Until summer, I keep my beard trimmed to 30mm. Then I let it grow freely until December, where I get a professional trim before I put on my costume and mitra, take my staff, and start being St. Nicolas. This is not about having a long beard, it is about having a full beard instead.

Aight, first, let me state that calling people gross because of the kind of beard they can grow is douchey as fuck all.

With that out of the way, you’ve already gotten great advice, but I think there’s still a few salient points that can help a beard stay healthy and nice looking.

The biggest one I can think of is to go sulfate free in your products. Shampoo and conditioners with sulfates are harsher than those without. So you want to avoid them as much as possible. I tend to favor Hask when I’m not getting stuff through my friend that can get me fancy shit cheap. I personally use the Hask argan oil stuff. It smells nice, works great, and my beard stays softer, longer.

But the key is to avoid stuff with sulfates.

Then, with those and other products, avoid anything that has ingredients ending in “cone”, like simethicone as the most common one. They make hair shiny and less frizzy, but it comes at the price of drying it out over time.

Generally, if you’re washing daily, you will want to add a bit of something after you’re out of the shower, no matter what conditioner you use. Oils tend to be easiest to use, and do a great job. But balms, butters, and even waxes can all contribute to a healthy face forest. Again, just avoid the “cones”, and it’s difficult to go wrong. I mix my own oils nowadays, just because I’m absurdly sensitive to smells and some chemicals, but you can usually grab whatever your local drug store has and end up with something decent smelling.

However, you can also just grab a decent olive oil and use that too. Yeah, the fancy stuff may be marginally closer to own oils, but olive oil does just fine in a pinch.

Just don’t go crazy. Put enough on your hands that you’ll have a layer, but not so much it can pool up. It’s better to oil up twice than deal with too much oil. Then you just rub it over the surface of your beard, then run your fingers through it a while until you get the beard lightly touched all over. It doesn’t take much, unless you also want to keep your beard looking extra shiny. Just be aware that your shirts will not be happy if your beard is long enough.

Drowning your face in oil isn’t a good thing. You want just enough to help manage frizz, keep the cuticle healthy, and maintain a nice shine.

As a rule, when you’re early into beard growth, you’ll want to let it grow out a bit before trying to style anything significant. You’re close to the point where you’ll want to start thinking about that. Now, I started out shooting for the Dan Haggerty style, like his Grizzly Adams era. It’s low upkeep, all you need is a trimmer with guards, or some decent scissors and a comb.

Now, I’m full Rasputin up in this piece, so trimming is more about keeping split ends under control and balancing things out (my right side grows faster than my left, well as slightly longer). Just some light scissor work once a month or so. But I’ll apply balm or wax to the stache if I’m going to be eating in public. Otherwise I just twist it into points lol.

But those are both fairly low maintenance styles. If you want to maximize how it fits your face, the time to experiment with shaping is before you have a lot of length to regrow if you screw up. There is a learning curve to the various tools you’d be using.

Beard braiding is actually easier than head hair imo. Head hair is smoother for most caucasian folks for sure, and you can get a better grip on beard hair because of that. It’s almost always coarser, and may well be curlier too. But there’s a learning curve for sure, so start watching videos before you need to.

There’s nothing wrong with any style at all. You rock what makes you happy, period. But no matter that style, you’ll run into less bullshit if it’s neat. Two beards of equal length, but one is scraggly, will be perceived differently. So keep your shit neat if you care about other people’s responses.

Also, if you haven’t yet, expect an itch period soon. A face that isn’t used to a longer beard is going to need to adapt. Might not take long, but it’s almost certain to come along.

Remember, those thick santa beards take work. They take trimming and care all year round. Once you do go gray/white/silver with age, you’ll likely need different products as well, but that’s a tangent. Professional santas that grow their own take it seriously. If you don’t keep it trimmed all year long, what happens is that the hairs get pushed into patterns that make it harder to shape come the holidays.

As an example, if you don’t watch how the that throat grows, chances are high that the very bottom of it is going to grow up, instead of down. And the longer the beard, the higher that area can get. It’ll make the bottom part of your beard look bristly since those hairs are going a different direction

So you gotta treat it like you want it to look while there’s a line of kids and parents in front of you. Keep it combed, don’t sleep face down much, keep the parts low on the throat and at the ears trimmed to your goal length for Christmas even if you let the rest get longer in the off season.

