How to Properly Dye a Beard

Maintaining a beard can be difficult for some of us, as there are a few that would struggle in keeping their beard clean and fresh. There are also some people that suffer from beard discoloration, where their beard would turn into a light color like light brown or white, and this discoloration prevents the beard from matching well with the color of the hair on your head. Fortunately, there is a way for you to still pair your beard’s color with your hair, and that is through using a beard dye.

A beard dye is a special product that is made specifically for beards, as regular hair-dying products won’t work or stick well with the texture of beard hairs. With beard dye, you will quickly remedy beard discoloration, so you don’t have to worry about your beard turning white or into other lighter colors, as you can just apply beard dye and darken those beard hairs again. How do you use beard dye? It is fairly simple, as all you need to do is to follow the steps that we are providing you below for this guide on how to dye your beard. Included in this guide are the steps you need to do before and after dying to maintain the color of your beard. Without further ado, let us not discuss the first step in dying your beard.

Let Your Beard Grow

Before you can dye your beard, you must first need to let your beard grow so that it would be easier to dye its hairs. In addition to making it easier to dye, the color that you apply to your beard would also show much more prominently if you have a longer beard. After buying a beard-dying product, you should wait for at least one to two weeks before you apply the dye to your beard. Hairs on your beard that are shorter than 2.5cm may not absorb the dye well, so make sure that all the hairs on your beard are long enough for dying.

Buying a Dye

The first important step that you need to follow to dye your beard is actually choosing the correct beard dye. Of course, you would usually need to match the color of your beard with the color of your hair, but finding the matching dye is sometimes difficult to do, especially if you are not exactly familiar with the color of your hair. The best way to find a matching dye is to consult a professional that will give you the perfect color to apply to your beard to match perfectly with your hair. You may also use color squares and match your hair color to one of the squares to get the correct dye. However, you should keep in mind that beard hairs tend to have a slightly darker color than your hair, so it would be best to buy a dying product that is slightly lighter than your hair color.

Test Your Allergic Reaction to the Dye

dying a beard at a barbershop

Not all beard dye products are suitable for our skin, as we may be allergic to the ingredients used on those products. We recommend that you test out your allergic reaction to a beard dye product before applying it to your beard. You can test the dye by applying just a drop of the liquid to your wrists or on the back of your hand. If the skin where you applied the dye turns red after a few minutes, then it would mean that you are allergic to the product, and it may be dangerous to apply it to your beard. There are some products that have hypoallergenic ingredients that don’t give you allergies, so stick to using those if ever you are allergic to a regular beard dye.

Wash and Brush Your Beard

The next step you should follow before dying your beard is to wash and brush it first so that dirt won’t stick on the hairs once you dye it. Use beard shampoo to wash your beard well and rinse it using running water. Dry your beard using a face towel, and then use a beard brush to brush your beard downwards to make them straighter. By brushing your beard, you will also help the dye to stick well to all the hairs of your beard since it can come into contact with the hairs much easier when they are straight.

Apply the Dye Using an Applicator

Once you open the box of your beard-dying product, you will see an applicator that looks like a small brush with a long handle. Wear a pair of plastic or rubber gloves and put one or two drops of dye on the applicator. Then, brush the applicator to your beard, sideburns, and mustache with up-and-down strokes so that you can apply the dye thoroughly on your beard. Apply the dye deeper into your beard so that it can also get into the inner hairs of the beard, but be careful not to apply the dye to your skin. If ever you apply a little bit of dye on your skin, don’t worry, as it can come off once you wash and rinse your beard for the second time later. After applying the dye, leave your beard untouched for 30 to 40 minutes or until your beard turns into the color you desire.

Rinse Your Beard

If the dye is successfully applied to your beard, it would then be ideal to rinse your beard to remove the excess dye on the hairs and on your skin. Cool running water would be recommended for rinsing the beard, as hot or warm water may just take all the dye out of your beard. Keep rinsing your beard until the water you use to rinse it has a clear color, as the first rinses would turn the water into the color of your dye. In addition, you should also massage the hairs of your beard by hand so that stubborn excess dye can be removed.

Follow the steps that we have indicated above, and you will surely have an easier experience in dying your beard. As stated in one of the steps, be careful in choosing beard-dying products and buy the ones that are suitable for your skin.