Plucking, otherwise known as tweezing, is an economical and easy way to get rid of gray hair. However, beard hair plucking may not always be the effective and safest way to set yourself free from unwanted hair.
Get to know the effects of beard plucking, pros, and cons, and is it better than shaving? We will tell you everything that is there to know.
Plucking your beard once or twice in two to three months is fine; however, you should not make it a habit. Shaving makes sense when you have grayer beard hair. Plucking your beard once, also, won’t stop it from growing.
If you don’t like gray hairs obviously you can dye your beard.
Now, if you want to get rid of beard hairs permanently there are other ways to do it.
Let’s discuss.
Will Beard Plucking Stop Beard Growth?
The answer to the above question is yes if you continuously keep plucking your beard hair.
The area from where you keep plucking your beard will stop having any growth. Let us explain why.
If you have a habit of plucking, our suggestion would be to stop doing that because beard plucking can indeed stop beard hair follicles from growing.
Your beard hair is susceptible. Even though plucking beard hair one or two times won’t cause any damage, continuous beard plucking will.
When you pluck your beard hair, your beard hair follicle gets traumatized, which is why it sends across a message to stop growing hair in some areas.
Depending on how much beard hair you remove through plucking and in which area, you might start seeing bald patches. The hair growth will suddenly stop from particular areas, leading to bald patches.
Beard plucking not only makes you have bald patches in different parts of your cheeks and neck, but it irritates as well. If you have a thick beard, then our suggestion would be to go for shaving or trimming.
Beard Plucking vs. Shaving
You take a look at the mirror to get ready to go outside, and lo and behold, you suddenly see gray hair peeping out of your cheek and neck. Now you have two options, shave or pluck the gray hair.
Beard Shaving
Beard shaving is a painless experience, and that’s the biggest pro. It won’t make your beard grow or make it thicker. When you shave your beard, the color, thickness, or rate of growth never changes.
The only thing that happens is that you will start seeing your beard hair growing in a day or two. This happens because shaving only cuts the end of the beard hair.
So, if you have a bunch of gray beard hair, then yes, beard shaving will be a better option.
However, it has a drawback as well. You might not want to shave if you have only a few random gray beard hairs appearing in different areas.
If you shave, you will have to shave the whole beard. Plus, you will require shaving cream, a sharp razor or trimmer, and then aftershave lotion.
You can check out our recommended trimmer here on Amazon.
Beard shaving becomes difficult when you have ingrown hair. So, beard shaving is recommended only when you have lots of gray beard hair and you are fine shaving the whole beard.
Pros
- Beard shaving is always quick and easy. It lets you to get rid of long and frizzy beard hair super-fast. All you need is a good-quality razor to shave your beard hair.
- Beard shaving causes no pain at all. If you want an effective and painless way to cut your beard hair, shaving is the best solution.
- Beard shaving can be done whenever you want.
Cons
- Beard shaving can leave ingrown hair. When you apply a razor, it changes hair follicles’ growth direction, which leads to ingrown hair.
- Shaving might not be suitable for all skin types. If you have extra sensitive skin, shaving can irritate your skin direly.
Read Also: Does Shaving Make Your Beard Thicker?
Beard Plucking
With beard plucking, the growth rate of your beard hair will become slow. However, beard plucking is an excruciating process.
To pluck your beard hair, you will have to buy a tweezer, which is readily available at the market. It will cost you around $10-$20, and you are good to go.
You don’t need to prep your beard for plucking. Beard plucking makes sense only when you have just a few gray beard hairs. If you have time and don’t mind the painful sensation, then yes, beard plucking could be a solution.
Since plucking will remove the beard hair from its roots, the gray hair won’t develop anytime sooner. You can pluck your beard hair and forget about it for at least a few weeks, and that’s a huge advantage.
Not that beard plucking is not a safe process, but the only unpleasant experience you have to endure is the pain.
Pros
- Beard plucking becomes convenient when you have a few gray hairs. It can let you get rid of them quickly.
- During beard plucking, you have full control over it. You can accurately get rid of the unwanted beard hair without making any mistake.
- Beard plucking is inexpensive, and the results last longer.
Cons–Beard Pucking Side Effects
- Beard plucking is a tedious job. If you are new to it, it might even end up taking an hour or so.
- Beard plucking is not a painless process. It hurts.
Which one is better?
Depending on the amount of gray beard hair you have, you can choose the method accordingly. If you have more gray beard hair, go for shaving, but beard plucking will be the right choice if it is just a few.
However, make sure you don’t pluck your beard hair continuously. That’s a big NO. with regular beard plucking, you will start seeing bald patches!
Read Also: Beard Waxing: Is It Good?
Tips To Stop Plucking Your Beard
If you are someone who plucks his beard almost every day, then you might have something called Trichotillomania.
And it’s time to do something about it because it is a bad habit. Trichotillomania is a serious issue. It makes you pull your hair unconsciously.
Sadly, this is a problem that most of us have, and it ruins the majestic mane of our beard. Some people randomly pluck their beard hair even if there aren’t any gray hairs.
However, the good news is that you can get rid of this bad habit if you try.
But the journey to stop plucking won’t be comfortable for those who pluck their beard regularly and mostly unconsciously.
Here goes a few tips that we think will help you.
- Wet Your Beard Hair
Plucking wet beard hair is really hard. If you struggle with beard plucking problems, one thing that you can try doing is simply wetting your beard hair. Damp hair becomes slippery, and it becomes challenging to pluck wet hair.
- Trim your Beard
The shorter the length of your beard will be, the harder it will become to pluck your beard hair. This is also an excellent way to hide gray hair.
- Use Beard Comb
Here’s another thing that you can do. Buy a good quality beard comb, and carry it with you wherever you go. If you feel like plucking your beard, take out the comb instead, and comb your beard. Keep doing that until you get rid of the problem.
- Band-Aids to the Rescue
One way to consciously prepare your mind not to pluck beard hair is by putting band-aids on both of your thumbs. Band-aid will keep you aware that you need to get rid of the beard plucking problem.
- Try Mindful Training
The best way to come out of the beard plucking issue is to make yourself aware that you have a problem. Observe your thoughts, but don’t be judgmental. Prepare a diary, and keep writing the number of times you have plucked your beard hair. Go through the journal daily, and you will start seeing the difference.
- Visit a Psychologist
If nothing works, we highly recommend to go and see a psychologist. A psychologist can help you feel relaxed with Cognitive-behavioral therapies, which could turn out to be pretty helpful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
Beard plucking is normal until you do it just a few times in two or three months to get rid of unwanted gray hair; however, you should never make beard plucking a habit because it can have repercussions.
Also, beard plucking won’t help your beard grow faster or thicker.
Take care of your beard as much as you take care of your scalp hair.
If you have the habit a plucking then please try to stop it! It doesn’t help you at all!
If you just wanna remove some gray hairs from your beard, in our opinion, plucking isn’t again something we would suggest.
Grab a beard dye or just accept the fact that you can look awesome in gray hair!
In fact, there are a lot of people that intentionally dye their beards gray or salt and pepper!
And…that’s it for today! I really hope you found our article helpful.
If you have any comments or questions feel free to write them below and we will be more than happy to reply.
Until next time,
Stay safe,
Tasos
Tasos Moulios is the founder of Beardlong. He loves trying different beard and hair styles and blogs about them. The tips he shares come from his own experience and love for what he does.