Be aware that until you age into gray/white, you’re going to need to lighten your beard during the season, and that is always rough on the beard and skin. So have it done professionally is my advice. A good salon will get the job done better and safer than trying to do it yourself.

There’s various beard white products out there, but you gotta apply it to a lightened beard, unless your beard is really light blonde to begin with. Most of them suck at coverage to begin with, and come off over hours of wear. So they’re best reserved for a slight lightening and darker patches than being caked on.

And you can’t cake up tbh. If you’re a chubby guy, you’ll likely be sweating some in the suit alone. If you’re more on the lean side, you’ll be wearing padding and you will be sweating to some degree. Some of the whiteners are sweat resistant, but nothing is perfect.

I don’t do pictures online, but I hit my yeard back in 2012 or so, and have kept it at its natural length since then, so about 3/4 of the way to my nipple line when dry, and almost there when wet. It’s a wonderful thing, but it is work. You can’t neglect it because neglect shows up faster in a beard than on regular hair. You get sick for a few days, your head hair is a little oily and ragged. Your beard will look like a tornado hit it. You’ll have knots and broken hairs, and it’ll be extra coarse.

I have a long, bushy beard (and curly handlebar moustache)

First of all, the hard truth is that not everyone can grow a decent beard. Vitamins, diet, etc. certainly won’t hurt, but at a certain point you’re up against genetics, and if your DNA says your beard is going to be thin and patchy, there’s not much you can do about that except maybe hair transplants.

Age plays a factor, I have a friend who couldn’t grow a decent beard until he was about 30.

Now assuming you’ve actually got enough hair growing in the right places

Most important is keeping it trimmed and neat-looking.

Until you’ve got a couple inches of beard going, I think it’s best to keep your neck shaved, pick a point maybe an inch or two above your Adams apple, and keep everything below that shaved. Once you’ve got some beard going you can stop doing that, no one can see it anyway and at some point the neckbeard just becomes more beard.

Similarly, clean up your cheeks. You probably have a few scraggly hairs growing up above the rest of your beard, shave those off.

If you’re a little brave, a straight razor is pretty nice for making some clean lines, you can be really precise with them. They make ones that use a disposable Blade if you’re not into all the sharpening and stopping that goes with a traditional straight razor, I have one that uses a double edge blade snapped in half (they break very cleanly) but most of the time I just use a regular safety razor, or a disposable or cartridge razor would do the trick just fine

Especially when you’re starting off, a beard trimmer or hair clippers are gonna be your best friend so you can trim it all down to an even length.

Figure out what you’re doing with your sideburns. I shave my head, and ideally I like to have them fade into that, but I’m cheap and lazy so I only go to my barber to have that done a couple times a year when I need to look good for a wedding or whatever. Most of the time I just take my clippers to them and try to make them shorter up top and longer towards the bottom, it takes some practice and playing with the guards and such, and I’ve actually gotten pretty good at freehanding it, but it’s not the fancy fade my barber can manage.

Once you’ve got some length, things get kind of easy, I tend to go for a longer, sort rectangular shape to my beard, I brush it out, and basically just cut off anything that isn’t where I want it to be and any split ends d notice.

For soap/shampoo/conditioner/beard oil/balm, etc. you kind of need to figure out what works for you and your hair/skin type. My hair and skin are pretty forgiving, I could probably just about shower in acetone and be none the worse for it. I shower with doctor bronners for no particular reason other than I find their peppermint to be refreshing and I can buy it in a gallon jug, and since it’s pretty concentrated a little goes a long way and I don’t have to buy soap for a couple years, and I don’t personally find any need to use any conditioner or beard balm/oil, etc. Other people find that Dr Bronners it really dries out their skin/hair so YMMV. I also find that it’s pretty good at stripping the wax out of my moustache.

I do sometimes use beard balm/oil for special occasions to help tame my beard and give it a little extra shine. I rarely buy it for myself, I find that once you have a beard it tends to be one of those things people gift you at Christmas or whatever.

I use Firehouse Moustache Wax (specifically their Wacky Tacky) to curl my moustache. That’s a very stiff wax if you don’t intend to curl it. I haven’t tried their other waxes but I’m sure they work fine for general styling. It’s the second wax I’ve tried, I find it works well, and I haven’t felt the need to experiment further. The first one I tried because it was readily available at CVS at the time was Clubman, that stuff is garbage. Doesn’t hold well, and if you get even the slightest bit wet or sweaty it washes right out. I also remember it having some sort of scent, which I’m not particularly a fan of for something that lives right below my nose.

