7 Ways to Grow a Beard Faster: The Ultimate Guide on How to Stimulate Facial Hair Growth Naturally

I guess every non-bearded or patchy bearded man has wondered about this question at least once in his lifetime:
“How to stimulate facial hair growth?” Is there really a way to grow a beard faster naturally?”
After that, most men will go online and start searching for info about facial hair stimulation and beard growing tips…
…And they will find the following types of articles;

1. News articles that seem knowledgeable, and only tell that beard growth is 100% in genes and that there would be no way to promote the growth naturally.
2. Supplement marketers who claim to have a magical beard growth serum, oil, spray, or supplement (which are more than often over-priced scam products).
3. Articles which make claims where hair growth in the scalp is used as evidence towards proving something to work on facial hair, which doesn’t because beard is hormonal, scalp hair is not.

This article is a bit different.
Right off the bat I can guarantee you that there are research-proven ways to stimulate facial hair growth and even grow beard in the areas where you really can’t normally…
…But I will also warn you that the effects are NOT instant, and will often take 6-12 months to really show significant difference. Fact is that you can’t completely overcome your genetics, but in 95% of non-bearded men, there is gigantic room for improvement in their natural facial hair growth ability.
…Which led me to research actual scientific studies as well as reading every bit of anecdotal evidence from various online discussion boards to finally come up with proven ways to;

• Stimulate the actual facial hair follicles and their blood supply.
• Optimize lifestyle and nutrition factors to maximize natural beard growth.
• Master natural hormone optimization to increase beard growth hormones.
• Find natural and pharmaceutical supplements to make my beard grow.
• Figure out several “body hacks” to literally force facial hair growth.

Primer: How Facial Hair Actually Grows in Men
Before we get into the 10 ways to grow more facial hair naturally, you need to know how beard and mustache growth actually happens in men.
Most people think that it’s the same as hair growth in the scalp area, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
To understand human hair growth we have to go back in time. Back so much that we are still in womb…
…As it’s the pregnancy week 22 (five months), when the fetus forms all of its hair follicles. This is when ALL of the ~5 million bodily hair follicles are generated and after this point, we will never generate new ones during the courses of our lives.
So yes, as a 5 months old fetus, you already have the follicular structure to growing a full beard.
Fast forward to childhood and at some point early in your life you will start growing hair on your scalp…
…Then as the years roll by you will eventually hit puberty, and at this point your hormones will kick in and trigger the growth of pubic hair, leg hair, arm hair, chest hair, facial hair, etc.
Except that for many men, there will be no facial hair or chest hair. Or if there is, it may not be anything significant.
Why?
The answer lies in our hormones and the activity of our androgen receptors in the hair follicles.
Simply put, unlike scalp-hair, facial hair growth is purely androgenic, it is triggered and regulated by two male hormones; testosterone (T) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The former promotes beard thickness and follicle stimulation, whereas the latter increases linear growth actual facial hair growth density.
This is the reason women can’t grow facial hair. They simply don’t have high enough levels of these two hormones, and their receptor sites for utilizing these hormones in the facial hair area are not sensitive enough to trigger beard growth (even though women too have the follicles in the face).
This is also why some men can’t grow full beards. Either the levels of T and DHT are too low for that, or the receptiveness of the facial hair follicle androgen receptors is not strong enough to properly utilize the hormones for beard growth stimulation.
So here’s a simplified explanation of human beard growth:

1. Testosterone and DHT bind from blood stream to the androgen receptors in facial hair follicles (T again primes to follicles and DHT promotes density).
2. Your body will utilize certain micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat) to produce keratin.
3. Beard growth takes place and follows the normal bodily hair growth pattern of growth phase (anagen), transition phase (catagen), and resting phase (telogen).

1. Optimize your Lifestyle
To naturally boost beard growth and maximize your facial hair follicle potential, you must start from laying the ground work.
And when it comes to any bodily process, one should start from optimizing certain lifestyle factors. You know the daily habits of yours.

• Consider sleeping more. Many of us neglect this nightly “task”, but studies have shown that men, who sleep for 8 hours, have nearly two times the testosterone of the guys who sleep for only 4 hours per night.
• Do everything in your power to lower stress. The stress hormone; cortisol directly lowers testosterone and DHT levels and causes weakened hair growth all around the body, including the facial hair area.
• Do not abuse alcohol. Although few drinks here and there won’t do any significant harm, binge drinking does. Drinks are a sure way to bring down T and DHT, which obviously slows down your beard growth.
• Lift heavy weights. Exercising is great way to improve circulation and help those crucial beard growth nutrients and hormones get into the follicles, but resistance training in particular also skyrockets testosterone, which is awesome for beard.
• Don’t use anti-drogenic medication. Many common drugs have a nasty side effect of lowering crucial beard growing hormones, these include: statins, SSRI’s, beta-blockers, opiate painkillers, antifungals…
• Avoid man-made chemicals in cosmetics, especially BPA, parabens, and phthlates. They are all proven ant-iandrogens and can lower testosterone and DHT, inhibiting beard growth. Especially avoid using moisturizers with these on facial hair area!

