More and more men across Nottinghamshire are embracing the concept of dying their beards, a barber says.
Nathan Raymond, manager at Everyman Barbers, Victoria Street, says he is seeing an increase in the amount of men coming to him for the latest grooming trend.
“Beard dying is one of those things that lots of men do but don’t talk about, it is still very low-key.
“We have definitely seen an increase in the number of guys who come in and get it done, we get several daily.”
Lots of men tend to get different colour facial hair than the rest of their hair due to the pigmentation levels in facial hair follicles.
The levels determine the shade of colour the hair has and a thinner beard may have more patches.
Nathan himself says he gets his beard dyed to match his natural brown hair.
He said: “Not that there is anything wrong with being a ginger but I am not a fan of the firey beard and neither is my misses so I have to do what I am told.
“I want to match up my natural colour to my beard and make it look as natural as possible which hopefully will make it feel fuller as well.”
The process of dying a beard is a very simple procedure and for the impatient man not a lengthy one either.
Nathan said: “We start off by trimming the beard to make sure it looks good, then the dye comes on where we try to stick to the areas that need the dye.
“Guys usually prefer a beard that is all the same colour and it tends to make the beard look thicker when its darkened.”
The dye is permanent and lasts until the roots of the beard are visible again at which point it needs to be re-dyed.
But the trend does not have everyone convinced.
Jake Ecclestone, barber at Brik Barbers on Byard Lane, said: “We don’t offer it at our shop because we try to keep our services more traditional. There is nothing wrong with keeping your natural beard colour, no one has a perfect beard and dying can sometimes make it look false.”
Jake says he is seeing more men trim or shave their beards than before and that the beard products they use have changed as well.
He said: “We are selling less beard oil and a lot more beard balms, which are usually for shorter beards because that is the way the trend is going.”
