There’s nothing quite as annoying as beard and mustache hairs that stick out and refuse to lay flat.
This is natural and happens to most guys, especially if your beard is short to medium in length and the growth is thick.
The most common place where facial hair can be hard to keep from sticking straight out is in the center part of your mustache right under the nose, but of course, it can happen at any other part of your beard as well.
The question is: How can you keep your beard hairs from sticking out?
And the answer is that there are many methods ranging from using a simple beard oil to going all in with beard straighteners and relaxing creams, and which of them are truly necessary for you, depend on the roughness of your beard hairs and where the sticking out kind are located.
Let’s take a closer look.
How to Keep Beard and Mustache Hairs from Sticking Out
Get the Help from Beard Products
It goes without saying that if you want to keep your beard hairs laying flat, your first choice should be looking into specific beard products that can help you.
If your beard is soft and easily manageable, then something simple such as beard oil alone can work to give the facial hair some weight and hold it down so that it doesn’t stick out.
For beards that require a little bit more hold to keep them nice and aligned, a simple tin of beard balm might do the trick instead.
But if the oil and balm are not enough and your beard and mustache still like to stick right out, then consider getting yourself some strong beard wax. Waxes have high amounts of beeswax in the formulation which makes them much better for actual beard styling compared to balms and oils.
Lastly, you could also use regular hair clay or wax to control the fly-away beard and mustache hairs. That is what I personally do quite often once I’m done styling my hair. I just take the left-over hair wax and use it to press down the rogue facial hairs.
NOTE: There is one product that I don’t recommend for the purpose of keeping your beard from sticking out, and that’s a chemical mixture called “beard relaxing cream“. It’s extremely potent and does work, but it permanently breaks down the keratin bonds in your beard hairs and leaves your facial hair looking unnaturally weak and tame.
Train your Beard Hairs with Brush and Comb
Sadly combing and brushing the beard alone won’t be enough to keep your facial hair laying down.
But if you combine daily combing (to untangle your beard) and daily brushing (to exfoliate the skin underneath and train the beard) it will help a bit in making your facial hair more easier to manage.
Getting yourself a good beard comb and a nice beard brush is also a no-brainer. Both are key parts of a healthy beard care routine, and they cost barely anything.
Try Using Heated Beard Tools if Nothing Else Works
If your beard is so thick and wiry that it just keeps sticking out no matter what products or brushes you throw at it, then it may be time to move into the big boy toys.
And by that I mean girly things like heated beard straightening brushes or just simply using a blow-dryer on your beard after a shower (preferably with some wax in it as well).
Heated beard tools are usually not that terribly expensive, but you should also remember that they can damage the beard if you are not careful with them.
You can mitigate some of this damage by using a sprayable product called “heat shield” and by focusing on lower temperatures rather than blasting your beard hairs with the hottest possible option.
We go more in detail about how to use these heated beard tools properly in our article about straightening beard hairs.
Let your Beard and Mustache Grow Longer
If your beard is short and it keeps sticking out everywhere, you can make it lay flat against your skin effortlessly by just letting it grow longer.
That’s right, a longer beard is heavier, and with the help of gravity it will also mean that each individual beard hair will be that much more likely to lay flat instead of sticking out.
Of course this also means that your beard style will have to become something completely different as well.
But if you don’t want to use any products to keep your facial hair nice and flat, and you are not interested in heated beard tools or blow-drying the beard, then unfortunately the only remaining option is to just let the beard grow out and let nature do its trick.
If that’s what you choose to do, please check out our article about growing a long beard for some great tips and tricks.
Conclusion
Every beard is unique in its color, thickness, and how it behaves on your face. Some beards lay flat effortlessly and are easy to style, while others can be a complete nightmare to deal with as they stick out to every possible direction.
If the latter describes you, then hopefully this article provided you with some good tips and tricks on how to keep your facial hair from sticking out.
As a quick recap, all you need to do is use some beard products depending on your beard type, be it beard oil, beard balm, or even beard wax. Follow this up with a healthy habit of using beard comb and beard brush daily. And if still your beard keeps popping out, then you may have to bring out the heavy stuff and use the blow dryer or heated beard straightener.
Or you could just let your facial hair grow out longer and let nature bring it down as intended with the help of gravity. It’s all up to you!