2. Eat Right for Beard Growth
To grow a beard faster, you have to dial in your nutrition.
Very simply, this means that your diet should cover all the vitamins and minerals necessary to sprout hair from beard follicles, as well as be optimal for the production of beard growth hormones.
You may have heard the claims that since hair is basically protein, a diet rich in protein is the way to go…
…But actually a diet heavier in carbs and fat, with medium protein is best for the production of DHT and testosterone, and therefore optimal for stimulating beard growth.
Consider eating roughly 30% of your calories from fat, 50% from carbs, and the remaining 20% from protein.
Not any type of carbs, protein, and fats are good for beard growth hormones:

1. Avoid eating too much polyunsaturated fats, which lower T and DHT, and eat more saturated and monounsaturated fats, which raise both.
2. Eat animal-protein over plant-protein, best if you eat meat, cheese, milk, and plenty of gelatins (which is awesome collagen protein for beard growth).
3. Try getting most of your carbs from fruit, rice, and potatoes, and avoid gluten-rich grains which can raise prolactin and end up lowering curcial beard growth hormones.

3. Supplements that Stimulate Beard Growth
Many men are looking for that definitive answer to this common question…
…”Are there supplements that promote facial hair growth?”
THE ANSWER IS YES.
There are at least these 10 scientifically proven compounds which stimulate the production of testosterone and DHT, and thus make your beard grow faster at the same time. This includes micronutrients, amino acids, serines, and herbs. These can be found in the Hair Fact Supplements.
(And no, I’m not talking about scam-products like Vitabeard or Beardilizer, but actual scientifically proven supplements that affect your hormone production naturally).
4. Minoxidil
This is a big one. Minoxidil. Not exactly a supplement, but a prescription free pharmaceutical solution that men use mostly to stimulate the growth on scalp hair.
But here’s the kicker. It’s been proven anecdotally to work extremely well for growing a beard too.
So if you’re one of those guys wondering…
…”How to grow a beard if you can’t grow a beard?”
The answer #1 is minoxidil. It works by activating the potassium channels on your hair follicles and allows for increased circulation of nutrients, testosterone, and DHT to the beard follicles, dramatically improving beard growth within 6-12 months.
I can’t stress this enough. If you’re looking to stimulate NEW growth on patchy areas, minoxidil (often sold by the name Rogaine or Kirkland), is the way to go.
It’s also cheap, easy to use (just apply 1-2ml to facial hair area once or twice per day and let dry), and proven highly effective. Use it with the other tips on this article and I can guarantee majestic facial hair growth within 3-12 months.
5. Microneedling
Using a micro-needle (Derma Roller) is a great way to stimulate beard growth. There’s also scientific validity for its effectiveness in stimulating hair growth.
The small needless poke tiny holes into the facial hair area, which accomplishes two important things that will overtime help to grow your beard and mustache faster…
…In other words, micro-needling promotes beard growth by;

1. Rolling stimulates blood circulation to the facial hair area, which helps to deliver nutrients and hormones to the follicle.
2. Micro-needling signals the body that there’s damage, and the body sends keratin and collagen into the area to “repair” the skin. Both compounds are beneficial for beard.

Micro-needling is extremely effective when it’s done along with minoxidil. And you can get a great quality roll with optimal size (0,75mm) needles with just $12.
6. Red Light Therapy
This is an interesting “body hack”, but there’s scientific evidence that pointing a specific wavelength of red light laser can;

1. Increase testosterone levels
2. Increase thyroid hormone production when aimed to thyroid (neck area).
3. Turn thin and light vellus hairs into thick androgenic terminal hairs.

 You can get to the optimal wavelengths with powerful laser, just make sure that it’s in range of 630-850nw, and you should be able to mimic the results seen in studies by pointing the light to your beard area for 20-30 minutes per day.
7. Avoid these Common Scams and Myths
There are many myths and delirious products pushed to men try to increase facial hair growth rate naturally.
One of the most pervasive myths is the “shaving increases facial hair growth” claim, which is utterly false and not at all effective way to stimulate beard or mustache growth.
Another common thing is the selling of beard supplements. Most commonly these are just low-quality kitchen-sink multivitamins with huge price tag (like Vitabeard or Beardilizer), they can slightly help (just like normal multivitamin would), but the fact that they’re grossly overpriced and not any different than grocery store multi’s is sickening.
Then there are the beard growth oils and beard growth sprays, both of which don’t work at all, they’re mostly just olive oil or some random herbs that do nothing topically.
Bottom line: If you want to try shaving to boost beard growth, don’t. If you’re looking for beard supplements, get a good multivitamin and some of these scientifically proven supplements. And instead of buying ineffective oils or sprays, consider making your own “growth oil” with some castor oil, ginger, and chili.
Conclusion
That’s all you need to know to learn the fastest way to grow a beard, even if you can’t grow facial hair at first!

1. Facial hair growth stimulation starts from optimizing lifestyle.
2. Nutrition is extremely important to promote beard growth.
3. Certain supplements do work to boost beard and mustache thickness.
4. Minoxidil is a way to grow facial hair even if you can’t naturally do it.
5. Microneedling is proven to work and nicely works together with minox.
6. Red light therapy is almost completely unknown body hack that works.
7. Don’t waste time with myths and shitty supplements, sprays or oils.