{"id":50245,"date":"2021-09-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/?p=50245"},"modified":"2023-06-24T22:24:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T02:24:45","slug":"beard-plucking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/beard-plucking\/","title":{"rendered":"Beard Plucking: Why You Need to Try and Kick the Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When men grow a beard, particularly a long one, they will often start to play with it much more excessively and perhaps pluck a follicle or two during the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In most instances, beard plucking is an entirely harmless and mindless action.&nbsp; However, you open yourself up to ingrown hairs, infection, and stunted beard growth when done excessively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below we&#8217;ll expand on some of these ailments, along with some potential remedies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4 Tips to Help Stop Plucking Your Beard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Should you be playing or plucking your facial hair out of habit due to boredom or thinking, consider the following tips to kick the habit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Conditioning<\/strong>:&nbsp; Adding a beard conditioner such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/beard-balm-vs-beard-oil\/\">beard oil or balm<\/a> will provide an oily sheen to your facial hair.&nbsp; While it will help reduce beard itch by nourishing your skin and making your beard appear healthier, some men find that they won&#8217;t want to pluck their beards anymore by adding a conditioner. So, it&#8217;s a win-win, especially if you don&#8217;t already apply a beard conditioner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mindfulness<\/strong>: A common reason many men pluck their beards is due to anxiety or stress.&nbsp; Meditation is a proven way to reduce stress quickly (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/tests-procedures\/meditation\/in-depth\/meditation\/art-20045858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">source<\/a>).&nbsp; Not only will mediation help for your facial hair, but many other areas of your life as well.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Active Hands<\/strong>: If you have active hands, redirect their attention from your facial hair to another object or activity.&nbsp; Whether a fidget spinner, something on your desktop, or even a wedding ring, these small objects can keep your hands busy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pomodoro<\/strong>:&nbsp; The Pomodoro Technique is a scientifically proven method to improve your work effectiveness by setting up 25-minute work intervals separated into short breaks (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pomodoro_Technique\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">source<\/a>).&nbsp; When it comes to facial hair play, you can adopt the same methodology.&nbsp; Hold off on plucking your facial hair for one hour, then allow yourself to play with it for five minutes.&nbsp; Gradually increase the time interval until you stop altogether.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Happens if You Don&#8217;t Stop?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few things that will happen to your skin and facial hair if you continue plucking your beard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ingrown Hairs<\/strong>:&nbsp; The most common side effect of plucking will be ingrown hairs.&nbsp; Plucking lowers the tip of the hair to be beneath the surface of the skin.&nbsp; As it regrows, the chance of it growing inwards increases significantly.&nbsp; This is especially true for men with curly facial hair.&nbsp; The ingrown hair will develop into a painful bump.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Infection<\/strong>: A bacterial infection can occur when a hair is plucked.&nbsp; This can lead to painful symptoms, including swelling, pain, dryness, bleeding, and oozing puss.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bald Spot<\/strong>: Not to be mistaken with alopecia barbae, excessive plucking may cause an area of your facial hair to look sparse.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Longer Growth Cycle<\/strong>:&nbsp; If you want to grow a longer facial hair style, plucking will increase the time the follicle takes to grow back in. Depending on where the follicle was in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/beard-growth-stages\/\">beard growth stage<\/a>, it may take several months before new facial hair appears.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will Continuous Plucking Stop Growth?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Some men don&#8217;t want facial hair and may resort to plucking out individual hairs, especially if growth is sparse.&nbsp; Unfortunately, plucking is not a permanent solution if you want your face hair-free.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an alternative, some may have their facial hair waxed, as it achieves similar results as plucking but can be performed in a fraction of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Signs of Severe Plucking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While uncommon, some men may suffer from beard trichotillomania.&nbsp; Per the Mayo Clinic, trichotillomania is defined as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Trichotillomania (trik-o-til-o-MAY-nee-uh), also called hair-pulling disorder, is a mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body, despite trying to stop.<\/p>\n<cite>https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/trichotillomania\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20355188<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are experiencing this, contact a licensed medical provider.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wrap Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope that the information in this article helped you understand a bit more about beard plucking and some of the potential problems that may come as a result. But, of course, growing and maintaining healthy facial hair doesn&#8217;t end here, be sure to check out our other expert guides for trusted beard growing advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When men grow a beard, particularly a long one, they will often start to play with it much more excessively and perhaps pluck a follicle or two during the process. &#8230; <a title=\"Beard Plucking: Why You Need to Try and Kick the Habit\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/beard-plucking\/\" aria-label=\"More on Beard Plucking: Why You Need to Try and Kick the Habit\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":61827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[966],"tags":[998],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toolsofmen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}