Beard Cover Question

[MirandaB]

I've read and youtube'd a lot about beard cover for dark hair but are there any tricks for light hair, especially gray/grey hair?

[VickySGV]

There really is no difference between dark beards and grey beards as far as a beard cover goes. You are actually covering pigment in the follicles beneath the skin and the pores the hair shaft comes out of.  I was well served by a foundation by the name of Derma Blend that is used to hide tattoos or other scars.  I did have to find the correct shade for my skin, and then it did fine for me.  There are actually "beard cover" cosmetics sold by a lot of places and they are a brick red/orange pigment that you apply your foundation over.  You have to do some experimenting to find your own exact color, but stores such as Sephora and Ulta Cosmetics are usually very Trans friendly and when the Virus is controlled a bit better will help you choose the product for you.

[Audrey]

Hi @RhondaS, I feel your struggle and I have the same issue with stubbornly visible grey facial hair - it causes me a lot of dysphoria. I have tried concealing it as @VickySGVdescribes, but mine just grows too fast and it feels like it just pushes any makeup right off of my face. So I always end up just shaving - perhaps more often than my skin would be happy with, so I moisturize a *lot* to try to keep irritation down. In the time of COVID-19, a face mask does hide it pretty well though so that has helped a little. I've concluded that electrolysis will be the best answer for me, but it will take time and money to get to my goal.

 

By the way... I was inspired to try the FaceApp gender swap from your signature. I wouldn't have gone blonde personally, but this is inspiring for me especially early on in my transition!

 

Love,

~Audrey.

[ValerieRun]

I have an unfortunate early greying of my beard hairs, and the only solution (until permanent) has been shaving as frequently as needed. Depending on the speed of growth, you should be fine for day, and as Audrey mentioned - masks hide that area very efficiently nowadays as well, so one full day should be no problem.

[VickySGV]

Should have mentioned this above, but I have not had electrolysis even though I have been full time for 10 years by now and I have had a few women tell me that my face hair is no worse than a whole lot of post menopausal women so I can get by with once a day shaving.

[Sally Stone]

Rhonda,

 

I think we should be clear that we are actually speaking of two different issues.  One is covering a beard, which really isn't possible with makeup.  Shaving very closely is the imperative to eliminate the hairs as much as possible.  The other issue, probably the one that we can deal with, is hiding beard "shadow."  Even when shaving really close, darker hairs impart a bluish tint to our skin.  The closer the hairs are together, the more shadow there is.  

 

There are heavily pigmented concealers out there that are opaque enough to cover beard shadow, but my "personal" experience with them is that they tend to be too heavy, making it hard for our makeup to look natural.  Instead, I try to neutralize the shadow, by using a concealer (as little as necessary) that neutralizes the blue tint of the beard shadow.  To neutralize the blue, requires a color that lies on the exact opposite side of the standard color wheel.  That color turns out to be orange.  I apply just enough orange concealer to make the blue tint disappear, then set the concealer and apply my favorite foundation over top.  I have a lot of gray and white in my beard as well as black, but the orange concealer I use is effective cover for covering all three colors of hair.  

 

I don't have a heavy dark beard, so my results may be different from yours, but you should give the neutralizing option a try in any case. 

[MirandaB]

Thanks everyone for the replies and tips!

[Bri2020]

What Sally said.  My sephora rep/god turned my on to this technique and products.  The first is a color corrector, used to cover blues /shadow.  it double duties for me since I have some spider veins on my chin.  My beard is mostly white/grey at this point but grows wicked fast.  He also said a baked powder foundation is key. Liquid ones tend to have too much "shine" and early stubble will show through fast.  The powders tend to disguise it better.  The picture here has the corrector on my hand so you can see how it covers the blues from veins. I applied some powder over it on the left side.   It was a real quick job and I did too much corrector and not enough powder but you can see the results.