SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE BEARD OIL, BEARD BALM AND BEARD SHAMPOO

A Quick Guide: Best Beard Care Tips

So you decided to grow a beard. Or you have already grown one. Now comes the hard part - caring for it, making sure your beard grows in a healthy and pleasing-to-the-eye manner. Unless you are into the unkempt look. Which is fine, to each his own; but then, what are you doing here? This is HiLee’s natural beard care shop.

Truth be told, maintaining a beard isn’t the most challenging task you’ll ever face. It’s basically the same as keeping your hair nice and tidy; you need to wash it, apply shampoo and, preferably, conditioner to it, and if you choose to run a comb or a brush through it, even better. Same goes for beards. Beards need to be washed, moisturized, and styled, and to be trimmed once in a while.

So here we go: a quick guide filled with the best beard care tips and how to assemble your own beard care set.

Beard Maintenance Essentials: Beard Care Products You Need

We’ll start with the hardware: the few essentials needed for beard skin care:

• Beard oil, to keep your beard moisturized
• Beard balm, to style your beard
• Beard shampoo, to keep your beard clean
• Beard comb or beard brush, to a have a tidy-looking beard
• Beard trimmer, to shape your beard
• Beard conditioner (optional), to achieve that extra-softness
• Beard wax (also optional), if beard balm fails at the task

The list above is the best beard care kit; it seems like a lot, that’s true. Why can’t a man just let his beard grow as nature intended? As we mentioned earlier, you can. But then, instead of caring for your beard, you’ll need to care about the bewildered looks of folks. Up to you.

There are beard care kits (sometimes referred to as 'beard care gift sets') that cover the basics or you can shop for specific beard care products. Again, up to you - it’s your beard.

Overview of Beard Balm VS. Beard Oil

A debate as ancient as beards themselves: what’s the difference between beard balm and beard oil? Should I use both or just one? Why are there two products that are so similar?

Options, gentlemen, options; would you want to have just whisky out there and forgo scotch and bourbon? No, you wouldn’t (if you hesitated before answering this question, shame on you.) Even if the difference between beard balm and beard oil is a nuanced one, there’s still a place for both.

In broad brush strokes, beard care oil is a pure moisturizer for your beard and facial skin. Its added value? It helps battle dandruff and flakes. Also, it will slightly ease the itching that is a part of every young beard’s life. If you are pre-beard, prepare yourself - there will be some itching. And we’re here to help you deal with it.

Beard balm is also a moisturizer, even more effective than beard oil, and due to its thicker texture, it can act as a gentle holding agent. As for your facial skin, beard balm actually acts as a more effective skin moisturizer.

So how to choose? At first, you can use both, give them both a try, see how your beard reacts and decide what works best for you. You can choose one over the other or alternate between the two.

As a rule of thumb, if you sport a heavy, longer beard you’ll definitely want to use beard balm. If your beard is tight and well-trimmed, beard oil would probably be enough for you.

FAQ: How to Use Beard Care Oil

When is The Best Time to Use Beard Oil?

The best time to apply beard care oil is after a shower. A hot shower, when your beard hair is soft and willing. But make sure to dry your beard before applying the oil, otherwise it won’t absorb well (think back to junior-high chemistry… oil and water don’t mix.)

How Much Oil Should I Use?

The next step is to put a few drops into your palm, and rub your palms against one another. Now, we say “a few” because we don’t know you and thus, are not familiar with your beard. Maybe it’s nothing more than glorified stubble. Maybe it’s a Moses-style beard. Use your discretion when deciding on the number of drops. Start slow with 2-3, see how your beard reacts and take it from there.

How to Apply the Oil to My Beard?

When you feel the oil is evenly distributed in your palms and fingers, it’s time to raise both palms and brush them along the sides of your beard a few times.

Do the same on the front, and below your chin.

Basically, you need to spread the oil as evenly and thoroughly as possible through your beard.

Once you feel your palms and fingers have done their work, it’s time to pick up a beard brush and run it through your beard, to shape it back after your hands had wreaked havoc on it.

How Often Should You Apply Beard Oil?

Every other day sounds like a good starting point. Obviously, it depends on your skin type, hair type, beard length and thickness, weather, air pollution (we’re totally serious about this: countryside beards are so much healthier than urban beards, as are the men that grow them) and how much food gets lost in your beard but - every other day. Try it, observe, and adjust accordingly.

FAQ: How to Use Beard Balm

When is The Ideal Time to Use Beard Balm?

No big surprises there, the ideal time to apply beard balm is after a shower. If you’re not into showers (can’t believe we just said that), wash your bearded face with hot water to soften the hairs. As with the beard oil, make sure your beard is dry before applying the balm.

How Much Balm Should I Put?

Beard balm is thicker than oil; it is akin in texture to hair wax, or shoe wax. So no dropper here and no cutesy little brown bottles. Be ready to stick your finger in.

Amount-wise, start with a small disk (use your fingernail as a reference) and see if it all being absorbed into your beard. If not, and your beard feels extra oily and looks super shiny, you probably want to decrease the amount. As is everything else in life, it’s trial and error.

How Do I Apply the Balm to My Beard?

Rub it firmly between your palms. The friction and heat will melt it into an oily substance. From here, use the same techniques as explained in the beard oil section. You want to spread it evenly across all corners and angles of your beard for an even look. That’s the secret sauce, so to speak: spread it evenly on your palms, rub it evenly on the entirety of your beard.

Amount-wise, start with a small disk (use your fingernail as a reference) and see if it all being absorbed into your beard. If not, and your beard feels extra oily and looks super shiny, you probably want to decrease the amount. As is everything else in life, it’s trial and error.

Pro Tip: Wipe your hands after applying beard balm (and oil, for that matter); nobody likes to shake an oily, or balmy, hand.

Overview of Beard Shampoo VS. Regular Shampoo

Beard shampoo (also referred to as beard wash) is actually different from regular shampoo (also referred to as generic shampoo.) So the answer is no, and the question was, can I use my regular shampoo for my beard?

The reaction to the answer is probably: why not? Hair is hair!

Here’s why not: Regular shampoo basically removes the excess sebum oil from your hair. When it comes to your head, the sebaceous glands produce plenty of sebum oil that, if not removed, will make your hair appear, well, oily. That’s not a good look, by the way.

But when it comes to your facial skin, it produces much less natural oil than your scalp, and that’s a good thing. If our facial skin produced as much natural oil as our scalp, we would all shine, and not in a good way.

Going back to beard shampoo: it cleans your beard good and proper without stripping it from its natural oils.

As for the frequency of shampooing your beard, follow the same routine as with your hair.