It is advisable to clean your beard at least once, preferably twice a week with a beard shampoo (or beard soap as some find finer, this is entirely personal) based on natural ingredients to stimulate beard growth. Shampoo and conditioner with artificial ingredients can cause irritation and therefore itching (red spots), so it is best to avoid these.

Itching

If you experience itching it can help to hydrate your skin with a natural beard oil. This is only temporary, because your skin adapts to your new beard growth and eventually the itching stops automatically. If you really still suffer from it then you could try extra fat baby oil (note: your hair also get a shine boost). The itch phase lasts for a maximum of 3-4 weeks.

Shave beard

Decided to shave your beard anyway? First use the beard trimmer to 1-2 centimeters, and then shave with a razor blade.

Stimulate beard growth and grow the beard faster

In this part we share our findings in the area of ??beard growth and whether it is possible at all to make your beard grow faster by means of extra remedies and / or nutritional supplements. We notice that there are a lot of contradictory articles on the internet, so to make things a bit easier we have already filtered the marketing bullshit for you. So you read our conclusion after we have placed and compared a mountain of material.

Is this then the definitive knowledge concerning stimulating beard growth? Maybe, maybe not. It is in any case what seemed most logical to us. Hopefully you’ll get something done!

Body hair is regulated by hormones

Some men have a lot of chest hair where others have hairy legs again. This difference is due to the amount of androgens that are produced during puberty. Each body has so-called “hair hair” (invisible hairs). Vellus hair that is nourished by androgens changes in some places in ‘terminal hair’ (the hair you now have everywhere on your body). The production of androgens is then again influenced by two male hormones, namely testosterone and dihydrotestosterone.

Testosterone ensures the thickness of the hair and stimulates the hair follicles

Dihydrotestosterone provides the number of hair follicles and the density of the hair follicles
This is also the reason why women do not have facial hair. Women have too few of these hormones in the body to stimulate facial hair, despite women also have hair follicles in the face.

Beard growth is genetically determined

Whether it is reserved for you to grow a beard is up to your genes. Whether you can grow a full beard (so without white patches or bald spots) is genetically determined and you can do little else. But you also only get to know this when you decide to leave your facial hairs. If you have already experimented with growing a beard and you notice that you are blessed with the good genes then you must have tried at least once in your life. Maybe it’s not for you, maybe you choose to never shave your beard again.

The speed with which your hair grows depends on both your genes and testosterone in your body.

Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle is directly burned with the quality of your facial hair. Think of things like a diet with enough vitamins and proteins, stress and sleep. Vitamins and minerals ensure healthy hair follicles . If these are lacking in your diet, your beard will become dry and look unhealthy. Just like the rest of your body, your hair follicles need enough nutrients to function properly. In addition to your diet, you can choose to swallow certain vitamins that stimulate beard growth (= accelerate beard growth). You can read more about this in the section on supplements. And last but not least: a good night’s sleep. The consensus (at least at this moment ..) is that 6 hours per night is the minimum you need.

Blood flow and cardio

Regularly doing cardio or strength training promotes blood circulation in your body. This also means that the hair follicles in your body benefit from this.

Weight training

Resistance training is one of the better ways to stimulate beard growth. Through the effort you give your body a valuable testosterone boost.

Night’s rest

Night rest is important for growing a beard. Good sleep ensures less stress. And less stress creates a nice beard. Science dictates a minimum of 6 hours of sleep for adults.

Stress

Stress is literally a killer. Stress prevents the growth of hair and in many men it even causes hair loss, so also on your face! The reason for this is because stress creates the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol has been proven to counteract the production of dihydrotestosterone.

Alcohol

A few beers or hunter bombs are fine, but research has shown that too much alcohol suppresses the production of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. This therefore directly affects your beard growth.

Avoid unnatural shampoos and creams.

Many ‘skin care’ products such as face cream, shower gel and shampoos contain BPA (the packaging) and parabens. These substances are so-called anti-drugs and have a negative influence on the production of testosterone.

Accelerate beard growth through balanced diet.

Below you can quickly find the most obvious sources for minerals and vitamins. If you want to deepen this, we recommend the MyFitnessPal app, in which you can register and measure your macros and nutrients.

The dream of many men is in a short time and without much effort to build a muscular body. As you can understand, this is of course not realistic and you really have to work hard for it. But what is feasible? How many months or years does it take to build up that muscular torso and what do you have to pay attention to? I explain to you the basics on the basis of 4 important steps.

How fast do you build muscle mass?

We know from experience that beginning male athletes can build up about 3-5 kilograms of muscles in an optimal situation in the first year. For starting female athletes this is about 2-3 kilograms. In addition, the amount of muscle mass that we can build up annually after this first year decreases. This is also called the reduced surplus yield . In short, stories about ‘gaining’ 5-10 kilos of muscle mass in a few months is not realistic. Do you want to know more about this subject? Then read this article about muscle mass.

Step 1: Motivation and Behavior

Everything starts with the right motivation and a good plan. If you are not really motivated, I can say with 90% certainty that you are not achieving your goal.

Consistency is very important for the development of muscle strength and muscle mass . In other words, the months / years of your training, diet and that gives your body enough rest. Do you skip your training for a few months? Or are you sloppy with your diet or sleep pattern? Then you can forget your progress! In short, give priority to your goal.

It is important to understand what motivates you and what your obstacles are. A good plan helps you with this. Read here about drafting a plan that suits you.

Tip: Find people around you who motivate you. This way you will keep it longer.

Step 2: Training

To build muscle mass, you must start with strength training . In strength training it is advisable to work as a starting athlete with a training schedule. This way you know better what you are doing and whether you are on the right track. We are happy to help you on your way with our free example fitness plans and this comprehensive article explains how to set up your own training schedule. Furthermore, I advise you to take a closer look at the training and training laws . Furthermore, I advise you to go through these two extensive articles about progressive overload and these handy training tips from coach Nick.

Step 3: Nutrition

By only diving into the gym, you are not there yet. You should also pay attention to your diet. If you want to speed up the process of muscle building, I advise you to eat more than you need. Your muscle cells need energy and proteins to grow.

For proteins, proteins are important for muscle building. Your body needs about 1.4 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to effectively build up muscle mass. For example, a man weighing 80 kilograms must eat about 120-150 grams of protein. But also pay attention to the number of carbohydrates and healthy fats . Do you want to know more about this and what the right ratio is? Here you can read what a good distribution of the macronutrients is.

Step 4: Recovery

Building muscle mass is very difficult if you sleep too little and do not maintain a good work-rest ratio. Give sleep priority! The amount of sleep you need differs per person. Generally you have slept well enough when you wake up well rested. Sleep is important because your body recovers at night so that your body recovers faster and your mind prepares for a tough workout and workday. Do not underestimate this part! Do you want to know more about this subject? Read more about the role of sleep here .

In addition to sleep, it is also important to build up your training and also plan periods where you can restore your body from all those heavy training sessions. How you build this sensibly, coach Erik explains you in this article about periodisation .