Diving and beards

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Rhone Man

Rhone Man

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Location
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I recently grew a beard (mainly to annoy my wife), and was a bit surprised by my first post-growth dive when water started slowly leaking in the bottom of my mask. I fiddled with it for a while with no success, and resigned myself to clearing the mask every minute or so through the dive.

Funnily enough, about 20 minutes into the dive the leaking stopped. Not sure why, perhaps the hairs got damp and soft enough that a seal could hold?

But I notice from their profile pictures that a lot of grizzled veterans on the board really are grizzled. How do you guys accommodate beards and masks?
 
I used to put a dab of soft chap stick or Vaseline to "mat" my mustache down when I had a goatee . . .

I have seen some folks trim the mustache back just a smidge and their masks still fit fine, I tried that, ended up with a messed up 'stache and shaved it all off :rofl3:
 
My husband has a goatee and he simply shaves the top bit (under his nose) and applies silicone grease to the top of his mustache. Many folks say vaseline isn't good for your mask skirt
 
Just a little trim and good to go on the stach
 
Since my check out dive 150 dives ago, my routine has been to put a dab of the 2oz jar of silicon grease under my nose. Its just part of putting my gear together.
 
I've been wearing a beard for almost the entire 39 years I've been diving. Trim the area just below my nose (@1/3 cleared, see avatar), above the mustache. I also have a speed stick sunscreen tube I keep in the gear bag.
Some morning I forget to shave, and the stubble will cause the mask to leak some. The sunscreen stick is a quick fix that works well for me.
 
I've been fortunate and haven't had to do anything with respect to my beard for diving. I've had it for 30 years. When I got into diving it was already part of my face I just tried masks on until one "worked". I don't have to use grease or silicon and haven't had to make any changes to the way its trimmed for diving.

Sometimes I get a leak, but its not much and not frequent enough during a dive to be a pain. Lucky I guess.
 
I am the same way and have found that trimming just under the nose works best, I think it is a great idea to keep something in your bag/box as others have mentioned because it sucks when you forget to shave before you leave to dive. Oddly enough, I have found that I only suffer with leaks for about the first 10-15 ft then it stops and have just come to terms with clearing the mask every so often
 
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