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Want to be able to grow a beard?

I couldn’t. But now I can.

I put this page up to show you the full beard regimen I followed. Beard tips. The full beard routine. End results and everything you need to know are down below.

Thank you, and good luck!

-Pat

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The Basic Step-by-Step Plan

“The beard is looking a lot thicker and darker. But dude, please stop sending me beard progress pics.”

-Literally everyone. Probably.

I spent two months researching and putting together a plan. I considered all of the beard growth tips. I read scientific papers. Here are the steps:

1. Begin applying minoxidil foam to your clean face, twice daily. Leave it on for at least 4 hours. Don’t sleep with it on your face – until you do it a few times on accident and don’t notice any problems.
   • You might like the liquid better because it is cheaper, but the alcohol in it is pretty rough on your skin and it takes forever to dry.
   • TIP: If you have dogs or cats, make sure you have washed it off entirely before you touch them – minoxidil is toxic to pets.
2. Trim the growth all the way down or shave and use a 0.5mm or 1.0mm dermaroller (derma-roller?), at least once per week. Some people do this multiple times a week, but I felt more comfortable with once per week.
   • Make sure you buy a bunch of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect these things for several minutes and wash your hands like a surgeon. You don’t want to mess around with a face infection.
3. Moisturize. Everybody’s skin loves and hates different things, but I used NIVEA Soft.
   • TIP: Don’t let your face get exposed to much direct sunlight. Block it or avoid it however works best for you. Your skin will be doing its best to cope with your beard meddling, and the last thing you need is sun damage.
4. Biotin gummies. There’s just something about gummies in the morning that make it easier to get out of bed. I don’t care how old you are.
5. Regular men’s multivitamin.
6. Lifted heavy things.
7. A specific kind of anti-aging skincare cream that starts with a “T”. (Apparently saying the name makes my website hidden in some countries, so I am just linking to it.) This is prescription-only medication and it is strong stuff you only want to put it on your face at night and stay completely out of the sun. I got mine through Hims. I wasn’t sure if I would need it to make the minoxidil work, but your mid-30s is a good time to start using a good anti-aging cream anyway.
   • The reason some people need this ingredient to make minoxidil work on their beards is that minoxidil needs to interact with enzymes in hair follicles to work. Some people lack enough of these enzymes naturally, but can produce enough enzymes with the help of this cream.
   • In scientific terms, this ingredient complements minoxidil by “upregulating follicular sulfotransferase enzymes.” (Sharma, Aseem et al., 2019)
8. Slept better. (Blackout curtains, earplugs, and no caffeine past the afternoon.)
9. Staying hydrated.
   • January 14, 2024 Update: I should mention that I stopped drinking out of plastic containers at around the 16 month mark. I’m not completely convinced that plastic is responsible for inhibiting hormones responsible for beard growth, at least not to a meaningful degree I would notice, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to switch to a glass water container. I use a metal straw, too, and only drink water filtered through my refrigerator.
10. Get a physical and get bloodwork. Make them check everything.

Results

It worked. I had to commit and be diligent for months, but it worked.

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I had never had anything resembling beard hair up on my cheeks.

And this grew in FAST.

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I noticed that the way this works is kind of a “rich get richer” principle. The most notable results were in my mustache, soulpatch, and goatee area.

Fast-forward to today, in 2024. It’s not like I can grow a giant beard up to my eyeballs now. But what you see in my Final Results gif only takes me about 6 weeks to grow!

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If you’re worried that school, your job, dating, etc. will prevent you from doing this, try one application of minoxidil foam per day when you get home and evaluate your results in 3-6 months.

Stick with it, and don’t get too addicted to progress pics.

-Pat

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No Progress? Advanced Tactics

If you have tried everything else, or simply enjoy being a human guinea pig like me, you could also try adding each of these one at a time in 2-3 month bursts like I did and seeing what kind of results you get:

• Creatine
• L-Carnitine Tartrate
• Tongkat Ali
• Jamaican Black Castor Oil (On your skin – don’t eat this…)
• Boron
• Zinc Picolinate
• Low Dose Aspirin
• Fish Oil
• Collagen Peptides

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• January 20, 2024 Update:
• In addition to some oral minoxidil, I’m trying out different combinations of L-Tyrosine and L-Phenylalanine to see if it makes my beard darker. Some studies on black cats and black dogs suggest that increasing the concentrations of these compounds increase the amount of melanin in their coats. It stands to reason that this might also help humans, but we shall see.
• I have not yet personally used peppermint oil, but it’s possible that peppermint oil is beneficial for beard hair growth.

_{Affiliate Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate and affiliate for other brands, such as Keeps, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that when you click on certain links and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products and services that I believe will add value to your beard growth journey.}

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