"What's your malady?" or "Going beyond the scent"

Some of you are blessed with trouble-free beards. Your beard hair isn't too oily or dry, you have skin that doesn't itch, and you experience no discomfort regardless of the season. Not me. Crappy skin is at the the very core of why The Bearded Savant exists today. So when I set out to craft each scent I went well beyond just the smell, I wanted to craft each scent with something more. 

Carrier oils and butters play a key roll but it is the essential oil blends that take our products to the next level. For a breakdown of the carrier oils and butters, you can saunter on back to a few earlier blog posts on the subject here and here, respectively. In those two posts we discuss why we've selected jojoba and almond oil as our beard oil base and Shea butter, cocoa butter, and beeswax as our balm base: it all comes down to your skin. You can even get a brief primer on essential oils here.

Today, we want to step out of generalities and step into specifics. Now, we are going to look at specific maladies. Below we list the most common maladies affecting bearded savants (such as yourself), the scent most apt to address it, and the key essential oil in that scent. Disclaimer: Everyone's skin is different and below are recommendations.  So, if you have a malady listed below, give our recommendation a shot, if it works, Fantastic! Let us know! If it doesn't, feel free to reach out to us and we'll try and find something that might work better for you. 

Beard Dandruff

Characterized by flakey skin under your beard, which ultimately results in white flakes throughout your beard. Sometimes accompanied by itchy skin.

Scents best suited

• Arborist—cedarwood
• Naturalist—cedarwood
• Lion's Mane—lavender

Application tips

Beard oil in the morning (preferably right out of the shower) and spend a good 3-5 minutes combing the beard out (but please don't use a cheap plastic comb!). To be most effective, try pealing back your beard and using a wooden comb to massage the skin. Apply beard balm at night, heavy, and let it soak into your skin as you sleep. Moisturizing your skin is key. Consider using a less aggressive shampoo on your beard, washing it no more than 1-2 times per week, and washing/rinsing with tepid instead of hot water.

Itchy beard

You know what this feels like.

Scents best suited

• Arborist—lavender
• Lion's Mane—lavender
• Alchemist—frankincense
• Geologist—frankincense

Application tips

Like a mosquito bite, an itchy beard is often a point source of discomfort. Choosing one of the above scents, putting a drop on your finger, and applying it to the exact location will do a world of good. If your itchiness is all over and constant, go with a balm and apply it acutely all over your beard. By acutely, I mean put a dollop on the palm of your hand, then scrape a bit off with your finger and rub it into a localized area, repeating this until you've hit your whole beard. This will ensure more ends up on your skin beneath your beard and less on your hands.

Dry or Fragile beard

Hair that feels wiry; brittle beard hair. 

Scents best suited

• Arborist—lavender
• Lion's Mane—rosemary
• Alchemist—sandalwood

Application tips

Repeat after me: Healthy skin equals healthy beard. Oil right out of the shower. In this case, the carriers are just as important as the essential oils, so beard balm in the morning and another dose before bed—really massage it into the skin. Gray hairs tend to be a bit more wiry overall, so if you are salt and pepper to full-on grey, Alchemist or Geologist beard balm are your friends.

Oily beard

You run your hand through your beard and when you're finished you feel like your hands are coated in something

Scents best suited

• Lion's Mane—cypress & thyme

Application tips

Believe it or not but beard oil is key here. The important thing is you want oils that will pass easily into your skin, and the jojoba in our beard oil does just that. With a well-suited carrier oil bringing cypress and thyme to the root of your hair follicle, you have a good chance at slowly knocking back that oily feeling. Again, the beard balm would also be good but you would want to limit its usage to overnight and start with a light coating to see how your beard feels in the morning, then adjust.

Beard hair loss

Your once majestic main is a shell of its former self

Scents best suited

• Arborist—cedarwood
• Naturalist—cedarwood
• Alpinist—juniper berry
• Lion's Mane—rosemary

Application tips

Before addressing this, let me step onto my soapbox and briefly say that any company out there trying to sell you something claiming to regrow your beard is selling you BS. Don't believe it! Beard hair loss, like head hair loss can be the result of powers well beyond your control, but that doesn't mean you are helpless. In addition to the essential oils mentioned above, the use of beard oil in general is a great way to make your beard look fuller. The daily use of beard oil will help your beard hair shine and make the natural colors deepen in richness. Let's say you used to have a dark brown to black beard but over time it's thinned as its greyed. The best way to make it appear fuller is to make the pepper in your salt pop. Daily application of beard oil will do just that and people will invariably start to ask you, "are you doing something with your beard?"

These are just a few maladies with a few tips. We're here to help you, and happy to answer more specific questions. And custom blends aren't out of the question, just drop us a line!