5 Easy Tips For Straightening Your Beard

While many of you love an unruly, rugged mountain man mane, we know there are loads of you Kingsmen out there who prefer the neat and tidy look of a straight beard. We’re not here to choose a side, but if you ask us, there’s plenty of room for both styles in the beardopshere. But, if you are a Kingsman who prefers a neat and tidy straight beard at least some of the time, you might be wondering how to achieve it. How can you tame those wild wisps and pull out a straight look for the office or a formal event? 

Straightening your beard can be a challenge. You might try endlessly to comb your facial hair or apply layer after layer of beard butter or beard balm, to no avail. Sure, you might be able to get those whiskers straight for a minute or two, but slowly, they pop right back into their wiry place, and you’re back to the rugged lumberjack look in no time. How do you tame that beard? 

In this post, we’ll go over some of the most tried and true methods for straightening your beard. We’ll discuss the best products to choose for a straight mane, and we’ll go over some of the best techniques for a straight mane, so you can achieve the look you want and have it last all day. 

Learn how to straighten beard hairs

Beard hair is different from hair on your head. It’s much more coarse and wiry, which poses a challenge to achieving a straight beard. If you don’t know how to tackle this problem, it can take up a considerable amount of time as you’re getting ready for the day, and let’s be real, Kingsmen, none of us has enough time to justify that. So, let’s take a close look at the different tips and tricks the pros use for how to straighten beard hairs, no matter how coarse and unruly they are. 

Methods for Straightening Your Beard

So, how can you straighten your beard? What tools might you need, and what are the best beard care products or beard care kits to use to achieve a straight mane? Here are 5 of the best tips we know to get those whiskers to behave. 

Choose a Beard Balm With Beeswax

Not all beard balms and beard butters are created equally. While beard butter is a styling product, it offers extremely light hold and is best for taming flyaways. Many beardsmen choose this product over beard balm because they’re looking for deep conditioning and moisturizing, which beard butter offers in abundance. Beard balm tends to offer medium to medium-strong hold depending on the beeswax content in the product you’ve chosen. If you’re looking to keep your beard straight for the entire day, you might opt for a beard balm with significant beeswax content. Beeswax is perfect for styling an untamed beard because you can warm it up and melt it with the heat of your hands, and once it has been applied, it hardens as it dries.

Pro tip: if your beard balm isn’t cutting it and your beard just won’t behave, take it up a notch and try mustache wax. This grooming product usually has a higher concentration of beeswax and provides a strong hold. 

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Use a hair dryer on a damp beard

Heat is often the key to hair that won’t behave, and it works just as well on facial hair as it does with the hair on your head. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Start with a clean, damp beard, fresh out of the shower.
2. Always apply beard oil after washing your beard and before applying any heat. 
3. Grab yourself a quality beard comb that won’t catch or snag your facial hair. 
4. You’ll need beard butter or beard balm at the ready. 
5. Begin to blow dry your beard by combing it upward and outward and aiming the hair dryer at the roots of your beard. 
6. As your beard dries, begin to comb downward while the blow dryer is pointed down as well. 
7. When your beard is dry, emulsify your beard balm or beard butter between your palms and fingers and distribute it throughout your beard, ensuring your reach the skin. 
8. Run your palms lightly over the outside of your beard to distribute the last of the product and smooth it down. 

You should have a nice, straight, and tidy beard after these steps. It may take some practice to get the combing motions just right for your beard, so it may not be perfect on your first try. 

Pro tip: If you’re worried about heat damage, grab yourself a heat protection hair spray from your nearest drugstore and apply it before you dry!

Use a heated brush

Heated brushes are relatively new on the market and are popular for straightening the hair on your head. Recently, however, some hair care brands have begun to release smaller heated brushes specifically for beards. You can use either type to straighten your beard, but you might find it easier with a smaller brush. 

Unlike using a hair dryer, though, you don’t want to use your heated brush on damp hair, or you risk singing and damaging those magnificent whiskers you’ve spent so long growing. Instead, after you wash your beard, apply your beard oil to the damp hair and then wait until it is bone dry before you jump in with the heated brush. Then, just run the brush through your hair until you achieve the desired straightness. Apply your beard balm or butter, and you’re golden! 

Pro tip: grab yourself a heat-proof hair styling glove from Amazon to make it easier to use a heated brush. 

Use a flat iron 

Using a flat iron is easy, but it can also be harsh on your hair. If you try it when you’re straightening your mane, start with the lowest heat setting first. You can grab yourself a quality flat iron on Amazon for $20, and it’s as simple as plugging it in, heating it up, and then running it through your facial hair from root to tip. However, like the heated brush, you’re going to want to start with a bone-dry beard that has been washed and treated with beard oil. It’s a good practice as well to make sure you’re using heat protection spray and only using your flat iron once in a while. Daily use could cause visible damage to your whiskers. 

Pro tip: when choosing a flat iron, a smaller product with thinner plates will be better for a beard than the larger versions of this tool. 

Use a beard relaxer

A beard relaxer or hair relaxer is a cream or lotion that contains chemicals that will relax or loosen curls and waves, making your beard easier to straighten. Too much of a chemical relaxer can cause damage, however, so this should only be used for special occasions. Too much hair relaxer can render your whiskers weak and brittle, and you might begin to notice increased breakage, dryness, and split ends. 

Using a beard relaxer is also time-consuming and requires patience. You will need to use gloves to apply the relaxer to your mane and wait for an amount of time specified by the product instructions before rinsing it out. 

However, despite the downsides of this product, it will do the trick and calm your wiry whiskers so you can sport a straight mane easily. 

Pro tip: In between beard relaxer treatments, make sure you’re deep-conditioning your beard with overnight beard butter applications. Just distribute it throughout your beard before bed and it’ll restore as much moisture as possible while you sleep. 

Straightening your beard is easy when you have the right tools and methods. The important thing for all of these beard straightening methods, however, is proper beard care in between straightening. Here are some tips to make sure your beard stays healthy and happy while you straighten it. 

Tips for a healthy beard: 

• Always wash with lukewarm water. Hot water can strip natural oils.
• Use beard wash instead of shampoo or other soaps. These soaps have harsh detergents not meant for your face. Beard wash is designed specifically for the skin and hair on your face. 
• Always follow up your beard wash with a beard conditioner to soften your beard and replenish any lost moisture. 
• Follow up a beard wash with beard oil. Apply it every day to a damp beard whether you washed it or not. 
• Allow your beard oil to absorb before applying any other product.
• Use a beard butter before bed to deep condition your beard while you sleep. 

Not only will your beard look neat, tidy and straight, but it’s going to be healthy and full, too. 

Kingsmen Premium offers a full line of beard care products and beard care kits to get you started with caring for your beard to prevent damage from straightening methods. Each product comes in our many coveted scents as well as unscented. Shop our line of beard care products today so your mane stays healthy through combing, washing, day-to-day life, harsh temperatures and all the straightening you’re planning on doing.