Melvang, you can be long-bearded and stay safe, but always put your personal safety far above your desire to be bearded. Wear the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), bearded or not, and make accommodations for your flammable facial fur to prevent ignition and entanglement in moving equipment.

Weirdy with a Beardy was just asking the same sort of questions, so you might review the responses he got in his thread on this subject.

In a production environment, you will get dirty, and then you will go home and get clean (or sleep alone!). Wash your beard with a simple soap that will get the dirt out without stripping away as much of the natural protective oils that your body produces. Even so, because you are washing it daily, you will want to condition it more often than someone who can get away with twice-weekly lathering. Jojoba or coconut oil will do and won't break the bank. Use a scented beard oil for special occasions. Brush your beard thoroughly with a boar's-bristle brush to distribute the oil and chase out any lost tools, wayward screws, and metal filings.

BHster, Avenue Whiskers, and others on this Board have good information in their threads and in the Library on "tying up" a longer beard to keep it looking shorter, and in your case, out of reach of sparks, flames, sharp objects, and gears.

Beard boldly, but safely, and come home every night to the people who need you to be alive and well every day.

Triibeard's Thirty-NINE years of being bearded    (The recent journey from a short- to a long-beard)
Introducing LEGO-Sheriff Triibeard     (The origin story for our polymeric polychromatic hero)
Sheriff Triibeard and The Case of the Missing Beard Balm   (In search of that scoundrel RiffRaff)
Sheriff Triibeard and the Hermit Hoarder    (Consequences of acquisitiveness)

In a world of shorn faces, it is our privilege to offer those around us the exquisite opportunity to know a gentleman with a beard.