Beard butter can give you an epic beard, but only if it contains the right ingredients. These include those that nourish your facial hair and skin while improving the manageability of your beard.
Beard Butter | Here Are the Ingredients That Matter
In This Article:
- How the Ingredients in Beard Butter Work to Give You a Better Beard
- Carrier and Essential Oils
How the Ingredients in Beard Butter Work to Give You a Better Beard
One of the basic beard grooming products available today, beard butter is often confused with oil and beard balm. Each has a different consistency and use.
In particular, beard butter works by conditioning your facial hair and skin, especially when the strands are getting longer.
To understand this point, you need to know how the hair grows. Each strand comes out of a hair follicle, which is a collection of cells and connective tissues surrounding the hair’s root. A pair of glands, known as sebaceous glands, sits at the bottom of each.
The sebaceous glands produce sebum oil, which nourishes the hair follicle and conditions the beard hair.
Conditioning is easy when the beard hair is short because it takes very little sebum oil. As the beard hair grows longer, however, it requires more sebum oil, and the production may not be enough.
When there’s not enough sebum oil, the hairs can become dry, brittle, and unmanageable. These can then lead to different problems such as split ends and an unruly beard.
As the problem gets worse, beard hairs start to wick oil away from your skin. This causes dry, itchy skin known as beard itch. Dry, flaky skin can result in beard dandruff, a condition that leaves white flecks down the front of your shirt.
Carrier and Essential Oils
Most beard-related products contain two types of oils: carrier and essential.
The carrier oils make up about 90% of the contents. These are all natural and usually come from seeds and nuts. Some of the examples are jojoba, Argan, sweet almond, coconut, and hazelnut.
Essential oils come from trees and plants. Not only do they give the plants and trees their distinctive scent, but they also provide other benefits such as protection against pests or bugs.
Essential oils, however, are highly concentrated, so when used alone, they can have a strong smell. They also evaporate fast. To make the scent last longer, manufacturers dilute them with the carrier oils.
When it comes to the best ingredients for beard butter, here are seven of them:
1. Shea Butter
Shea butter acts as the base. It gives the beard butter a light, creamy texture and helps deliver the product’s nutrients deep into the skin and beard hair.
2. Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil comes from a shrub that grows in the Arizona desert. It is similar to your skin’s natural oils, so your beard absorbs it quickly. It also helps replace the sebum lost through beard growth.
3. Argan Oil
Made from trees growing in Morocco, Argan oil softens and moisturizes your skin. This carrier oil also penetrates your beard hair to add shine without the grease and repairs damaged hair follicles.
4. Sweet Almond
Sweet almond is made from a plant that produces delicious nuts. The oil helps reduce inflammation to prevent ingrown hairs.
5. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil helps maintain a healthy beard and skin in dry climates and hot weather. It is one of the best natural moisturizing carrier oils in beard butter.
6. Hazelnut Oil
The oil in hazelnuts contains beneficial fatty acids and vitamin E, which make it an effective moisturizer. It also helps to create a natural oil barrier that helps your skin hold on to water, so your skin stays hydrated for a long time. It can reduce the chances of eczema, acne, and other skin problems that make beards uncomfortable.
7. Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree oil comes from Australia. It is an essential oil, so it provides a pleasant odor in addition to keeping the skin and facial hair healthy. This oil is an antiseptic that treats minor cuts and scrapes, fights acne, and soothes skin inflammation.
Shea butter is one of the basic ingredients in beard butter. PCV Media shows how to create it:
Beard butter these days comes in different forms, compositions, and brands. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but you can make the selection process easier by focusing on the quality of its ingredients.
What do you look for in your beard butter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Featured Image BEARD BUTTER by Wild Willies
