Listen, every beard is different, and there’s certainly a beard style for everyone. Even if your facial hair refuses to connect to the mustache.
But if you would like to fix a beard that doesn’t connect, then this guide is just for you.
Beard that won’t connect is an issue most avid facial hair enthusiast would love to know how to solve, but sadly not many guys realize how easy it can actually be to fill the gap between your beard and mustache, so they just end up living with the bald gaps in their beards.
As you can expect, there are many things that can cause a weaker beard growth at certain areas, including things like young age, poor nutrition, lifestyle habits, neglecting the beard, and your genetic potential.
But no matter what the cause, there are still many surprisingly effective ways to connect a mustache to the rest of the beard and vice versa.
What Does it Mean When a Beard Doesn’t Connect?
If your beard doesn’t connect, it’s caused by patches and bald spots around the sides of your mouth.
Along with the upper cheeks, the sides of the mouth are some of the hardest spots for facial hair to grow, and when there’s no facial hair there, the rest of the beard can’t connect to your mustache.
If the gap is at the edges of your chin, then it’s also possible that the sideburns won’t connect to the beard either.
There are many reasons as to why your beard refuses to connect, including underlying scar tissue, slow growing beard hairs, light non-visible vellus beard hairs, or just you having a naturally patchy beard growth with a weak mustache growth.
You don’t have to settle for a beard that won’t connect though. There are many ways you can connect your beard, even when the odds are stacked against you.
You basically have three options:
- You can stimulate and awaken dormant facial hair follicles at the problem areas.
- Or you can hide the bald gaps with growing a longer beard, dyes, etc.
- If you can’t bother to fix a non-connecting beard, you could always try a different style.
Below we have listed the most effective methods of filling a beard that doesn’t connect. Be careful though, some of them are incredibly effective (and not that well-known!)
How to Fix a Beard That Won’t Connect
1. Start Using a Beard Roller on the Bald Spots
The best thing you can do to a beard that refuses to connect, is to start using a Derma Roller on the weak areas.
This is what’s called “microneedling the beard” and it was one of the best known secrets of the beard World for many many years.
Nowadays, people have realized just how effective Derma Rollers are for stimulating dormant facial hair follicles, and some have already started re-branding them as “beard rollers”.
So how does it work you ask?
Well, you first need to buy a Derma Roller, which is a roll with hundreds of tiny “micro-needles” typically ranging from 0.25-0.75mm in length.
You then roll with these needles in the areas where your beard growth is weak or non-existent, and the tiny punctures caused by the Derma Roller will stimulate circulation and collagen production at the area.
As a happy little side-effect, the improved circulation and collagen production will also stimulate the dormant beard follicles in the area.
NOTE: While the 0.25mm rollers can stimulate circulation, you need the 0.5mm or 0.75mm roller to reach the epidermis for maximum beard growth results. I’ve personally used this Derma Roller kit from Amazon (the included growth oil is useless, I wouldn’t use it at all).
The beard growing effect of microneedling has been proven anecdotally by thousands of guys over at the Minox Beard Spot FaceBook group and on Reddit’s r/minoxbeards.
So if you want to start connecting your beard with the mustache, you should definitely be getting yourself a Derma Roller ASAP.
NOTE: If you’re wondering how often to Derma Roll the beard, what to apply on the skin afterward, and so forth… Please do read our full guide on Derma Rollers for beard growth where we explain everything you ever needed to know about the device and how to properly use them.
2. Apply Minoxidil on the Areas that Won’t Connect
If you thought Derma Rollers where the best kept secret of the beard growth circles, then you haven’t heard of Minoxidil.
Yes, it’s the scalp-hair loss drug – the most popular of them – and it works just as well on your facial hair.
The potent beard growing effects of minoxidil have been proven by this study from Thailand, and by thousands upon thousands of anecdotal user reviews and before-afters at the Minox Beard Spot FB group and Reddit.
So if you’re serious about connecting your weak mustache with the rest of the beard, then quite possibly the most effective way you can bridge the gap is by using 5% Minoxidil on the bald areas 1-2 times per day (1-2ml being the recommended dosage) and letting it stay there for 4 hours (which is considered to be the optimal time for absorption).
For best results, you would combine Minoxidil with Derma Roller (so that on one day of the week, instead of applying the Minox you would just microneedle the face).
But what sort of Minoxidil is best for connecting a beard?
Well, pretty much any of them. The original Rogaine works fine and you can get it from Amazon or almost any store these day or if you want something a little cheaper, you could get Kirkland 5% Minoxidil or Equate 5% Minoxidil (both are essentially the same stuff, just generic brands).