If you’re not going for a full Snidely Whiplash curl, some other lighter wax or maybe pomade is probably worth keeping around to help tame and style it a bit. I have a tin of Murray’s pomade I keep around for that purpose though rarely use it. A little goes a long way with that, otherwise your beard gets kind of greasy and sticky.

I spend very little time on my beard. I brush it every day, wash it when I shower (usually every day, but I’ve been known to skip a day or two here and there,) clean up my cheeks when I shave my head (once or twice a week) and style my moustache mostly every day (it only takes a couple minutes, the Wacky Tacky is very stiff, I rub some into my 'stache, run a comb through it to help distribute it through a little better, and then pretty much just mold it into place with my fingers,) and do a little trimming maybe every couple weeks or when I notice it’s getting a bit wild looking.

I have a full, luscious beard. I maybe shaved less than a dozen times before I was 20. At some point, I just let it grow, and would knock everything down with the same length guard, increasingly getting bigger as the slow growing areas caught up.

Keep you neck trimmed to not look like a dirty neck beard. Before I had length, I’d shave everything a finger or two above my Adams apple, down. Find that line, about a finger about the apple, tilt your head to a side, and trim a straight line across the neck, then back the other way. That gives a bit of a natural curve in the neck. You can kind of eyeball that a bit too, but I would say don’t go to high and shave under your chin. If you do that, you get a chin strap and an Amish look that can appear thin.

Find the line for the top of your beard and keep that relatively clean. Something from the edge of your lips, angles up to your sideburns. I keep mine a bit higher, because if you get too low, you get a lot of cheeks and your back to a chin strap. The cheeks are the slowest to grow in, so it takes time.

For my stache, I like a big one, not a pencil thin one. Proportionally, a thin stache and a thick beard looks bad to me, but the trade off is I frequently compete with eating and keeping the handle bars out of my mouth. I’ve learned to cope, but things like a big burger will pull the handle bars in to your mouth.

That’s a lot of words to say, try to keep everything fairly even length, and slowly let the overall length get longer. Since your cheeks are established, you can let the rest grow, and either learn to maintain yourself, or find a good barber that can clean it for you. I do myself most of the time, because most barbers go too thin on my stache or take too much of the sides, and a get a pointy beard.

Edit: Also, get a dedicated beard wash. It will be less harsh than your 3 in 1. Then find a good beard oil or balm, and wet your beard before application, get a brush to brush it in, and a comb to make it tight. I like Badass Beard oil myself. I’ve used Honest Amish before and liked it, but the BA beard has some great scents. Everyman Jack is solid too. Not related to beards, but I’d get dedicated shampoo and conditioner instead of a 3 in 1 too. That stuff is not good for hair.

Ho ho ho, future Santa checking in. Mrs Claus is a hair stylist, so we have some insight into what I’m going to need when the days grow short and the beard (hopefully) grows long.

The biggest thing is: full beards take time. And not just time to grow the length, but time (years) for your face to mature and get those hair follicles in the Christmas spirit. There’s really not much you can do if the fullness isn’t coming in yet but wait. I’m in this phase now. It’s hormones. What are we going to do? Not drugs, not Rogaine: not going to help. Take care of what you got.

But you mentioned you DO have a beard, so maybe you have the stellar volume you need to be St Nick, just not the length. Short answer, skin care IS beard care. Get a good skin care regimen that works for your face and your beard will fall in line. You’ve signed up for an everyday commitment to becoming a touchable beard, and they WILL ALL touch it. Toddlers to Grannies, especially, Grannies.

You have the beard! Now you need the color. This depends on your hair color and how your hair accepts color, so you really should go to a professional. If you want to be a paid, real-beard Santa, a good color job will be the LEAST of your expenses and it will pay off on day one.

Being a good Santa is being a good person. It really is just that. But there is a physical barrier that is conforming to the Coca-Cola ideal of Santa, which is the tutorial I just provided for the BEARD ONLY!

I wish you well and I hope you enjoy bringing hope, magic and love into the hearts of children.

