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Growing facial hair of any type can be much more challenging than you might first think. Mustaches can be especially tricky, and more detailed ones can require a lot of work to keep in perfect condition. However, having patchy spots in your mustache can be both irritating as well as completely ruin the effect you want.
What Is A Patchy Mustache?
If you have never tried to grow facial hair, then you may only have a basic concept of what a patchy mustache actually is. Basically, a patchy mustache happens when your hair doesn’t grow evenly on your face. This unevenness is not something you will notice if you aren’t actively trying to grow facial hair.
The hairs above your lip will grow quickly and thickly in some areas, and seemingly not at all in others. These areas might simply be quite thin, or they can actually have no hairs at all in them. Unfortunately, these thin areas are rarely mirror images of each other on both sides of your face.
So, the right side of your upper lip might have one bald area near the corner of your mouth, while the left side of your upper lip might have two really thin patches closer to the middle. The result of a patchy mustache is, therefore, very uneven most of the time.
Though the uneven spot-patchiness is common, the middle patchiness is also a frequent problem as well. This is because hair on the sides of your upper lip naturally grows faster than above the center. So, while the sides of your mustache may be coming in nicely, you may find the center to be bare.
Both of these types of patchiness are common when growing mustaches, and they are both considered the same thing. However, the effects of the first of these problems is arguably the one that has the worst appearance.
It is worth noting that facial hair will frequently start out being patchy, with the growth eventually evening out as you continue to try to grow out your hairs. Growing a nice-looking mustache takes more time than you might think it will for this reason.
What Can Cause A Patchy Mustache?
There are many causes for patchy mustaches, some of which are slightly more obvious than others. For example, if you are a teen, even if you are in your late teens, you are going to find that your face just doesn’t grow enough hair.
It takes time for your facial hair to mature. This is evidenced by the fact that facial hair doesn’t even start to grow until you reach your teen years. The later your facial hair comes in, the later it is going to be before it matures. For some, this might not be until they are around thirty years old.
On this subject, genetics plays a huge role in mustache growth. If your family line has big thick mustaches that grow easily, you are likely to have the same ease with yours. However, the opposite is true too, and it may be enough to make your mustache permanently patchy no matter what you do.
A lack of nutrients is another big thing that can negatively affect your mustache growth. Medications of some types can negatively affect hair growth all over your body as well, including your mustache hair.
Also, certain types of hair loss that are triggered by certain diseases can affect your hair as well. Alopecia barbae is a disease that can cause you to suddenly start getting patchy areas on your beard. It is called androgenetic alopecia on the scalp, but you should see a doctor for either one.
Lastly, just be careful as to what products you put on your mustache. Though using hair and beard products on mustaches are common, your skin is very sensitive on your upper lip. It is, therefore, much more likely to have a reaction to a product that doesn’t sit well with your skin there, causing patchiness.
5 Ways To Help A Patchy Mustache
Some of these ways to help your mustache grow are pretty self-explanatory if you know the reasons behind patchy mustaches. However, all of these ways can be helpful to some degree, so you can do as many of them at once as you wish.
#1. Let It Grow
Obviously, if you are growing out a mustache, you are not going to be doing a lot of shaving. However, you can’t know what patches you might have until you let it all grow in. Getting the hair on your face to start growing can sometimes take longer than you think it will, so be patient.
The more often you shave, and especially if you shave every time at the slightest hint of stubble, the more likely it actually will be for your hair to grow in. In part, this is because your facial hair isn’t used to getting to grow out.
Upper lip hair can take two to three weeks to grow long enough for you to get an idea of what hair you are dealing with. Long and thick mustaches are going to easily take months to grow out, and that is without problems with patchiness.
When dealing with a patchy mustache, it can be very helpful to try to grow it out in stages. Don’t cut the hairs that are actually growing to be too short. Just trim the longer hairs as little as possible while you wait for the patchy spots to grow in.
Start off trying to get all of the hair you want for your mustache to be ¼” long, including the thin areas. This length will take weeks if not months to get. Then, increase the length to ½”, and so on until you have your mustache the length you want it.
Most importantly, don’t over trim! You might think that trimming will make patchy areas less obvious, but this really isn’t the case. If some longer hairs are growing over the edge of your lip, it is better to seep these to the sides.
