Have you ever wondered why your beard doesn’t grow in some places or why it doesn’t grow as thick and long as it could? Well, the answer might be that you have low testosterone levels. How to increase beard growth is a question that many men have, and the answer might just have to do with testosterone.
Testosterone and facial hair actually have quite a close relationship. As you are about to find out, testosterone is the ultimate beard growth booster. We’re going to give you all of the info that you need to help you boost your testosterone levels and ultimately increase your beard growth.
Does Testosterone Boost Beard Growth?
The simple answer to this question is yes, testosterone, in the majority of cases, does, in fact, boost the production of facial hair. To really help you understand how testosterone affects your face’s ability to grow a carpet, we’re going to do a fairly in-depth explanation of exactly how testosterone affects facial hair growth. Bear with us for a minute because you’re going to need a little crash course on both the workings of testosterone as well as hair growth to fully understand how this all works.
Testosterone
First, let’s take a minute to talk about testosterone itself. Testosterone is a human steroid that is naturally produced by the body, and it is part of a group called androgens. These androgens like testosterone have several effects on the human body.
They do things like cause your voice to deepen, develop the male sex organs, increase your bone and muscle mass, and they dictate hair growth as well. Testosterone is produced by the testicles by cells known as the Leydig cells.
Your pituitary gland will realize that your body needs testosterone and signals they Leydig cells with something called a luteinizing hormone. The testicles then produce 2 different hormones which then transform into testosterone.
Hair Growth
Hair Growth
Now it’s time to take a second to talk about how hair grows. To make it short, your hair follicles go through 3 different cycles and thus they produce 3 different stages of hair growth.
The first cycle of hair growth is called the Anagen stage, and this is where your hair actually grows. Roughly 80 to 85 percent of the 3 separate stages consist of the Anagen stage. Your hair like your facial hair only grow during this first stage, and it can last anywhere from a few months to several years.
The second stage is known as the Catagen stage, and this is where your hair slowly stops to grow. This second stage usually doesn’t last too long. Finally, during the third and final stage known as the Telogen phase, the hair actually begins to fall out.
Not to worry though because your hair follicles continually repeat this process so more hair should grow back. Plus at any time around 15 percent of your hair is in that final cycle because all of your follicles are on a slightly different schedule regarding the stages they are in.
Testosterone And Beard Growth
This is where things get interesting because now we’re going to talk about how testosterone affects beard growth. Once testosterone has been produced by your testicles, it then starts to circulate in the body looking for receptors.
In the case of hair follicles, these are known as androgen receptors. When the testosterone hits the part of your hair follicles known as the dermal papilla, it then binds to the receptors. Once this happens it starts to alter the gene expression in the hair follicles. In other words, it can make your hair follicles grow more or less hair, depending on the type of follicle.
Interestingly enough testosterone can, in fact, make your beard hair grow thicker and faster, maybe even in places, it wouldn’t grow before. Yet it can also cause the hair on your head to do the opposite, but we aren’t going to explain the science behind that right now.
The effects of testosterone on facial hair are very positive, and this is because of the way in which the substance affects the hair growth stages we talked about earlier. Testosterone can indeed make the Anagen or first cycle of hair growth last much longer and make it more efficient too.
That means your hair keeps growing for longer, and it will grow faster and fuller too, possibly in places where it couldn’t grow previously. By comparison to the first stage, thanks to testosterone, the second and third stages of hair growth become much shorter. So yes, in a nutshell, the effects of testosterone on beard growth are that it increases it. Therefore if your beard doesn’t grow all that well, you might want to try getting some more testosterone in your system.
Getting More Testosterone In Your System
Now that we know for sure that testosterone does indeed help your beard hair grow longer and thicker, you may be wondering how to increase beard growth and get more testosterone in your system. Lucky for you there are quite a few ways in which you can boost your body’s production of it.
Why Is My Testosterone Low?
The testosterone may not be the problem if your beard isn’t growing that well. If you aren’t sure, you may want to get tested to see what your testosterone levels are like. Anyway, a testosterone deficiency may very well be the problem, which isn’t that bad because there are quite a few things you can do to remedy it.
If you were wondering why your testosterone might be low, it could be caused by quite a few things. In the majority of cases, a testosterone deficiency is due to either primary hypogonadism or secondary hypogonadism.
