My own beard and The Blessed Beard go hand in hand, and over the last decade, I’ve been on a personal journey of growing a full, healthy beard and an impactful, community-driven company together at the same time. All men grow up seeing their pastors or influential figures sporting some kind of facial hair at some point in their lives. We watch our father or grandfather shaving during their morning routine, and it instills in us as young boys a feeling that becoming a man reaching adulthood means the ability to grow our own beards.

Taking care of your facial hair is a part of being a man, and there are several reasons I decided to grow my own beard over the past few years, as well as taking on the calling of starting my own line of beard care products. From not wanting to look like a child anymore and establishing a defined and distinguished look to my confidence, to just wanting to please my wife (which is important, brothers!), my beard journey began for several reasons.

Just a few years ago, I changed jobs and finally left behind a workplace that didn’t allow for full facial hair, freeing me up for the first time in my post-graduate years to start growing my own beard. While I understand certain work environments can’t allow for beards due to sanitary restrictions, a well-groomed and kept beard can actually add to your professional look, in my opinion. I had always thought of beards as having a distinguished and respectable look about them, giving a characteristic to the man sporting them that defined him and established his age and wisdom in society. So, I began my beard growing journey at my new job, growing my first full beard.

Growing a beard is a habit most natural, Scriptural, manly and beneficial. - C.H. Spurgeon

Things started slow, and I began experimenting with different essential oils and care products, attempting to alleviate the dry skin I was suffering from on my face. I wanted to go with all-natural products for a healthier skincare regime, and was having a hard time finding the perfect product to help. So, I started mixing up my own! I experimented with adding in different oils and vitamins until I found something that really worked for me, helping the dryness on my face and filling in those patches that just weren’t growing before.

As my beard finally started to look fuller and thicker, my confidence level grew as I transitioned from looking like a boy into looking like a man (you know what I’m talking about). And my wife loved it, which was so important! With her encouragement, I continued growing my beard and began experimenting with different products to make it less itchy and rough (because who hasn’t had their partner complain about that?). From there, I started asking for feedback from my coworkers and families, and beginning the process of starting a business.

Around this time, after having developed something that worked great for my beard and face, I realized that the Greenville, South Carolina area did not have a beard care product company. I’d been using local products to create my beard care routine, as buying local is important to me and supporting our community is one of my life’s missions. I therefore took a big step of faith and started The Blessed Beard, giving back to our community and helping to support local businesses and fellow beard growers. I’m lucky to be able to keep my business faith-driven, putting Christ at the center of all we do, and donating a portion of our proceeds to Miracle Hill Ministries.

Growing a beard is a journey, and mine is far from over. Each day I learn more about beard health as I research and create new scents and products for myself and our community, giving men the confidence they deserve to have in their own thicker, fuller, longer, and healthier beards. As my beard grows with the company, I hope yours will too, and I am excited to hear about your own beard journey! I always love hearing from customers about how our products have helped them, so feel free to drop me a message anytime, fellow beardos.