Gentlemen everywhere, gather.
How many of you were sporting your beard before the NY Times declared it officially awesome?
There’s just something about a well-groomed man that makes the ladies stop and stare.
Speaking of well groomed, how many of you are beard oil users? Wait, what is beard oil?
Sure, it’s important to keep it trimmed and washed, but most people don’t realize how essential beard oil is for bearded health.
Fun Fact: Did you know that a beard can block up to 95% of the sun’s UV rays? In other words, your beard considerably lowers your risk of skin cancer.
Your beard does more than protect you from cancer, it also acts as a net, filtering out pollen and other pesky allergens from invading your respiratory system. On top of cancer-fighting and allergy protecting, your beard helps to keep your skin moisturized by adding a protective barrier from the elements.
Our point here is that your beard takes care of you, so you need to take care of it. Beard oil is the way to do that.
Read on to learn more about this oily goodness.
But, What Is Beard Oil?
Let’s start off on the right foot, we’re talking about special oil that you apply to your beard to keep it shiny, happy, and healthy. We are not, however, referring to the oily residue your beard produces when you skip a few shower days.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, think of beard oil like conditioner. You should never wash your hair without using some sort of conditioner. Even if it’s a 3 in 1 style soap, there’s still a conditioning agent.
Beard oils have all kinds of conditioning agents like jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, argan oil, and more. These oils offer deep conditioning of not only your beard hair but the skin and follicles underneath as well.
Stylist Tip: The best time to apply beard oil is right after a shower. Wash your beard with water as hot as you can stand, without burning your skin off, so that your pores are open and ready to absorb the oils. Rub the oil into your beard and massage it into your skin. Remember, in this case, more isn’t better.
Why You Need It
Beard oil is known to have many benefits from acne-fighting to beardruff fighting.
So unless you have the perfect genetic code and have never had any trouble with acne, patchy spots, dryness, or have an otherwise perfect beard, you might just consider beard oil a necessity. See, and bare with us for a moment, it’s not about the beard itself. It’s about the health of the skin underneath the beard.
Your follicles will thank you.
We’ve done nothing but speak highly of beard oil, but don’t just take our word for it. Check out some of the most common health benefits of beard oil:
Acne Relief
Having trouble leaving acne behind? Beard oil might just be the answer you’ve been looking for.
To rid your acne, you must first understand the cause of it. Acne is primarily caused by clogged hair follicles, which causes pore inflammation and infection.
You might be thinking, how can oil help with acne? Oil causes acne.
In reality, beard oil nourishes your skin rather than clogging it. In fact, the essential oils in beard oil have anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial healing properties.
If you’re using beard oil to treat acne, one of the most important things to remember is to not cut corners when you buy your beard oil. The quality of your oil makes all the difference.
Ditch the Beardruff
If you don’t already know what beardruff is, it’s dandruff, or flaky patches of dry skin, that comes from your beard.
How to tell if you’ve been affected by beardruff:
If you find yourself scratching your beard regularly, you’ve probably got beardruff.
If you are eating spaghetti and find an extra helping of parmesan cheese on your plate after you’ve just scratched your beard, you’ve got beardruff.
An easy way to get rid of unsightly beardruff is to keep your skin underneath your beard moisturized. Use special beard oils for beardruff to help alleviate the matter.
Consider finding an oil that combines tea tree oil and grapeseed oil. Tea tree oil is often used to prevent itching while grapeseed oil helps deeply moisturize your skin.
Fragrance
If anything, beard oil help provide a tasty fragrance to your beard.
The last thing any man wants is to be inches from a lovely lady, only to have her take a whiff of your ungroomed beard and bail. Nothing turns the ladies off faster than foul-smelling facial hair.
Beard oil is cologne for your facial hair. If you want your chest smelling good, you want your beard smelling even better.
You can find all kinds of different smelling beard oils. This oil, for example, sports a spicy black licorice aroma that will bring any lustful lover to their knees.
Keep Your Beards Magnificent, Gents
Convinced?
You don’t have to have problems with your beard to treat it with beard oil.
So next time you hear your friend say, “what is beard oil?” you can chime in and spread the word of this oily goodness.
Looking for more grooming tips? Check out our grooming archives for tips on everything from trimming nose hairs to pre-date rituals.
