If your facial hair stopped growing and you're looking for reasons why as well as solutions to fix it, we've got you covered. Inside this article, we'll break this down, so you understand what to do from here.
Table of Contents
Potential Cause: Poor Diet
Many men today are not getting an ample amount of protein, proper vitamins, and minerals daily. This also includes a deficiency in iron and vitamin B, which are both important for hair growth. A lack of these important nutrients in the diet stops facial hair from growing and makes your existing facial hair appear thinner and more brittle. Today as more and more men are opting to eat fast food instead of cooking for themselves, we're starting to see men struggle to maintain a healthy beard and facial hair.
Beating A Poor Diet
The way to remedy this is to first start cooking for yourself. Make sure you're eating at least .5 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day at a minimum. If you're lifting, and you should be, you'll want up that to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight to not only help build your muscles but your testosterone which will help your facial hair. Also, make sure you're eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts! If you're having a time issue, start practicing 3-day meal prep cycles. Basically, by doing this, you'll create easy-to-eat meals on the go and make yourself enough for 3-day spans.
Cook with nutrient-dense fatty oils like coconut oil and my personal favorite oil, olive oil. Ditch the lard, bacon grease, canola, and vegetable oils.
Take a multi-vitamin that will ensure you're getting proper vitamins when you're not getting them all from your food. You can always take a biotin and collagen peptide protein supplement, as these will also help with your hair and skin.
Potential Cause: Stress
Stress is a killer in general. If you're not finding time to destress, you'll start to suffer from poor health. However, stress, specifically in the form of chronic stress, can stop your facial hair from growing.
Destress
So, if you're starting to feel stress, it's time to make sure you're destressing. While we're not going to deep dive into stress relief here, we're going to name a few things that will help. Make sure to talk with your doctor if you're feeling stressed out all the time or are suffering from anxiety and depression. Consider these things when you're feeling stressed and need to destress:
- Take a Long Walk
- Meditate/Pray
- Deep Breathing Exercises
- Do Something Fun With Friends or Family
- Excercise
Potential Cause: Low Testosterone
According to a statistical study made by Dr. James from the University of New South Wales in Australia, the length of human hair has grown on average less than 1 centimeter per decade since they have measured it.
Over a 130-year span (1860-1990), studies show that men began growing facial hair and beards increasingly rapidly, but after 1990 this trend started to slow.
According to Dr. James, the most reasonable explanation for this is that humans have developed a smaller amount of testosterone in recent times, and with this, less facial hair has grown.
The Professor published his work on the evolution of human body hair from 1842 until 2011 in the Journal Biology Letters. He found that the reason men started sprouting facial hair almost 160 years ago was due to a rise in testosterone.
Increasing Testosterone can be tricky, but here are some ideas to help give yourself a boost. Eating ample protein and lifting weights daily are a couple of ways to help increase testosterone levels. Again, fixing your diet, in general, is good, and it's critical for beard growth. When you're lifting weights and building muscle, you're also increasing testosterone. If you believe you're suffering from low testosterone, make sure to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will be able to test your testosterone levels and offer medical advice for improvements.
Potential Cause: Terminal Beard Length
Another interesting theory says the length of our hair, including facial hair, has to do with terminal length. Terminal length limits how long a human hair can grow before it stops completely and doesn't continue growing. By cleaning up on the other points in this article, it will help you have a long terminal length cycle.
Also note, that every beard is different. So you might develop portions of your beard that grow longer and different than other parts of your beard. You can help extend your terminal length by following the other advice in this article and taking care of your beard health.
Potential Cause: Not Taking Care Of Your Skin Under The Facial Hair
It's important that you're exfoliating and washing underneath your beard. You can easily accomplish this by using one of our beard wash blends a few times per week. Washing the beard unclogs pores, and your beard growth thrives on having clean pores. Make sure you avoid using scalp shampoo products on the beard as it tends to leave residue in your beard, leading to clogged pores.
Skin Care Solution
As mentioned above, just use one of our beard wash blends a few times per week. Make sure to massage it all the way down to the skin's surface and then rinse thoroughly.
Potential Cause: Split Ends/ Dead Ends
This is a common issue that I have personally dealt with in the past. Split ends are terrible because you're just left looking at this hair that does not grow no matter what you do.
Basically, it's caused by damaged ends of your facial hair. This can be caused by too much sun exposure, not brushing the beard regularly, or poor diet.
Split Ends / Dead End Solution
We've already discussed fixing your diet so let's look at sun exposure and beard brushing.
To avoid too much sun exposure, try to avoid long hours in the sun whenever possible. A healthy dose of sun daily is good, but we often spend far too long in the sun, which can cause skin and hair damage. As far as beard brushing, make sure you're brushing the beard for a few minutes every day. Doing this will help spread the naturals oils from your skin into your beard. Brushing will help also remove any dead ends and dead hairs as well. This helps pave the way for new hair growth.
Conditioner the beard with good beard oil like ours, one of our balms or butters. These products should be massaged and brushed into the facial hair daily to help keep the beard hydrated and healthier.
Potential Cause: Lack Of Sleep
Another reason that facial hair growth may have halted is due to a lack of sleep. Many men get 5-6 hours of sleep each night, which is not enough for optimal testosterone.
In addition to this, men who work hard and play harder may not be getting enough sleep. Luckily, you don't need a lot of sleep to reap the benefits. The average amount of sleep needed for a man is 6-8 hours per night. If you get 1-3 hours less than what you normally sleep, it is said that your testosterone will start to gradually decrease.
Tips For Better Sleep
- Do Not Use Screened Devices In Bed
- Filter Out Bluelight In The Evenings
- Read A Physical Before Bed
- Exercise Early In The Day To Help Deplete Energy Levels
Conclusion
If your facial hair stopped growing we suggest following the outline we have above. This should help you grow the best beard or facial hair possible. If you're still struggling with growth, it may not be a bad idea to talk to your doctor. Please note that this article is not health advice and is for informational purposes only. If you need health advice, please consult with your doctor.