The first kind is when your testicles aren’t producing testosterone as well as they could be. Secondary hypogonadism has to do with a problem with either your pituitary gland or the hypothalamus, or in other words, problems in the brain.
Low testosterone levels can also be caused by a variety of other things including injury to the testicles, chemotherapy, chronic diseases, and radiation. Furthermore, a testosterone deficiency may also be caused by kidney issues, alcohol abuse, cirrhosis of the liver, or even because of mental stress. At any rate, to see what the problem is you should see a medical professional.
How To Increase Your Testosterone Levels
A testosterone deficiency is a problem, and it can lead to minimal or no beard growth, but there are a few different things you can try to fix it. On a side note, if you have a severe testosterone deficiency caused by a medical condition, your doctor may be able to prescribe you actual medication to fix an underlying problem. Otherwise here are some of the most effective methods for you to make your body produce more of it.
- Sleep Well
One of the easiest things that you can do to increase your testosterone levels is to sleep more. You should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night, even better regarding testosterone production would be 9 or 10 hours, but obviously, you might not have the time for that.
Studies show that most of a man’s testosterone is produced while we sleep, specifically during REM sleep, or in other words when we are in our deepest sleep. Studies have also shown that men who only sleep for 4 hours have less than half of the amount of testosterone in their bodies than men who sleep for a full 8 hours.
If you aren’t already getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis, which by the way can have a lot of other health effects, you should seriously start doing that. It may just be the solution you need to increase testosterone levels and get your beard to grow better.
- Resistance Training
Another thing that has been shown to increase testosterone production in males is by participating in resistance training or weight training. Resistance training is any type of exercise where there is a force opposing your muscles as you try to move. You can do this by using resistance bands or even by doing weight lifting.
Dumbbells don’t just make your biceps grow because they also help stimulate the production of testosterone. We’re not going to get into the science behind how weight training increases your testosterone levels, but the science behind it doesn’t lie, not to mention the corresponding results.
- Eat More
The next thing that you can try to do to increase your testosterone levels is to eat more foods. Lucky for you, this time, we don’t mean particularly healthy foods, but foods that are high in calories. The reason for this is because a low-calorie diet can severely slow down your reproductive system.
Since testosterone is made by your testicles, a part of your reproductive organs, a slow system also means the low production of testosterone. If you don’t already eat enough, which by the way for a full grown man, depending on your size, is between 2,000 and 2,500 calories per day, you should definitely start. It is recommended to eat at least as many calories as a man should eat in a day, or even eat a little bit more.
Even though you don’t have to eat too many greens to get your testosterone levels to increase, you do want to get your calories from certain places. To maximize testosterone production, you need to get about 20 percent of your calories from protein such as meat, beans, or legumes. Any more than 20 percent and your testosterone might actually decline.
About 30 percent of the calories you eat should come from monounsaturated fats such as red meat, milk, dairy, avocados, and olive oil. Finally, the remaining 50 percent of the calories you eat should come from carbohydrates such as whole grains, potatoes, and some fruits. This will help maximize your natural testosterone production. You could also consider taking some kind of multivitamin to boost your body’s testosterone production.
- Natural Herbs
There are actually a few herbs that are shown to help the body increase testosterone production. These herbs include phosphatidylserine, ashwagandha, mucuna pruriens, forskolin, and carnitine. These herbs have been proven to be effective in several peer-reviewed medical studies.
- Testosterone Boosting Supplements
Ok so if you have ever gone on the internet you know that there are a ton of different supplements that claim to be able to increase your testosterone. What you should know is that the vast majority of these supplements are bogus and just contain a bunch of useless plants and herbs. If you are going to try any of these supplements, you should always do your research as to what the specific ingredients are, read many reviews, and make sure that there are no extremely adverse side effects.
Testosterone The Beard Booster: Conclusion
If you have been having trouble growing a thick and long beard, we would definitely recommend trying any of the above options regarding increasing your testosterone levels. Any of the methods we provided will increase the testosterone in your body and ultimately contribute to a better beard.
Like we said, testosterone might not be the problem so you do want to see a doctor first to figure out if it is or not. If you have anything to add to our piece about testosterone and beard growth, please feel free to leave us a comment.
Loved the article? Why not check out more of our beard articles or if you want, you can see more from beard care
