Beard Hair is a resource mainly acquired by shaving Wilson's Beard with a Razor. It can also be acquired by killing Beardlings and Beardlords, creatures that replace Rabbits and Bunnymen, respectively, when Sanity drops below 40% (48 for Willow, 40 to 120 for WX-78, 100 for Wickerbottom, 60 for Wes, 40 for Webber, and 80 for all other characters) and Shadow Splumonkeys, which replace Splumonkeys during the Nightmare Phase.
Beard Hair is used for the construction of Meat Effigies or simply as Campfire fuel.
Gathering
When shaving Wilson's beard, the amount of Beard Hair received depends on the beard's length. Shaving will produce 1 Beard Hair after 4 days, 3 after 8, and 9 after 16. Wilson's beard doesn't grow anymore after 16 days.
Gathering Beard Hair from Beardlings and Beardlords requires Sanity to drop below 40%. At this point, Beardlings appear and can be caught in Traps like normal Rabbits. Beardlings only drop Beard Hair 20% of the time, requiring that on average 20 or so be killed in order to acquire enough for a Meat Effigy. Beardlords always drop 2 Beard Hair upon being killed.
Additionally, while in the Ruins, the player can wait for the Nightmare Phase around a Splumonkey Pod to fight the Shadow Splumonkeys that spawn. Caution should be taken as they are very dangerous in big numbers and can overwhelm the player. Each Shadow Splumonkey drops 1 Beard Hair upon death.
As Wilson is the only character with a beard that can be shaved, playing as any other character will require the player to lose sanity and hunt Beardlings and Beardlords to build a Meat Effigy, or find the odd Set Piece that might have one or two of them.
Reign of Giants
In the Reign of Giants DLC, there is an alternative method of getting Beard Hair: harvesting a Tumbleweed.
Usage
