What Does Beard Oil Do? – Facts and Benefits With Side Effects
The use of beard oil has become quite common. It is being encouraged for use by men. Yet, many still wonder what the purpose of using beard oils is. For those unaware, beard oils are nothing but conditioners that help hydrate your facial hair. Hydration and moisturization lead to softer and healthier growth. Besides having smoother and healthier transitions, beard oils also address the skin underneath the hair on your face. If you think about it, the skin underneath the beard seldom receives any care. What tends to happen is that the skin underneath becomes dry and dull, which is not a pleasant result.
If you’ve decided to grow your beard, keep in mind that it does come with many commitments. When we talk about commitments, we mean in terms of maintaining them. Growing a beard has its pros and cons. While you may look the most macho version of yourself, sporting a thick growth, it is essential for one to bear in mind that there are a handful of problems that every person with a beard tends to face. For example, growing a beard may lead to itching, dandruff, acne, dry and dull skin, and brittle hair. To avoid facing such problems, the use of beard oils or beard balms is greatly encouraged. Furthermore, suppose you choose a beard oil or cream that consists of essential oils such as cedar, sandalwood, or rose. In that case, they can act as a natural cologne for you.
What Are The Ingredients Of Beard Oil?
Beard oils consist of a range of different ingredients – each playing a pivotal role in making sure you have healthy growth. The market is filled with several brands and products. However, you have to be careful while choosing the brand you’re going to use. Take a good look at the ingredients before investing in them wholeheartedly. We also recommend that you test it on your hand first to check whether you’re allergic to any of the ingredients used before applying it directly to your face. Following given are vital ingredients that you must look for in your next beard oil:
- Jojoba Oil: The jojoba oil is created using a hardy, perennial plant exclusive to North America’s lands. It goes by the same name, the jojoba plant. It can be found in harsh environments, where the climate is dry, and there’s no water in sight. This plant is sturdy and has impressive survival skills, which is why it makes for a fantastic healing property. Jojoba oils can be found in most skincare products. It is used as a remedy for dry, flaky skin and other related conditions.
- Argan Oil: Another essential ingredient to look for in your beard oil is argan, which is obtained from argan trees most popularly found in Morocco. The argan oil is so pure that it does not need to be distilled and can directly be applied to your skin. It can be found in most products these days, including shampoos, soaps, conditioners, and even supplement capsules.
- Hemp Seed Oil: Extracted from the hemp plant through a cold-pressing procedure, the hemp seed oil is consumed in high usage for medicinal purposes. Since it consists of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, and gamma-linolenic acid, it has immense nutritional value. While it’s good for your heart, it’s equally beneficial for hair and skin as well.
- Grape Seed Oil: Grapeseed oil is used to substitute other cooking oils, so it has become quite popular in households. Consisting of vitamin E and other fatty acids are known to improve inflammation and reduce the risks of heart diseases. Due to the high level of vitamin E present in it, grapeseed oil is known to enhance the quality of the skin and reduce the damage caused by ultraviolet rays.
What Are The Beard Oil Ingredients To Avoid?
While there are many ingredients that you should look for in your beard oil, there are just as many ingredients that you should avoid.
- Sulfates: Major cleaning products these days are made up using sulfates. What many don’t realize is that sulfates are actually very harsh. One of the main reasons why sulfates are used in cleansing products is because it helps in creating a lather. However, sulfates tend to strip the moisture away from your skin. The lather is something that is definitely not worth spoiling your skin over.
- Parabens: Parabens are not too expensive, thus can be found in most skincare products. It helps in increasing the life of the product. They are a good and cheap preservative, but they do come at a cost. Parabens are scientifically proven to cause a hormonal disbalance, which invariably impacts the quality of your skin.
- Aluminum: How absurd that you’ve heard of aluminum being used as one of the ingredients in skincare products, but it’s true. A toxic metal in itself, it causes a lot of damage to your skin and facial hair. Similar to parabens, applying aluminum to your skin can naturally lead to a hormonal disbalance. In fact, it can bring down healthy hair growth as a whole.
- Artificial fragrances: Artificial fragrances hold no benefit or value, and they are simply added to a product to enhance its smell. They end up causing a lot more damage than good. They irritate your skin. Much worse, the daily application of products consisting of artificial fragrances can lead to beard hair loss and other skin-related diseases.
- Propylene Glycol: Propylene Glycol is created using alcohol. While it does not cause any harm to the skin, it is proven to make the proteins of the skin weak. Proteins of the skin are what work towards ensuring that your skin has natural elasticity. It’s possible that through the excessive use of propylene glycol, your skin will become prone to wrinkles sooner.
