I would say that anyone who is trying to grow a beard should get a high quality BOARS HAIR BRUSH. Some folks call them a military brush. If you get a budget one, expect some bristles to fall out after extended use. I found a place that had them at discount and I actually bought 3 so I have some backups. My recommend: Wavenforcer-Military-Brush/10532618. The big blue (non bullseye) place has it on their interwebs.
If you have this brush sitting near your TV remote you can sit and brush your scalp and head and continue right down to your cheeks chin etc. while you watch TV. Think 100 strokes, or thru your favorite TV show. If you have ever seen a woman with long beautiful hair the secret is natural oils that are distributed all thru the hair- same thing for beard growth- its very very healthy. You also should reduce your hair washing to every 3 days or so so that you dont strip all that natural oil away. Plus when it gets longer it helps to brush out food crumbs, you will need it!
But the biggest benefit is when your beard growth starts to get itchy the bristles feel AMAZING to scratch that itch. It will feel prickly at first but you will get addicted to it fast. Great for deep exfoliation, and to help your skin adjust to living at a new exposure to surface oil. Depending on your age, if you dye your beard (just4men) this will also be a bit of an adjustment , so getting this skin ready to handle more will help in the long run.
Beard oil also helps. Remember that the oil is to moisturize at the skin level, not the hair itself, so another reason to have a boar brush to brush the oil thru all the whiskers to the cheeks.
Last thing is you have to NOT TOUCH your beard. I mean put a post-it note on the bathroom mirror to remind you not to trim or shave. Find an inspirational pic in a magazine, or online, and hang it near the mirror to remind yourself what you are aiming for. I also keep my inspirational pic in my photo gallery on my phone, so that i can show any barber my preference on what I want my beard to ideally look like. He will then be better able to adapt to what is realistic for your beard- BUT he knows what you ultimately want.
Go to a real BARBER SHOP and have a barber trim it the first few times, so he can shape it to what is appropriate for your growth pattern, and trim it in a way that it can grow thicker while still groomed correctly. Unless you have an uncle or roommate with hair on their face, this will be relatively new and a mentor to help you is really a good idea until you are part of beard culture on your own.
