Complete Guide To Using & Making Beard Oil

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A beard is one of the most classic symbols of manhood, and a natural adornment for the face, a lot of people are still learning what it really means to care for a beard. Unkempt hair can be coarse, dry, and in some cases it can even smell bad. One great way to handle all of those things would be to create and use your own beard oil, and this article is here to show you how. 

Benefits of Making Your Own Beard Oil

Using a quality, natural beard oil helps with the overall health of your beard and the skin under it. This can help prevent your facial hair from being dry and brittle, and your skin from being itchy.

Having dry, brittle hair will cause your beard to grow at a slower rate, and possibly at an uneven rate. If your beard is itchy, then your skin under it ins't being conditioned as it needs. Even if your beard is only stubble, your face may still need moisture. Most men who shave their faces tend to not use oil, and wait for their beards to come in before using any beard oil product. So if you're just starting out on your beard journey (or re-starting), it is never too late to incorporate a few drops of beard oil into your hygiene routine.

A beard oil made with essential oils helps to:

• cleanse and clean your face skin and hair,
• strengthen your beard hair,
• repair your facial hair,
• support healthy hair growth
• moisturizing dryness,
• reduce flaking,
• reverses a buildup of product residue,
• reverses negative effects excessive or inadequate washing,
• soothes your skin from repetitive contact with harsh elements or chemicals,
• provide your beard with a healthy shine

Beard Oil, which can be beneficial for all facial hair types and skin types, may help to maintain a visibly neater and healthier appearance and can be the difference between a sleek, tidy look and an unruly tangled mess. Generally, applying and combing an oil into the beard may help the hair grow in thickness as well as in a uniform direction. Skincare with beard oils that are enriched with Essential Oils may also help to reduce the chances of developing ingrown hairs, inflammation, and acne. Beards oils help to hydrate, condition, nourish, soften, and gently cleanse the skin and hair without stripping the skin’s natural balance of oils, thereby leaving the skin and hair feeling invigorated, fresh, soothed, and supple. Essential Oil-enriched beard oils can help to impart thickness and fullness and to ultimately encourage healthier growth that is free of dryness, irritation, and knots. Furthermore, the added benefit of their natural inviting aromas helps make bearded men more approachable, especially to the touch, as the beard softens and takes on a more pleasant scent.

Avoiding Harmful Chemical Ingredients in Beard Oil

Making your own beard oil is a wise thing to do in today's environment where so many personal care products are filled with harmful chemicals that are well known to disrupt your hormone system, neurological system, internal organs, reproduction capabilities, and immune functioning. Not to mention, cause dry skin, itchy skin, and coarse facial hair.

Many commercial beard oils contain:

• “Fragrance” – the biggest problem with the term “fragrance” is that you never know what is in there. It could be a storm of 600 harmful or questionable chemicals, or a handful of real essential oils. This is one of the biggest causes of respiratory issues.
• Isopropyl Alcohol – this ingredient will dry out your beard, removing healthy natural oils. This chemical may also cause skin, respiratory, and nervous system issues.
• Sulfates – Also very drying, making your facial hair brittle, coarse, and split easily. Sulfates are often contaminated with 1,4 dioxane, a byproduct of the manufacturing process that is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” and may also cause problems with kidneys, liver and your central nervous system, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (Sulfates are often labeled as sodium laurel, sodium laurel sulfate, SLS, and laureth sulfate)
• Polyethylene Glycol – may cause hair loss, dries out your beard, and causes a stiff and crunchy texture. If you have dogs, this ingredient could be fatal to them. While many reports show this ingredient to be safe, sensitization (and people with underlying health concerns) could experience central nervous system depression, seizures, heart arrhythmias, respiratory problems, and organ issues.
• Mineral Oil – a petroleum product that will over-hydrate your beard, weighing down your beard hair and preventing any volume. Plus mineral oil can stop or mutate cell production, meaning your beard will be slower to grow, and could cause some patchiness too.
• Chlorine – a dehydrating neurotoxin that causes your beard to become brittle, dry, and coarse. Chlorine may also cause some respiratory disturbances.
• Pigments – while they often absorb unevenly, this may cause itchiness, skin irritation, unpleasant odors, and may harm your respiratory system. If these colorants come in contact with your skin, they could cause behavioral issues, respiratory problems, endocrine disruption, allergic reactions, potentially cancer, nervous system disruptions, infertility, birth defects, and difficulty focusing.

Those ingredients to not equal success is not a recipe for healthy beard growth, especially if you have sensitive skin. Here at EssentialOils.Life, we do advocate for reducing and limiting exposure to chemicals that could harm your body. Because of these ingredients (which often are not labeled in a simple manner to identify them) are not health-promoting, we do recommend making your own, or finding a quality brand focused on natural ingredients and process transparency.

Selecting The Right Ingredients For Your Beard Oil

In truth, most essential oils have many of the attributes that you would be looking for in the case of this use, so the possibilities are extensive. There are however several oils that are considered standard for for maintaining your healthy beard.