NOTE: There’s so much to talk about beards and minoxidil, and how to safely use it to fill a poorly connecting beard. So if you’re interested in getting all the details, head over to our full guide on how to use minoxidil for beard growth here.
3. Stop Being Deficient in Key Beard Nutrients
If your beard refuses to connect, one culprit may be a diet that doesn’t provide all the key beard growing nutrients.
For healthy and robust facial hair growth make sure to get at least:
- Biotin (B7)
- Zinc
- vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Sulfur
- Sufficient calories
- Sufficient protein (especially collagen proteins)
Did you know? There are also some beard boosting foods like alfalfa sprouts and olive oil that can help increase the hormones needed for beard growth.
4. Mix 3% Peppermint Essential Oil Dilution and Use as Beard Oil
Did you know that peppermint essential oil can promote beard growth?
Yes you read that right. Well, at least there’s some evidence that it should, as seen on this rodent study where where the researchers tested different oils and compounds on mice hair to see if any of them could stimulate the hair follicles.
The four tested substances were salt water (control), jojoba oil, 3% Minoxidil, and 3% dilution of peppermint essential oil.
After applying these to the mice’s hair for four weeks, the researchers noted that out of all the compounds tested – peppermint essential oil was the most effective at stimulating new hair growth, and it did so by activating growth hormone levels directly inside the follicles and by stimulating blood flow.
Of course, this is not a human study and we can’t say for sure whether the same effect applies to facial hair growth, but at least there’s some evidence (on top of all the anecdotal reports online) to suggest that it might just work.
But how do you use peppermint oil on your beard safely?
That’s easy, you need to first dilute it down. A safe amount is 3% pure peppermint oil (here’s a good brand to use) and 97% some light carrier oil such as jojoba oil for example.
The way you can achieve this is by adding approximately 18 drops of peppermint essential oil to a nearly full 1 oz. dropper bottle that has the carrier oil already.
Then just use it as a regular beard oil, and massage it deeply into the areas where your beard fails to connect to the mustache.
NOTE: Never use pure undiluted peppermint essential oil on your skin. It’s incredibly potent and will cause issues. Essential oils should ALWAYS be diluted.
5. Try a Darker Shade of Beard Dye to Darken Light Vellus Hairs
Using a dark shade of beard dye is a clever way of making it appear as if your beard would naturally connect to the mustache.
As the dark dye colors the light non-pigmented vellus beard hairs on the bald spots, it will make it seem like there’s thicker terminal beard hairs instead.
Of course this is not going to actually improve the situation, it’s just a temporary fix to mask the beard gaps. Once the color fades away it will once again become apparent that your facial hair is still not connecting to your mustache.
6. Let Your Mustache Grow Longer to Fake a Connection
The most common way of “fixing” a gap between mustache and beard is to simply let the mustache grow longer.
This way, the sides of your mustache will eventually start to drag down and connect with the chin hairs.
Take a look at the picture above. It looks as if the guy’s mustache connects well to his facial hair on the chin, but in reality there’s a noticeable gap underneath the longer sides of the mustache.
This is how you connect a beard – the sneaky way.
7. Give Toppik Hair Fibers a Try
If you want to go all-in and really create an illusion of a thicker beard, you can use a product called Toppik.
Toppik (and many of its competitors) are “hair building fibers” that stick to your pre-existing beard hairs and light vellus hairs, making it look like there would be a lot more hair in the bald spots.
Using hair building fibers on your beard is easy, you just apply something like beard oil or moisturizer and then lightly dust the fibers into the weak areas. You can get a bottle of Toppik from Amazon or any well-stocked barbershop.
Then just as if it would be magic, your beard will start to look fuller and you can bridge a gap between the beard and mustache, or between the sideburns and the rest of the beard.
Word of warning: While using hair building fibers may seem like an easy way to get a thicker beard – and the fibers do stay quite strongly on the face – it’s still going to be pretty embarrassing if you end up accidentally swiping half of your beard of with your hand.
Conclusion
If there’s an unfortunate gap between your mustache and beard or between your sideburns and the rest of the facial hair, then your beard does not connect.
Is this a problem? To many beardsmen it is, while others don’t think much about it (and I agree, a beard can look amazing, even if it doesn’t fully connect).
However, if you do want to fix your non-connecting beard, be sure to microneedle the weak areas with a Derma Roller, try out Minoxidil, 3% peppermint oil dilution, and make sure you’re not deficient in any key beard growing nutrients.
Those tips will help your REALLY fix and fill the empty gap in your beard, but if you just want to quickly mask it and make it appear as if your beard would connect, then you can try things like beard dye, hair building fibers, or just letting your mustache grow long on the sides so that it droops down to “connect” with the chin.
What do you think, did we nail everything about connecting a beard? Let us know in the comments below.
