Many men catch themselves pulling their beard hairs. The bad news is that it usually happens after they’ve developed the habit, not before.
If you’re here, it means you want to quit. But before that, you need to ask yourself, why do I pull my beard hair out?
Pulling beard hair out is linked to many reasons. Stress, boredom, misconceptions, and underlying medical conditions could all lead to beard plucking. It’s a harmful habit that doesn’t benefit the body in any way. On the contrary, it damages the skin, causes irritation, and may lead to permanent hair loss.
To solve a problem, it’s important to admit it, address it, and do everything you can to stop it from happening again.
Let’s begin by knowing more about the problem.
Why Do You Pull Out Your Beard?
There are quite a few reasons that could make you pull out your beard hair. Let’s briefly talk about each one.
Stress and Boredom
The most common reasons for beard plucking are stress and boredom.
Humans naturally try to keep themselves occupied with something whenever they are stressed. This could be leg shaking, lip biting, nail biting, and the like.
For some people, their stress relief is beard plucking. With time, they grow the bad habit of pulling out their beard hairs. It gets so habitual that they don’t even notice it.
It’s not uncommon for people to start noticing it only when they see hairless patches on their beards.
Once it becomes a habit, it’s then really hard to quit as the body associates stress or boredom relief with beard plucking.
Trying to Make Hair Grow Faster
It’s believed among some people that pulling out your beard hair might help other hair follicles to grow in that area.
Some people pull their beard hairs in hopes of getting it to grow faster and more coarse. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Pulling out isolated or odd beard hairs is somewhat acceptable, but doing it in patches to stimulate hair growth couldn’t be more wrong.
You risk bleeding in the site of pulling as well as bacterial infection if you constantly do it with your hands.
If you repeatedly pull hair from a specific area, you risk permanent damage to the hair follicles and you may lose hair in that area forever.
Trying to Prevent Hair From Growing
Some people have patchy beards. After many times of trying to grow them, they just give up and pluck them.
They are aware that constant plucking might damage the hair follicle. In fact, they’re hoping to damage the hair to prevent it from coming back so they can get rid of the beard.
Theoretically, this might work, but in actuality, you’re also subjected to all the problems that could come with constant beard plucking.
Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling Disorder)
Trichotillomania is a disorder that affects the mentality of people and makes them have the urge to pull out their hair.
People with trichotillomania can pull out body hair, facial hair, eyelashes, and even scalp hair. They may even find themselves picking loose strands of thread from fabric and clothes.
There’s no specific test for trichotillomania. If you feel that you might have this issue, you might want to check with a dermatologist to help you.
It goes without saying that beard plucking is bad. Stay with us to know how you can handle it.
How to Stop Pulling Your Beard Hair?
Keep in mind that there’s no absolute method to fix this problem. In short, you will have to exert some sort of mental effort to help yourself.
That being said, let’s have a look at what else you could do to stop pulling your beard.
Avoid Idle Hands
Your bored hands are your beard’s main enemy. People who smoke can quit smoking by keeping their mouths busy chewing something most of the time.
The same concept is applicable here. If you keep your hands doing something most of the time, especially when you’re stressed, your urge to pull your beard hairs out will slowly diminish.
Use a Comb
If the main cause of your beard pulling habit is stress, a comb is a great way to help.
You may not necessarily want to pull the hair; it could just be an urge to tickle or scratch your beard.
Have a small comb with you wherever you go. Whenever you catch your hands going up to pull a hair, try and comb your beard instead.
The stimulation is very similar to pulling your beard but you’d be eliminating all the negative effects that come with hair pulling.
Breathing Exercises
People usually underestimate how relaxation and beard exercise can boost both physical and mental health.
If you constantly keep your body relaxed, it’ll soon reflect on your mind and prevent your subconscious mind from craving bad habits like hair pulling.
Practice breathing slowly and relaxing your body. You won’t regret it.
Use a Tally
Keep a tally counter in your pocket and use it every time you catch yourself pulling out a hair. The idea here is to make you aware of the damage you’re causing.
If you don’t know how many hairs you pull out, you may not have enough motivation. But when you find at the end of the day that you pluck around 30 hairs every day, you’ll be aware of the problem and you’ll be able to reduce it to 20 hairs, then 10 hairs, and eventually, zero hairs.
Treat the Trichotillomania
If you’re suffering from trichotillomania or think that you might have it, you should consult a doctor. It will be difficult to overcome this one alone.
Trichotillomania has no definitive treatment. Doctors tackle it by letting the patients know that they shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed of doing it and that they can get over it.
They also use habit reversal techniques and cognitive therapy which proves very successful with many people.
So, we’ve discussed some techniques to help reduce future hair pulling, but what about the existing damage? Stay with us. We’re almost done.
How to Fix the Damage?
If you became aware of the problem after finding large hairless patches, hope is not all lost. Go to your barber and try to get the best beard style with what you have left.
You may have to settle for a goatee or a stubble, but it might be better than a clean shave. Remember, that’s all temporary till you grow back your beard.
If the constant hair pulling has caused some infection, a quick visit to a dermatologist should be a reliable fix.
Last but not least, if you have redness or irritation, try beard butter and oils. They’ll moisturize your skin and keep it healthy.
No More Hair Pulling
There’s no shame in having a bad habit or an existing medical condition that leads to hair pulling.
All you need to do is address the problem, acknowledge the harmful effects, and do your best to stop the hair pulling in the future.
Beards are one of the best-looking features in a man. Nobody said taking care of them will be easy. But it’s always with it to have a great-looking beard.
Speaking of good features, if you’re confused about whether to have a beard or a goatee; check out this article.