- Urea: Like parabens and aluminum, urea is also one such ingredient used to increase the life of the product. It has dual functions, i.e., it acts as a preservative while also making the product more consistent. Once again, excessive use of urea can lead to hormonal disbalance, which invariably gives rise to unavoidable skin conditions.
What Are Beard Oil Uses?
There are many uses to beard oil, besides giving your beard a natural, healthy appearance. Find them as follows:
Helps In Moisturizing Your Skin And Hair
The most obvious use is perhaps the fact that it acts as a powerful moisturizer for your facial hair and the skin underneath. If you think about it, the skin underneath the beard seldom receives any care. What tends to happen is that the skin beneath becomes dry and dull, which is not a pleasant result. A regular dose of beard oil can significantly hydrate your skin and hair.
Say Goodbye To Beard Itchiness
Only men who have grown a good amount of beard understand the pain they have to face over constant itchiness. It is a common condition for any man trying to develop a full beard, but it can be pretty inconvenient. However, through the use of beard oil, your skin receives the hydration that it has been itching for, quite literally.
Makes Your Facial Hair Soft And Supple
Having soft facial hair has numerous benefits. Not only does it feel nice, but it also makes it easier for you to maintain your hair while trimming or cutting the excess off. Beard oil acts as a conditioner for your facial hair. It helps make it soft and supple, therefore, easily removable when the time comes.
Easier To Manage
It becomes easier to manage as beard oil helps in keeping the hair in one place. It is better to have a beard that looks clean and tidy rather than messy and uncontrollable. The beard oil – just like a beard wax – can really improve the chances of you styling it the way you want.
No Foul Odor
Suppose you’re not investing enough time in maintaining and caring about your facial hair. In that case, it may start leaving a foul odor too. To avoid this from taking place, use beard oil that consists of natural fragrances such as sandalwood and rose. There are a lot of different aromas to choose from, but the fact is, you won’t be smelling a foul odor.
This Leads To Longer And Healthier Growth
Facial hair, just like the hair on top of your head, can also end up in split ends. Split ends are easier to break off when they come in contact with minimum friction. This can actually be a real problem as split ends would mean scanty facial hair growth. It’s better to have no growth rather than having insufficient growth. Therefore, we recommend the use of beard oil for longer and healthier growth.
What Are Beard Oil Side Effects?
There aren’t too many side effects to using beard oil if you choose the right product. However, some cheap low-level products can lead to the following side effects:
Allergic Reaction
Like any other skin product, you have to do an allergy test to ensure that the ingredients in the beard oil are safe and suitable for you. The best thing to do in such a case does a patch test. Try applying the product on your hand first and see how your skin reacts to it. Some ingredients are unknown to the skin. Therefore, beard oils can lead to allergic reactions if you’re not carefully researched.
Skin Irritation
You don’t necessarily have to be allergic to the product for it to not suit your skin. At times, you might not be allergic to the product but may find that the product is causing irritation to your skin. Most sensitive skins are susceptible to this kind of reaction. Therefore, doing a patch test is recommended before you start applying beard oil on your face.
Harmful To Pets
You have to be careful about such products around your pets or children as they are pretty hazardous if consumed. Children and pets tend to put everything that comes their way into their stomachs. The heavily concentrated oils present in beard oils can cause severe damage if not monitored well and cared for well.
How To Apply Beard Oil?
There are specific sets of instructions that you are required to follow regarding the application of bear oil. The instructions are usually present at the back of the product. However, the following given is an elaborate version of it:
Step 1: Wash And Dry Your Face
Start with washing your face thoroughly and drying it after that. We recommend applying beard oils after taking a bath, as this is when you are feeling fresh and your look is clean. It is absolutely the worst thing to do if you try to apply beard oil on your wet beard. Make sure your beard is dry.
Step 2: Take Baby Steps
Start by taking two or three tiny droplets in the palm of your hand. Rub your palms against each other so that the oil is evenly spread out across your hand, including fingers. A critical piece of advice is that it’s better if you start with a smaller amount first. If you require more oil, you can always take some more later. The key is to make your beard look stylish and not too greasy.
Step 3. Rub Away
Once the oil is spread out on your hand, place one hand on each side above your cheeks and gently rub in circular motions. You have to keep in mind that you want the oil to penetrate through your rusty beard to reach your skin. The beard oil is beneficial, not only to your facial hair but also to the skin underneath.
Step 4: Continue Rubbing
Once you’re done rubbing through your face through circular motions, it’s time to address your mustache and chin. Keep in mind that the oil is meant to penetrate through your beard over to your skin as well. Address all areas where there’s facial hair. Here’s an essential tip – use your fingers when applying oil to your mustache. It helps in reaching regions better.
