Alright heres my background. Ive been using the regimen for probably 6 or 7 years, and have had great success using it faithfully. I'm 30 years old and just got out of the military after 10 years. For 10 years I shaved M-F and skipped it on the weekends and when I was on leave. Longest I had gone without shaving was probably about 3 weeks.
Now, I got out around 4 months ago and just let the beard go for about 3 months. I used the cleanser in the shower, but since it got so long I couldn't apply the BP. Didn't really think this would be a problem, since I'm 30 and I thought the beard would cover anything up. Well I started feeling some acne/cysts and it was getting painful and the beard was getting annoying so I trimmed it down ALOT. The past month or so I have been using the cleanser and the BP and Ive still got horrible breakouts on my chin and jaw. I figured the BP would still work because it the hair was pretty short. I also never got any acne on my jawline before and now i look like a high school kid.
So long story short I finally decided to completely shave and its much worse than I thought. My face looks horrible. I'm wondering if the BP just isn't effective over any facial hair. I used a beard trimmer and kept it very short.. probably about as long as 5 days of scruff. Either way I'm somewhat disappointed and feel like I am going to be stuck shaving now in order to prevent acne. So frustrated.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Dan has said for years that he feels that daily shaving tends to work best for acne prone skin and you need to be sure you are shaving with the hair and not against it. If the acne flared up when you started growing your beard, this is probably because as you said you couldn't apply bp through the beard. Now that you have been shaving again, make sure of your technique. Watch Dan's videos. http://www.acne.org/faq.html#shave and http://www.acne.org/guide-to-shaving.html
Since your beard area does better when you shave regularly, you may just have to continue with shaving. Get back strictly on the regimen and the breakouts there should get back under control.
Hope that helps.
It's been a while since I posted this, but I figured I could post an update in hopes that it would help someone else out.
I have kept the beard trimmed and haven't let it go more than 2-3 weeks without trimming it really short. It seems if I ever "let it go", then I start to break out. I'm guessing this is because I can't apply the BP very well through the facial hair. Either way, I'm back on track and as long as I keep it shorter, it's fine.
I also haven't shaved my face in months, which I feel helps a lot. I just shave my neck and stick to the regimen.
Hope this helps someone!
I think your best bet it to go with a beard soap. It worked really well when I had a beard. When you grow a beard, it traps in your natural skin oils and so if you don't really get in, anything from skin oil, to dirt, debris, food oils, etc will just be sitting on your skin.
Organic beard soap and shampoo with natural scents is the way to go. You may also want to consider a medium strength boars bristle beard brush to work in the soap and exfoliate the skin that is underneath the beard. Hope that helps!