 minutes after the thread was created. Fabulous!! 

[corruptrelic]

Have you checked out www.beards.org yet? (Yes a website and forums dedicated to beards!) Some good tips, tons of pictures and beard types, and of course forums.

I just recently shaved my beard off and am completely clean shaven but feel naked almost.. (Don't get any ideas CeeKay - remember HepC still reads these forums and you're in enough trouble for the naked pictures of Elton John he found in your dress.)

Going to start growing it back to something short like a 1, if you can even call that a beard. Have to have some facial hair.

I like the look of Greg Goodrich (Medal of Honor producer) but unfortunately the job I'm going into only allows 'neatly trimmed facial hair' and so I can't let it grow out much beyond 1".

   

[CeeKay]

I would shoot for something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi24D9lHqc

holy crap that was epic.

[PeteRock]

Lol and good job to Pete for posting his reply 10 minutes after the thread was created. Fabulous!! 

[WorkingMike]

thanks for the replies! I bought some Wild Man oil, so i'll try it out and see if it works. My job is pretty much just me and I can do damn well what I want, so I'm going all caveman with it. Hopefully my marriage will survive.

And Pete is indeed The Man for jumping right in!

[Doopri]

Hopefully my marriage will survive.

This is great, by the way.  Good luck

[kratz]

My tips, being bearded, and having had at various times epic viking biker beards:

1. You gotta cut it back at some point to get a uniform length.  You sort of missed the best time for this.
2. You gotta shape it, you can't just let it go.  My shaping thoughts are: earlier on, as it is getting going, think of making sort of a subtle goatee within a beard, and keep it shorter at the top of the beard (along the cheekbones).  It's like a bonsai tree, you gotta tell it where you want it to grow when you start out.
3. Wash it very, very rarely.  I mean, if that shit gets dirty or gets food in it, wash it, and keep it clean, but generally the best thing for your beard is to be left alone to sort itself out.