There are a few reasons why a man might want to dye his facial hair. Mine was uneven coloring due to graying. Others may want to banish their grays completely, or tone down a red pigment.
But whatever your reason, one thing is certain: you’ll want completely natural-looking results.
My Facial Hair Dye Journey
I was always the clean-cut type: dark hair, side-part, neatly trimmed mustache. But nothing lasts forever.
At around middle-age, gray hairs began to appear. It’s normal, and I didn’t mind being a mature man. By then, I’d been shaving my head for a while, anyway. And later came male pattern baldness, which I actually welcomed.
But my mustache was a mess.
Much of my natural dark brown had faded by a few shades, while gray and white clusters were unevenly scattered, making me look scruffy.
Whether gray, white, or brown, I didn’t care, but I needed a relatively uniform color.
Of course, the most logical thing to do was shave, which I did, and everybody told me how much younger and fresher I looked. But that wasn’t what I wanted to achieve.
I wanted to keep the thick mustache I’d been stroking and grooming since my teens, and I wanted it to look good.
The only thing to do was color it. Somehow.
Like many of us, I started my hair-dye journey with a box of Just For Men, but as the graying increased, I began to experiment. I wanted longer-lasting results that looked completely natural; on some men, you can tell immediately if they’ve dyed their hair, whether facial or that of the head.
I’ll show you how to avoid being one of those men.
Through this journey, I have dyed not only my mustache, but a full beard, and my sideburns. And not a single person has ever suspected.
Dyeing Your Mustache, Beard, or Sideburns
Below, you will find all you need to know about dyeing facial hair—whether a mustache, sideburns, or a full beard—no matter how gray you are or how hard to manage the problem seems. Discover which products and colors create the most natural-looking results, how to touch up color between applications, and how to avoid dryness and irritation caused by the dyeing process. In this article, you will find:
- How to choose the right color and type of dye for your age and complexion
- Which product to use if you’re just starting to gray (less than 20%)
- Which product to use if you have more then 20% gray
- How to do a patch test
- How often coloring products should be used
- Tips for softening stubborn grays
- Tips for choosing, mixing, and applying products
- Information on permanent, demi-permanent, temporary, natural, and progressive dyes
How to Choose the Right Color
For Dark Hair
Because results are always a tad darker than predicted, it’s best to choose a shade lighter than your original beard or mustache color. If your natural color is dark brown, for example, go for medium brown. It will be dark enough to cover the grays, but won’t affect darker hairs. If you choose a shade as dark as your darkest beard hairs, you’ll end up with an unnatural-looking, supersaturated block of color, drawing attention to the fact that you’ve dyed.
For Black Hair
This also applies if your hair is naturally black. Hair that is dyed black always looks artificial, so choose dark brown.
For Blond Hair
If you’re dark blond or lighter, choose a shade close to your natural color. If you’re light brown, go for medium ash blond.
For Red Hair (or to Avoid Red)
If you’re a redhead, try golden or hazelnut shades.
“Ash” is the word to look for if you want to avoid or tone-down red.
Which Dye if Your Facial Hair Is Less Than 20% Gray
If your facial hair is less than 20% gray (a sprinkling), you can dye it with a demi-permanent colorant like Just for Men beard and mustache dye. This is what I started out with.
Designed especially for male facial hair, it is available in a variety of natural-looking colors, takes only five minutes to develop, and fades rather than growing out.
But such products aren’t only for men who are graying. They’re also suitable to even out color if a beard or mustache is a scruffy mix of light and dark, or to tone down a strong red pigment.
Dyeing can also make a beard or mustache appear thicker and more luxuriant.
According to manufacturers’ claims, this type of dye will last for up to four weeks, but it’s always less. Even using wash lotion daily instead of soap doesn’t seem to help.
Which Dye if Your Facial Hair Is More Than 20% Gray
The grayer you are, the faster the dye will fade.
For hair with more than 20% gray, you’ll need a permanent dye, which will last between two and four weeks depending on hair length and coarseness.
Gray beard hair is coarse and resistant to chemicals, so you may need to soften it in order that the dye can penetrate the hair shaft.
How to Soften Facial Hair Before Dyeing
Softening or pre-treating beard hair before dyeing is easy and will make the color last longer. For this, you will need a developer lotion which you’ll find at a beauty supplier or online.
- Using a brush, apply 20-volume cream developer lotion to your unwashed beard or mustache.
- Leave on for ten minutes.
- Rinse with lukewarm water and towel dry.
Now you are ready to dye.
Trim After Dyeing
Trim your mustache or beard after dyeing. The color will then seem less saturated and more natural.
The Patch Test
As a precaution, always do a patch test before coloring hair:
- Mix a small portion of the coloring product and deposit it on your inner elbow.
- Wait 15 minutes, then rinse.
- If you experience any kind of redness, swelling, or other irritation over the next 48 hours, do not carry out the color treatment.
Source: The Neat and Tidy ManHow to Apply Dye to Your Beard or Mustache
- Don’t wash your face beforehand. The buildup of sebum will help protect your skin without hindering the dyeing process.
