Chicken or egg, kilt or beard

[Bugbear]

Tobus, We have very hard water here, with a very high PH balance, and I use vinegar and water as a rinse. It does make a difference; I have waist-length hair of the top of the head variety.

A lot of the time I have a stubble beard shaved with an electric beard trimmer at it's closes, and clean shave with a disposable razor when I need to go into town or something like that.

[Santa Wally]

You want to use hair shampoo AND conditioner on beards, not body soap. Also, I use "glossing drops". I'm not at home tonight so I can't look at the bottle and be more specific. It keeps my Santa beard soft.

Santa is willing to share his beard care "secret" with XMarkers.

The glossing product I use is "Proclaim Glossing Polish" which I buy at Sally's Beauty Supply (it may be available elsewhere). Just a very, very small amount (just 2 or 3 drops) in the palm of one hand, rub hands together and rub on beard. It is also available in a spray pump bottle. I learned about it at Santa School from a beautician who made a presentation on beard care.

It keeps my beard soft to the touch.

[BuchananBiker]

Personally, I wore a kilt for years clean shaven. Mostly because, as my friend Shaun puts it, I could only grow a "summer beard" (whiskers... some are here, some are there). I couldnt grow facial hair to save my life. It was always meek and shabby. Kid you not, it grew in just like "Joe Dirt's". Once every 6 months or so I'd make an attempt and after a week or two shave off the sparse, downy, pitiful product. I lamented that in my early 30's I was waiting for puberty and just wanted the option of facial hair.
It wasn't until this spring ( I was 34) that it finally grew in worth a darn. This summer I let it go nuts and had quite the biker chin wagger. The novelty of looking scary wore off and I cut it back to the reasonable length you see in my profile.
Now I have a beard, and no kilt.... I'm working on that.

[ForresterModern]

Long ago when I had my six inch long grizzly adams beard for a couple three years I routinely used qwuality sshampoo and mated conditioners on both my hair and beard daily, then combed/brushed it out and blew it dry on cool settings virtually each and every time I took a shower (if my hair, which I still had then, got washed then so did the beard). Back then I used a hair detangling leave in conditioner as well (Aussie if I remember) that would probably equivalate with the glossing compunds others have mentioned. I used either a wide tooth comb ( the old "pick" from afro haircut days) or a wide loose plastic bristle brush to undo all the tangles during the drying phase. My beard back then actually took more time to care for each morning than did my then relatively short hair. I will try to post that old picture I used for one set of interviews that has me beared deeply but trimmed, a rare event back then. I probably went 3-4 years without purchasing a razor. Wish I had the guts and security in my work position to do that again, but I doubt it would look as good with all the scraggly grey in it now as before.

[davedove]

I don't think that there's really a direct relationship between the kilt and being bearded, but more of an indirect one. Generally speaking, it is the social norm for adult men to be clean shaven in western society, just as it is the norm for men to wear trousers. The same type of men who are likely to break the norm by growing a beard are the same type who would don a kilt.

[Mike_Oettle]

Well, Tobus, since you ask, the answer is simply Brylcreem.
I used it as a boy (everybody did, and the guys who modelled it for magazines and the movies generally put far too much on).
But as a young adult I rebelled against it and sought out alternatives.
The trouble was, the alternatives were hard to find and even harder to get a second time.
My wife (when we were engaged) suggested that I use Brylcreem on my beard as well as my hair, and I have used it ever since.
I dab a bit on my head after shampooing, and it lasts me until the next shampoo (usually a week). But I put it on my beard after my daily shower.
The only drawback is that when it is freshly applied, it makes my wife sneeze. But since she was the one who recommended it, I can hardly complain.
Regards,
Mike

[kc8ufv]

It may be because well more than 50% of kilties are men, and therefore almost twice as likely to be bearded as the general population - bearded ladies notwithstanding.

I figured bearded ladies were the reason for the almost in your statement.

[Bugbear]

I figured bearded ladies were the reason for the almost in your statement.

Are you saying bearded ladies don't wear kilts?

[kc8ufv]

Are you saying bearded ladies don't wear kilts?

Nope, not at all.

[Bugbear]

Nope, not at all.

Exactly. It would have been Father Bill who was or was not saying it.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...