Bearded person here. My basic advice, stop using your body wash as shampoo, even 3-in-1. Find a quality shampoo and figure out a conditioning regimen. It’s different for everyone, some people use a traditional conditioner that you rinse out, some use oils, others use balms/waxes/butters, and generally some combination. I’m lazy so I’ve found a two product system for myself.

Oils/balms/butters/waxes are typically put on when the beard is damp, and they have different levels of hold. Some things to know about those products: apply the oils to your skin under the beard and then comb or brush it through; also, use a product with quality oils like jojoba, argan, and coconut.

Lastly, find someone who can style it the way you want or get clippers and watch some videos and style it the way you want.

Disorganized list b/c I can’t be assed to format:

1. The follicles on your face will grow at different rates. Even if you’re going for length, trimming your beard to let the slower hairs catch up can give you a fuller and thicker beard. I will sometimes take some electric clippers and just trim back the faster growing hairs to give my beard a more defined shape.

2. Trim the sides & mustache occasionally. Imagine a line starting a half inch or so away from your face, starting where your hair ends & sideburns begin and going straight down to the ground. Trim the sides of your beard following that line, and trim your mustache to stop the hairs from getting in your mouth. A santa-esque beard is longer than it is wide, so you’ll probably need to shape it that way.

3. Your facial hair will probably wick moisture away from your skin. You’re already out ahead of this with the beard oil, which is great. I personally prefer using a beard butter, but anything that keeps the skin underneath moisturized is important. One time I shaved & it almost looked like my cheeks had been sunburned.

4. This one is personal preference, but I keep my neck mostly shaved. I draw a line starting two fingers above my Adam’s apple, and bring it up to the corners of my jaw. Everything below gets either shaved or at least hit with the clippers on the lowest guard. I also take my wife’s eyebrow razor and clean up the top of my cheeks, to straighten out the top of my beard. Totally optional, but makes it look cleaner IMO.

TL;DR Growing a beard =/= not shaving. Trim it to give it shape, shave neck & the top of your cheeks to give it lines, continue to moisturize / oil it.

I’m not really sure you can do anything to force length if that’s what you’re going for. Just gotta let it grow. And not everyone’s hair will grow super long. I haven’t cut my hair since I was 19 and it’s never gotten longer than just past my shoulders. My beard grows to about 3 inches but only directly on my chin (so a goatee really looks like a goat’s).

Now to get it white, you can dye it. Or you can just put yourself in stressful situations and get it white naturally. A bad marriage did it for mine.

It is not fucking worth years of growth just to bleach it so hard it falls apart, just to be a “mall Santa”? Malls are dead, get a fake

I was also stuck around 4 or so inches for a while, and once you get to that length (takes a few years, be patient) it really needs a lot of moisture to keep going. I don’t quite keep up with it as much as I’d like to, but if I did, here’s what I’d do:

• never ever ever let that 3-in-1 touch it again
• get a better conditioner and apply it daily.
• at your length, probably also soap every day or two. Goats milk bar soap, same stuff I use on my face, as recommended by my dermatologist. I only soap the beard every few days, a rinse with the conditioner soak is enough to keep it clean for a while if I do it daily
• beard oil or beard butter. I wet my hands and apply a good glob of beard butter to my still-wet beard after showering. I’ve heard oils work well, too. Leave-in conditioner is essential. More goat milk. Coconut oil. Jojoba. Castor. Hempseed. That sort of thing.

Finally, listen to and take cues from women in your life who have long hair. They know more than either of us.

As the proud owner of a Santa Claus beard (though in color and texture, it’s more of a Grizzly Adams beard) I would say that the most important thing is to turn the care over to a professional. Just like your hair, don’t attempt to manage it yourself (beyond washing, combing and the like). Find a stylist who also does beards and go on a regular schedule and have them trim it and maintain it. And they’ll also be able to tell you if you need to do something special to care for it.

Use beard balms to maintain moisture and health so it looks more full and less scraggly. Trim the sideburns and maybe chops every so often, as those are the main areas that will make you look homeless if they are unkempt.

Once you have some length, trim a half inch to an inch every 3-6 months (less often if it grows slower than that) to prevent and get rid of split ends, which can be a problem.

It sounds more like you want a badass viking beard. Is your beard white??

Some people grow thick beards, others grow gross pubey beards. There’s no magic fix, no matter how much beard oil you use.