Choosing Essential Oils for Your Beard Oil

Most common essential oils used in beard oils include:

• Black pepper essential oil,
• Cedarwood essential oil,
• Cinnamon bark essential oil,
• Lavender essential oil,
• Peppermint essential oil,
• Rosemary Essential Oil
• Sage essential oil,
• Tea tree essential oil,

** PLEASE NOTE ** Don't be fooled by clever marketing. Not all essential oils are created equally. Make sure you're not wasting your money on fake or altered essential oils (even if they're labeled as “pure essential oil”). Don't miss our explosive report outlining the dirty little secrets of the essential oil industry to ensure you're not wasting your money on brands of oils that legally mislead you through deceitful marketing practices.

You’ll only need a few drops of each of these unless you’re planning to make a large quantity, so you won’t have to make any big commitments unless you choose to. 

Essential oils, like the ones listed above, are all pretty good at cleansing and delivering nutrients to your hair and hair follicles.

Choosing A Carrier Oil for Your Natural Beard Oil

The carrier oil is the main ingredient in your beard oil or beard balm. It not only properly dilutes your chosen essential oils, but also provides nutrients and hydration.

A carrier oil is any cold-pressed seed-based oil, like sweet almond oil, olive oil, avocado oil, castor oil, coconut oil… etc.

You'll also want a good carrier oil to dilute your essential oils, and to provide additional cleansing and nutrition. The best carrier oil to use for your beard should be light, non-comedogenic, completely natural, cold-pressed, and provide moisturizing qualities.

Jojoba oil and grapeseed oil always good ones to use in your beard growth oil because they're the closest to sebum that your skin produces and works well with your own natural oils.

The best beard oil carrier oils we recommend using are:

• organic jojoba oil,
• sweet almond oil,
• grapeseed oil,
• fractionated coconut oil (I do recommend fractionated coconut oil instead of unrefined because unrefined coconut oil may give your hair a greasy feel)

I recommend sticking with the above mentioned carrier oils because they typically are easy on the skin, have little to no scent, and very few people have allergic reactions to them. 

Other carrier oils you may want to consider include:

• Apricot kernel oil
• Caster oil
• Sunflower seed oil
• Hemp seed oil
• Golden jojoba oil
• Argania spinosa kernel oil
• Kalahari melon oil

How To Make Your Own Natural Beard Oil

Get a small bowl or wide cup, and a fork or a whisk, and a towel in case you spill oil somewhere. 

Now that you have some oils that you can choose from, you only have to set the stage.

For a small one-time use batch, simply grab the small bowl/cup and add about 3 tablespoons of your chosen carrier oil to it. 

Pick two of the more potent oils, ( Tea tree oil, lavender, cedarwood oil, sage oil, cinnamon bark oil, peppermint and rosemary) and add 4 drops of each to the carrier oil. 

Mix the oil carefully, but thoroughly. 

For a larger batch that you can use throughout the week, funnel your mixture a 2 oz glass dropper bottle, and follow one of beard oil recipes listed below.

When and How to Use Oil Your Beard

The first thing that you will want to do is start with a completely clean beard, preferably after a shower. Be sure that you dry it almost completely.

How much beard oil you'll need to use, depends on how much facial hair you have.

• 2-4 drops for a bare face (yes! This oil works great, even if you don't have a beard)
• 4-5 drops for full stubble
• 5-6 drops for a full but short beard
• increase as needed for longer beards

With both hands, dab your fingers into the mixture or drip a few drops of beard oil and spread it about your fingers, then run both hands through the hair on your cheeks working towards your mouth. Massage the oil in, all the way down to your face, and wipe any conspicuous excess.

If your beard is longer, it will be easier to drip a few more drops into the palm of your hands, rub your hands together, and apply your beard oil through your beard too.

DIY Beard Oil Recipes

• ½ oz argan oil (14 grams )
• ¼ oz jojoba oil (7 grams)
• ¼ oz sweet almond oil (7 grams)
• 7 drops lavender essential oil
• 5 drops rosemary essential oil
• 3 drops cedarwood essential oil

Add your ingredients above to a 2 oz dropper bottle, swirl, drip a few drops onto your palm, rub your hands together, and apply thoroughly throughout your beard and facial skin.

Big Daddy Beard Oil

• 7 ml Jojoba Oil
• 3 ml Grapeseed Oil
• 3 drops cedarwood essential oil
• 3 drops bergamot oil
• 2 drops peppermint essential oil

Add the above ingredients to a 1 oz dropper bottle, swirl, drip a few drops onto your palm, rub your hands together, and apply thoroughly throughout your beard and facial skin.

If you are making a larger batch, and need to add something to help with preserving, a few drops of vitamin e oil will help.

Don't have time or patience to DIY your beard oil?

Young Living, our favorite essential oil company, provides a healthy beard oil filled with natural good for your skin ingredients and amazing smelling essential oils. If you're not already a member, you're missing out on industry-setting healthy personal care products, cleaners, and essential oils. Head over to our membership page for more info on how to create your account.

Looking for more info about essential oils and adopting a healthier lifestyle? Be sure to check out our Healthy Home online course for tips on how to identify and replace common harmful products from your home.

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