A full-grown beard and a well carved out muscular structure are two distinctive features that differentiate an adult male from a boy. These features are natural gifts for a grown man that never gets outshined regardless of the style of trends.
Testosterone is the hormone that allows the male gender to exhibit these attributes. That’s why not every male grows the same beard because its growth depends upon various factors such as genes, health, age, and testosterone levels. In this article, we’ll discuss whether or not you can use testosterone boosters to improve beard growth.
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Link Between Testosterone and Beard Growth
Testosterone is a male sex hormone that men produce naturally in their bodies. It’s regulated by another hormone called GnRH (Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone). It’s responsible for the communication between your brain and testicles to support testosterone production.
The more signals that your Leydig cells (present in testicles) receive, the higher the production of male sex hormone.
Effects of Testosterone on Male Body
A man with healthy T levels will have more pronounced male features such as a muscular frame and low body fat. There are two different effect categories that hormones have.
Androgenic
It includes inhibition of protein breakdown and increased protein metabolism. In simple words, it provides a male body with lean muscle levels and reduces body fat.
Anabolic
These actions include the development of male features such as hair growth, deepening of the voice, and increased strength. A boy experiences his first significant increase in androgen levels when he hits puberty. After that, his body starts developing the following:
- Growth of hair, especially around pubic, facial, and body areas.
- Increase in height
- Increased bone density and muscle growth
- Growth of male private parts
- Development of Adam’s apple and deepening of voice
Once a man reaches the age of 30, his testosterone production decreases as GnRH no longer stimulates the Leydig cells as efficiently as it used to. As a result, all the male features start to decline and a person begins to lose hair, develop body fat, and lose bone and muscle mass.
Evolutionary Significance of Beard
Most males with dominant masculine features are not only imposing and strong but they also often have a decent beard as well. That’s because masculinity and facial hair go hand in hand. According to Ethology and Sociobiology, the development of facial hair in men has both social and evolutionary perception value.
- A thick and darker beard is a sign of better fitness and health.
- It tells the opposite gender that you’re off sexual age.
As mentioned, your genes play an important role in developing your facial hair but it also depends upon testosterone, especially DHT (Dihydrotestosterone).
What is DHT (Dihydrotestosterone)?
Dihydrotestosterone or DHT is an endogenous androgen sex hormone. It’s a metabolite of male sex hormone and it’s also much more potent than testosterone. Your body produces this hormone with the help of the 5-AR (5-Alpha Reductase) enzyme.
However, the production of DHT cannot take place if testosterone is not available. So, it’s safe to say that your dihydrotestosterone levels will be high if your body has healthy T levels. Both testosterone and DHT are responsible for beard growth.
It’s important to note that healthy facial hair indicates that you have optimal levels of testosterone. That’s why most women find the men’s beard attractive. According to the Evolution and Ecology Research Center study, women like men with a beard. The participants stated that men with a beard look more liberal, courageous, self-confident, dominant, good-looking, mature, masculine, industrious, and nonconforming.
How Do DHT and Testosterone Affect Beard Growth?
There are several functions in your body that are sensitive to androgen including your arms, legs, chest, underarms, genitals, and face. According to the National Library of Medicine, both testosterone and DHT play complementary yet separate roles when it comes to your beard growth.
- DHT supports the linear growth of your hair
- Testosterone provides the necessary nutrients your hair follicles need to grow hair
- Resultantly, your face starts growing thick and flatter-shaped hair.
- What Happens if Your Testosterone Levels are Low?
Low levels of testosterone will reduce the production of DHT in your body, which is the most important hormone for the growth of facial hair. It means that low T levels can lead to body hair loss.
So, Will Testosterone Booster Improve Beard Growth?
If you have low T levels in your body, you’ll experience many health problems including body hair loss. You can start taking testosterone boosters to increase your T levels so that your body starts producing the required amount of DHT hormone. This way, testosterone boosters can help you with beard growth.
However, if your T levels are normal but you still have less facial hair, taking testosterone boosters is not advisable. That’s because in such a case, the main reason behind less facial and body hair will be your genes.
To put it simply, if low T levels are the reason why you have unhealthy facial hair, you can take testosterone boosters to improve your beard growth. It’s also important to consult a medical specialist before you start taking testosterone boosters or any other medicine. Carrying out such treatments without medical supervision can lead to adverse health problems.
Improving Your Beard Growth
Once you have determined that your low T levels are responsible for unhealthy beard growth, there are different ways you can use it to boost your testosterone production in your body. Let’s discuss these methods in detail.
Artificial Methods
Using anabolic steroids and supplements are the two most commonly used artificial methods to increase your T levels. These methods will increase your T levels and improve your beard growth. However, you must understand the potential risks that are associated with artificial test-boosting methods.
Synthetic testosterone is a steroid that many people use to increase their testosterone levels. When it enters your system, your body loses control over the natural process to produce male sex hormones at healthy levels.