#2. Get More Nutrients
This way to help your mustache grow is short and simple. Hair, no matter where it is growing, needs certain nutrients. This goes for that area of hair on your upper lip as well. So, try taking a daily vitamin for your mustache.
Or, better yet, vitamins and supplements that are specifically for hair growth will help your mustache even more. Folexin is a great supplement for any hair growth, and that is just one option of a simple way to help in this area. Of course, eating healthier is always better, bet even then vitamins are a good idea.
#3. Use Growth Products
There are countless hair growth and beard growth products out there. While there are not as many products made specifically for mustache growth, most of these will work fine. There are too many options for your mustache to name, but I will try to hit the highlights.
Biotin products come in all sorts of forms. In creams, it can be rubbed into your upper lip easily – though you hopefully won’t be eating soon after. Biotin also comes in shampoos, which you can wash your upper lip with regardless of lack of hair there.
Other shampoos can be helpful as well, such as ones with keratin or other things your growing hair needs. Hair growth serums and foams like minoxidil can also be used, though be careful not to ingest any of these.
Beard balms and oils can also work wonders, many of them moisturizing and soothing. These beard products tend to have the added benefit of making what hair you do have on your upper lip pretty and shiny.
#4. Use A Tool Or Two
Besides hair growth products, there are hair growth tools that you can use for your mustache as well. Probably the best tool here is a microneedling tool, also known as a derma roller. You would want a derma roller with finer needles, considering how sensitive the upper lip is.
However, this tool can really help by increasing the nutrients going to where you want your mustache to grow. There are many articles on how to microneedle and how microneedling works. But, basically, for mustaches you only need to microneedle gently every other day at most.
Many feel that boar bristle brushes help stimulate beard growth. So, one of these brushes can be used on your upper lip as well, albeit very gently. You also want to get mustache tools like a mustache trimmer, a mustache brush, and other things.
#5. Go Extreme
Of course, if genetics is what is preventing you from being able to grow the beard you feel you need, there is another option you can try. While hair transplants are most often done on the scalp, you can have them on other places, including your face.
Getting a hair transplant for your mustache will be more expensive than a regular hair transplant. However, if you are truly desperate for that amazing full mustache, then it is worth considering.
In this case, set up a hair appointment with a dermatologist and ask them about it. They may be able to provide other ideas that are slightly less costly for your mustache too.
Also, though also extreme, there is the option of getting a tattoo of the mustache you want. Getting a tattoo might damage your hair follicles slightly, however, so don’t take that route lightly.
Some Final Tips
Depending on where your thin areas are, you may be able to find a type of mustache that doesn’t need hair in that area anyway. So, take careful note of where your patchiness is, and then hunt around for a mustache that might fit you.
If your patchiness is just in the center of your mustache only, then there are plenty of mustaches that don’t require you to have hair there. Lighter hair can be particularly hard to get a good mustache from, but light hair tends to get darker as it gets longer, so don’t give up on growing it out.
In the meantime, bear pencils, like eyebrow pencils, can help make patchy areas look thicker. Dying your mustache works for this too, but only change it by a few shades, or else it won’t look right.
Mustache wax can be a huge help for two different reasons. One, the wax can help your mustache hair look thicker. Two, the wax can be used to style your mustache towards the sides in order to grow it out longer. Or, a beard wax can be used on both your beard and mustache.
Finally, do not shave your mustache with the hope that it will grow out thicker. If that worked, them more people would be doing that for thinning hair. Just grow out our mustache without trimming it, trust me.
Final Thoughts
It can be very worrisome to try growing facial hair only to have some spots missing any hair at all. Dealing with a patchy mustache as you start to grow out your hair there can seem like a trial. But, this is a trial that even celebrities seem to have.
Even ones like Johnny Depp, Ryan Gosling, and Keanu Reeves have been in pictures that show their first stage mustaches. Each of these famous men, however, has also managed to overcome the patchy areas and successfully grow stunning facial hair.
But, in the end, a mustache has always been seen as a statement of sorts, and that is probably why. Not only is a mustache iconic, but it is something that can pair well with a good beard. A beard is completely unnecessary to have an epic mustache.