- Mix the product according to the manufacturer’s specific instructions, which usually means mixing the contents of two tubes in equal portions. The white substance is developer; the darker one is the actual color, which in its present state never resembles the shade you want to dye your hair to.
- Using an applicator brush and applying with the grain (the direction of hair growth), stroke the product over the facial hair you want to dye, taking care not to get any on your skin.
- Just as we do when shaving, start where your facial hair is most coarse. If you’re dying a full beard, apply first to the chin, then the mustache, then the cheeks, and lastly the neck, working outwardly from the center.
- Work quickly. The longer you leave the dye on, the darker the finished result will be.
- Rinse thoroughly and shampoo when your beard or mustache has reached the desired color.
- Remove stains from your skin with rubbing alcohol and a cotton pad. Alternatively, aftershave or cologne work just as well.
What If the Color Is Too Dark?
You can usually fade demi-permanent dyes with a clarifying shampoo, but this must be done immediately after application. Alternatively, mix a dandruff shampoo (like Head & Shoulders) with an equal portion of baking soda and shampoo twice.
Unfortunately, this won’t work if you’ve used a permanent dye.
Extra Tips for Using Permanent Dye on Facial Hair
- Mix to a ratio of 1-to-1. Unlike demi-permanent products like Just for Men, the developer might be in a large applicator bottle, but the color itself is always in a tube and labeled with its shade number.
- Mix the developer and color in a glass or plastic bowl using an applicator brush. Never let dye (permanent or demi-permanent) come into contact with metal.
- Don’t leave permanent dye on for the length of time stipulated in the instruction leaflet, which is usually 20 to 40 minutes. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes, wipe a little away with a paper towel, then reapply if you’d like it darker. Keep doing this every couple of minutes. Permanent dyes are formulated for the hair of the head, which has a different structure to facial hair.
- Once you have reached the desired color, rinse thoroughly and shampoo. As previously mentioned, you can use rubbing alcohol, aftershave, or cologne to remove stains on the skin.
- Apart from shaving, there’s not much you can do if you’ve used a shade too dark, so be careful when choosing permanent dye.
The Best Permanent Dyes for Facial Hair
Permanent dyes for men are practically nonexistent.
For natural-looking nuances, try Poly Color or Clairol Perfect 10. Since these are targeted at women, the color assortment is huge. Nevertheless, choose plain colors like light brown, dark brown, dark blond, etc., thus avoiding fashion-inspired shades.
Never choose products labeled “high-lift,” which have a lightening effect, since results will be unpredictable.
Source: The Neat and Tidy ManTouching-Up Regrowth
If you’ve used a permanent product, you’ll at some point notice gray or white regrowth on the upper contours of your beard or mustache. Simply apply a little dye with a brush or Q-tip to remedy this.
A complete re-treatment should only be necessary when grays begin to sprout on the main body of your beard or mustache.
The longer your beard hair is, the longer you’ll be able to go without a full treatment.
Touch-Up Alternatives
Alternatively, you can disguise regrowth with mascara or a tinted eyebrow gel. It’s kind to skin and hair and looks natural—but only if you’re able to find a matching shade.
Using the supplied spiral brush, just dab the product onto your regrowth. Don’t literally brush it on, or it will look unnatural.
By the way, originally called mascaro, mascara was developed in the nineteenth century by Eugene Rimmel to hide gray mustache hairs, and not to darken women’s eyelashes!
Source: The Neat and Tidy ManGray Reducing Shampoo
Another type of colorant is gray reducing shampoo. Like Grecian Formula ( a progressive colorant suitable only for the hair of the head), this reacts with oxygen, giving gradual, natural-looking results for all shades from light to dark.
And, as with Grecian Formula, you can control how much gray is covered, which is ideal if you’d prefer a less conspicuous transition from gray to dark.
The most popular product is Control GX by Just for Men.
A similar product is Alpecin’s Grey Attack.
Minimizing Dryness and Irritations
Whether you use a demi-permanent or permanent product, dyeing can take its toll on skin and hair.
It’s best if you dye your facial hair in the evening when you’re not going anywhere. That way you’ll have time to moisturize and condition, which minimizes the possibility of dryness and irritations.
Just massage castor or jojoba oil into your beard or mustache after dyeing and leave overnight. You can apply argan oil during the day for a non-greasy appearance.
Natural Beard Dyes for Sensitive Skin
If your skin is too sensitive for chemical coloring products or you’re allergic, you could try a natural henna product like WolfsHead Beardye or Harvest Moon.
The trouble is, these natural dyes are only effective if your facial hair is less than 10 or 20% gray. In this case, they work by taking the coolness off white and gray hairs and making them less obvious. If your facial hair is more than 20% gray, you can expect your beard or mustache to turn noticeably yellow instead of the color you’d hoped for.
What I Use Now For My Mustache
For the past year or so, I’ve been using Men’s Master Repigmenting Gray Hair Shampoo, which is available on Amazon.
It’s a conditioning shampoo that stains white hair gray, giving a darker overall effect. In spite of this, hair still appears to be graying, making it inconceivable that a colorant could have been used.
I find that applying with a brush to dry hair gives the best results.
© 2024, J. Richardson. All rights reserved.
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