n. Flakes of dead skin entangled in a beard.
2016
Tis the season when beard care is more important than ever. The elements during this season have a tendency to make beard follicles brittle, dry, and prone to breakage. In addition, a dry beard is also more likely to encounter "beardruff."
2015
A beard is not hair like on your head. It more closely resembles fur. Beards require a special blend of oils and nutrients to remain healthy. When the beard isn’t taken care of, it begins to pull moisture and nutrients from the skin, leading to itchy, dry skin and “beardruff."
Because clearly no one wants to suffer from something called "beardruff," here are six places that have dived into the beard-grooming revolution.
Because clearly no one wants to suffer from something called "beardruff," here are six places that have dived into the beard-grooming revolution.
2014
It is disconcerting indeed to discover that one's beard is infected with dandruff. Disconcerting, yes. Incurable? No. In all likelihood, if you have "beardruff" (a word I invented for convenience’s sake), you probably also have dandruff and have by now discovered a shampoo or some other product which controls it. That product will also control beardruff in most cases.
1999 (earliest)
The itching *never* goes away. The itch is natures way of making sure that PFFs can't have beards. When you deprive your chin of the touch of the sun, you end up with beardruff. You can wash it and scrub it as fast as you want, it'll still itch.
The word dandruff feels newish, like it was coined by some Proctor & Gamble copywriter for a Head & Shoulders commercial no earlier than 1965. Laughably, I'm off by about 400 years, with the first attested use of the word (as dandraff) going all the way back to 1545. The origins of dandruff (the word, not the condition) are unknown, although some speculate that the -ruff part comes from either the Middle English term rove, "scurfiness," or the Northumbrian/East Anglian term huff (or hurf), "scab" (see the dandruff entry in the Online Etymology Dictionary).