Additionally, once you start following this method, it becomes very difficult to restart the natural testosterone production process. It means you’ll continuously need to inject synthetic testosterone into your body to maintain your T levels.
Taking synthetic testosterone in high amounts can also lead to several health problems such as reduced fertility, testicular shrinkage, hair loss, acne, hormonal imbalance, depression, and heart attacks. Make sure that you understand these risks and health problems, if you’re planning to opt for a synthetic method to increase your male sex hormone levels.
Natural Ways to Improve Beard Growth
If you don’t want to use any synthetic method to improve and maintain your T levels for better beard growth, consider using any of the natural ways discussed below.
Improve Your Diet
Improving your diet and making sure that you eat healthy food is one of the best ways to improve your beard growth. Eating natural and whole food items will allow you to grow healthy and thick strands. Increase your protein intake by eating more legumes, meat, and beans. These food options make for great sources of healthy protein that your body needs.
Other than increasing your protein consumption, you should also incorporate foods that offer more calories, carbs, and monounsaturated fats. You can use olive oil and dairy products such as milk to increase your monounsaturated fat consumption. And for healthy carbs and calories, consider eating fruits, whole grains, and potatoes.
It’s also important to supplement your diet with citrus fruits, fish, carrots, broccoli, and walnuts. All the food sources are known for the benefits they offer to help improve the growth of your facial hair. Adding healthy food sources to your diet is important but you’ll also need to avoid food options that can reduce your natural testosterone production. These foods include flax, soy, trans, alcohol, licorice, and mint.
Exercise Regularly
As we have already discussed, low T levels can decrease the quality and growth rate of your beard. It means healthy male sex hormone levels are directly proportional to your beard growth.
Exercising regularly will allow you to improve your testosterone levels. The best thing about exercising is that it can increase your DHT levels significantly. A National Library of Medicine study found the DHT levels in men increased by 14.5 percent once they started exercising.
Resistance training like weight lifting is the best exercise that you can perform to increase both short- and long-term testosterone levels naturally. The European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology found out that just one weightlifting session consisting of 30 minutes can increase the T levels in men by 21.6 percent. Another study shows that only three sets of eight to 10 weightlifting reps can increase testosterone levels in both older and young men.
It means that the time you spend in a gym performing resistance training will directly affect the quality and length of your facial hair. You can perform workouts such as squats, rows, bench presses, and deadlifts to boost your T levels quickly. Avocado and olive oils are known as potential bear thickeners.
Get Quality Sleep
Sleep isn’t only important to increase your T levels but it also affects your overall health positively. Your body starts producing male sex hormones when you’re in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Fragmented sleep, sleep apnea, and not getting enough rest can adversely affect this process and your testosterone production will decrease significantly. According to a study, restriction in daily sleep lowers the T levels in healthy men.
Beard Moisturizing
Keeping your beard moisturized is also important to increase its growth and health. You can use all-natural beard oil and make a habit of massaging your beard at least once a day. It’ll smoothen your facial hair and increase the growth rate of healthy strands.
Avoid Stress
If you don’t already know, high-stress levels can decrease your testosterone levels significantly and you can end up with an unhealthy beard on your face. While it seems impossible to avoid stress sometimes, you can learn different ways to reduce its impact on your body.
For example, you can start exercising, jogging, or breathing deep if you start getting stressed out. Meditation and yoga are also helpful to fight stress and depression. You should also reduce your caffeine intake because it can make you tense and irritated.
Take Natural Testosterone Boosters
Taking natural testosterone boosters is a safe and effective way to increase your T levels and improve beard growth. Vitamin D, Magnesium, and zinc are some common natural test-enhancing nutrients. You can increase the consumption of these nutrients either by changing your diet or taking supplements.
You should consume at least 11 milligrams of zinc during the day. Consider eating oatmeal, seeds, nuts, shellfish, beef, and chicken to increase your zinc intake. Consuming 420 to 750 milligrams of magnesium a day is recommended for a healthy male. You can start eating broccoli, fish, kale, spinach, avocado, seeds, raisins, and bananas as all of them are rich in magnesium. When it comes to increasing your vitamin D intake, consider eating egg yolks, mackerel, tuna, orange juice, cheese, liver, and salmon.
All these nutrients are also available in the form of supplements that you can start taking after consulting your doctor.
The Myth About Beards
Many people think that shaving your beard will make it thicker and grow faster. However, this claim is completely false according to scientific studies. It only allows you to make your beard look neat and uniform. It means you should stop shaving your beard if you’re doing it just to make it thicker or grow faster.
Final Words
While testosterone boosters can help you with beard growth, it’s only possible if your low T levels are the reasons behind unhealthy facial hair. If your T levels are normal, you should not take synthetic supplements to increase your T levels for better beard growth. It will not help your facial hair in any way, in fact, you’ll fall victim to the side effects of these products.
We recommend you use the natural ways listed above to improve your male sex hormone levels and consult a medical specialist before you start taking supplements including both synthetic and natural.