A beard brush is one of the most trusted tools of bearded men all over the world. It helps us to keep the beast on our face tamed. But if you’ve ever had a hair brush, you know that they need to be replaced eventually.
So, how often should you be replacing your beard brush?
There is no cut-and-dry rule of thumb for replacing a beard brush. If you tend to it properly, a beard brush can last until it breaks. This could take months if you are rough, but it could be decades if you aren’t. But you don’t want to use a beard brush that hasn’t been cleaned. An older beard brush is more likely to have bacteria and other harmful microorganisms on it than a newer one. However, proper cleaning will keep your beard brush working in peak condition for a long time.
The first step to extending your beard brush’s expected lifespan is to purchase a high-quality brush. Stick around to learn about the different types of beard brushes, how to make them live longer, and what signs tell you that it’s time for a new brush.
When to Replace Your Beard Brush and How to Clean It So You Don’t Have To
If you want to make your beard brush live longer, you need to start by purchasing a good one to start off. There’s a recommendation below, but what’s important is that your beard brush is not a hair brush. A beard brush has much thinner bristles made from boar hair.
Well, not always boar hair. It can be many different types of hair, but there is a heavy bias towards boar hair. Many people claim that a proper beard brush needs to be boar hair. While this isn’t really true, since all a proper beard brush needs to do is brush and clean the hairs of your beard, it’s a widely held belief. Thankfully, cleaning a boar hair beard brush isn’t any harder than cleaning any beard brush.
There are also beard combs. We talk about these and the difference between them and beard brushes later, but what is important is that they need to be cleaned as well; and you can’t clean them the same way you would clean a brush. Regardless whether or not you have a beard brush or a beard comb, proper cleaning will extend its lifespan.
Since beard brushes use a lot of thin bristles, it is very easy for dead skin and loose hairs to get caught in them. There are two ways we can clean a beard brush like this. The first is very easy and should be done often. Simply use a clean comb or the handle of a clean toothbrush and give the bristles some light whacks. It’s probably a good idea to do this over the sink or a garbage can, since what it does is knock loose all the dead skin and such. Any remaining hair can be pulled out.
As long as you clean your beard brush like this twice a week, you can expect it to last for quite some time. However, this doesn’t clean off chemicals or oils that build up on the brush over time. These are invisible to the naked, eye but they are what wear down a bread brush the most. Twice a month, use a non-scented shampoo and warm water to clean the bristles of the brush. If your brush is wooden, then you need to be extremely careful only to wash the bristles and not the wood.
Beard combs are one piece and they aren’t nearly as flexible as the boar hair bristles are. Wooden ones are prone to breaking quickly and they can’t be properly washed. Horn is a much better material for a beard comb because it can be cleaned using similar products for your beard.
To clean them, you need to apply some oils to the comb every six months or so. It doesn’t have to be anything special, just a little bit of coconut oil will work. Use a cloth to remove excess oil rather than water. You can use water to clean it of hair and flakes of dead skin, but never water it directly after applying oil.
If you follow this advice, your beard brush and/or comb can last you years. You’ll know it’s time to replace them if they aren’t being tended to. Horn combs become easier to break when they aren’t oiled, so you’ll need to replace it once this happens. The bristles on your beard brush will start to warp, bend, and dislodge. Or, at worst, you might find the ends of the hairs have gotten sharp and it begins to hurt. When this happens, it’s time for a replacement.
Are There Different Kinds of Beard Brushes?
A beard brush is made using bristles. These bristles can be natural and be made from boar and/or horse hair, or they can be made from metals and hard plastics. The important thing with bristles is that they are very thin and can easily slide through the hair of the beard as you run them through it.
Beard brushes can come in different sizes. There are also a lot of different options for customization between one brush and another. The handle and the bristles can be made out of different materials, and this allows for many different styles to be made.
Beard combs are thin pieces of plastic, wood, bamboo, or other tough materials that have been shaped into a small comb. A beard comb will have a much wider gap between pieces when compared to a brush, so a comb doesn’t separate the hairs quite as much.
A beard comb is typically all one single piece of wood that has been shaped into a comb, so there aren’t very many options for customizing them. Luckily, they can come in different sizes and materials.
I Don’t Have a Beard Brush, Which Should I Buy?
If you don’t have a beard brush, then you can’t beat ZEUS’ beard brush kit. Many people believe that a real beard brush needs to use boar hair for the bristles and ZEUS backs this up by making sure that their brushes use 100% boar hair.
While you can get away with a single beard brush, I like to recommend getting a kit. Buying a kit costs less than buying each of the brushes individually, which is always nice.
Do you really need all those brushes? Not really, but a kit gives you a few brushes to choose from to see which you like the best.
If you are mindful of cleaning your beard brush and storing it properly, then you can always gift any brushes you don’t use to your friends. Just only brush them if you clean them, alright? No one wants to be given a comb covered in your hairs.
I Already Have a Hair Brush. Won’t That Work?
Hair brushes can work in a pinch if you don’t have a beard brush, but they won’t give you the same level of control and cleanliness that a beard brush will. The idea behind both is the same: run brush through hair. However, the difference in bristles makes all the difference in the world.
Beard brushes use thin little bristles because beard hair is body hair, not head hair. Hair brushes often have wide spaces between each of the bristles or pegs because head hair is much easier to detangle and brush.
So if you’re over at your lady’s place and you’ve forgotten your beard brush, her brush can serve as a makeshift replacement. But don’t buy a hair brush for your beard. Make the investment in a proper beard brush. You’ll notice a difference immediately.
Can I Share a Beard Brush?
You can, but a better question is, “Should you?”
If you are living with your partner, then there is really nothing to be worried about. Partners are always so close together that germs and bacteria on a beard brush is the least of their worries.
But if you are just hanging out with a friend and they ask to borrow your beard brush, you’re going to want to be careful with your decision. While the chances are low that anything harmful will happen, there is always the risk that it could. If you have anything that can be transmitted, then you shouldn’t share brushes.
You might not know if your friend has anything that can pass on a brush. If you are going to share, make sure that you understand how to clean it and that you clean the brush after it is returned to you and before you use it next.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. The answer to the question is that it’s time to replace your beard brush once it’s broken. It’s not a very fancy answer, unfortunately.
What is fancy is the fact that you can keep your beard brush in fine working condition for many years by simply taking care of it. Remember to clean off skin and hair twice a week and to shampoo the boar hairs twice a month. For a horn comb, simply apply some natural oil to it twice a year and give it a quick rinse whenever you can to keep it clean.
Keeping a brush alive is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new one every few months or years, and there really is something great about owning a beard brush that has been with you for years. It can even be a heirloom for your children if you tend to it properly.
So make sure you start treating your beard brush better, then you’ll only need to replace it when you want to.