Step 5: Start Combing
Once you’re satisfied with the amount of beard oil you’ve applied on your face, top it off by rubbing a comb through your beard. This will help in evenly distributing the oil on your face. It is advisable to comb against the growth of your hair. However, in this case, search both sides.
Step 6: Check And Recheck
Men with long beards may face a situation where their beard might seem dry, despite applying the beard oil. In this case, use more. Your beard must receive the oil in the right amount. However, there is a fine line between greasy and stylish, so be careful of that!
How To Find The Best Beard Oil For You?
By now, we’ve understood that beard oils are essential products that every man should use in their daily routine. To calm down your beard’s curly look and provide oil-based nourishment, beard oils are highly recommended. Even though beard oil as a concept is relatively new, the market is filled with many options to choose from. It sure is a relief for men who prefer to select their preferred beard oil from various selections. Here are some factors that you must consider while buying your preferred beard oil:
Ask Yourself Why
You need to understand why you’re seeking to buy beard oil in the first place. Are you planning on using it regularly, or is it a one-off thing? Do you wish to improve the growth of your facial hair? These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself at the beginning.
How Long And Thick Is Your Beard
Depending on how long and thick your beard is, you’d choose your beard oil. If you have more significant growth, it’s apparent that you will need beard oil in more quantity. Your consumption is going to be a whole lot more. At the same time, if you are sporting a goatee, then you need not worry. Go ahead and buy the smaller package.
Let’s Talk About Fragrance
Men have differing opinions when it comes to scented and unscented beard oils. If you choose a scented beard oil, then you may be going to be smelling of that the entire day. There are natural essential oils such as sandalwood or rose that have a pretty strong scent. Depending on whether you like fragrance or not, you must make the call.
Brand Matters
You’d look for customer reviews for every other product, but this one? Not really. You need to check out the brand that you’re opting for. The market is filled with many options for beard oils, and you need to choose wisely.
Check Out Its Ingredients
There are some ingredients that you really need to avoid—for example, parabens and aluminum. Parabens are not too expensive, thus can be found in most skincare products. Parabens are scientifically proven to cause a hormonal disbalance, which invariably impacts the quality of your skin. The same applies to aluminum. Be sure to read through the ingredients carefully.
Understand Quantity And Usage
Given the number of natural oils present in beard oil, it comes with an expiry date. Check the quantity of the beard oil you are planning on buying and measure it against your usage. You want to make sure that you can use your product before it expires. For that matter, if your usage is high, then buy a product that will last you a reasonable amount of time.
5 Best Beard Oil For Men
Honest Amish Classic Beard Oil
What makes this better than the oil itself? Its organic ingredients. Considered to be the number one seller in the U.S. markets, the Honest Amish Classic Beard Oil is created using avocado oil, virgin pumpkin seed oil, moringa oil, sweet almost oil, golden jojoba oil, pure argan oil, and kukui oil, to name a few. All of these ingredients are meant to rock your beard to glory.
King C. Gillette Beard Oil
Formed using 99% plant-based oils, the King C. Gillette beard oil offers a non-greasy touch. If you are into fragrances, it would be good to choose this product. It consists of cedarwood and bergamot properties, which will leave your beard smelling fresh and fabulous all day long. Thanks to the argan, jojoba, and avocado oil properties present in it, it consists of all goodness.
Fragrance-Free Beard Oil
What makes this beard oil unique is the fact that it is fragrance-free. This oil is created using only two key ingredients, i.e., jojoba oil and Moroccan argan oil, coming from a reputable brand. The product is vegan-friendly, and no animals have been harmed during the creation of this oil. It comes at a reasonable price for the quantity it offers.
Beard Oil By The Mountaineer
It comes in a 2-ounce bottle and is created using essential oils only. If you like lightly scented beard oils, then this one’s for you as it comes with a subtle scent of cedarwood, fir needle, and the eucalyptus plant. It gives a very woodsy, classic smell.
Cremo Cedar Forest Beard Oil
Get silky-smooth results in just 30 seconds with Cremo’s Cedar Forest beard oil. The oil is entirely fragrance-free and is created using avocado oil, virgin pumpkin seed oil, moringa oil, sweet almost oil, golden jojoba oil, and pure argan oil.
Conclusion
While the concept is relatively new, the importance of beard oils is slowly being realized. Pampering oneself with skincare products is no longer looked upon as something that only girls are into. Boys or men, for that matter, also require to take equal care of their skin to ensure that they are not causing damage or are preventing injury in the process.
Beard oils are meant to provide your facial hair the growth and nourishment that they require. Don’t neglect the skin underneath your beard just because it’s not visible. If you think about it, the skin underneath the beard seldom receives any care. What tends to happen is that the skin underneath becomes dry and dull, which is not a pleasant result. Do your research well and choose the right product for yourself.
