Having a beard is cool, but very few individuals have mastered beard maintenance. The majority of people choose to wing it and hope their beard doesn’t look ragged.
Few men who have hacked a healthy beard will claim that they discovered their beard care secrets by chance, or that they simply had compliant hair.
Because of their unusual position and proclivity to remain exposed all day, beard hairs are prone to dehydration.
What Exactly Is Beard Butter?
The phrase “beard butter” may be an oxymoron, as what does butter have in common with a beard? When you think of a beard, you think of something scruffy, itchy, and harsh, yet butter is the polar opposite. Right? The makers of beard butter, on the other hand, had a different opinion. A healthy beard is not stubby or unpleasant to the touch.
Beard butter, as the name suggests, is food for your beard. You nurture your strands from the roots up by adding beard butter to your beard. According to experts, the key to a healthy and attractive beard is not the strands themselves, but the skin beneath them. Feeding your follicles proteins like keratin and collagen, which keep them elastic and robust, will make your strands less brittle and shiner.
Step-by-step Guide To Using Beard Butter
Step 1: Wash your beard with a mild beard shampoo or beard wash
Your regular body soap won’t cut it for cleaning up your facial hair. Most of these agents are harsh on body hair; they were created for direct use on skin, not hair. As a result, they strip your hair of its oils, making them brittle and coarse.
Step 2: Pat your beard dry
Avoid applying too much friction while drying your beards. This may encourage irritation and redness.
Step 3: Apply beard butter
Take some beard butter with your fingers, rub between your palms, and massage gently into your beard. Use circular motions first, then stroking movements after.
Step 4: Redistribute using a comb
At this stage, most of the butter is in your beard, not on your face. Activate the butter by combing through your beard with a wide-toothed sandalwood comb. The comb takes butter from your beard and transfers it to gently stroking your face to the skin beneath. This motion helps it absorb more and stimulates hair growth by increasing blood flow.
The moisturising action of the beard butter should allow the comb to glide through effortlessly. Thus, there is no risk of irritation or breakage.
Best Ingredients For Beard Butter
Beard butter usually come with a base of shea butter or cocoa butter.
When choosing a beard butter, the primary hair-stimulating ingredients to look out for include jojoba oil, black cumin seed oil, avocado oil and grapeseed oil. Beard butter may also contain essential oils like tea tree oil.
These oils should be used based on your particular beard needs. For example, do you desire a fuller beard, a neater one, or a softer, more compliant one?
Cocoa Butter vs Shea Butter For Beards
Cocoa butter is a sweet-smelling natural fat that contains numerous antioxidants which help skin heal and strengthen damaged skin. Cocoa butter is rich in Vitamin E, one of the major skin vitamins. As earlier stated, skin health is beard health. Cocoa butter also moisturises your beard and prevents beard itches, dandruff, and general dryness.
On the other hand, Shea butter has a milder scent and is best at strengthening strands and replenishing lost hair oils. Sheabutter is also said to pump up the volume of beards and give an overall healthy and polished look. As with cocoa butter, shea butter repairs damaged hairs.
Both options are great for your hair; it is up to personal preference!
Beard Butter vs Beard Wax
These options may vary in composition, but the major difference between butter and wax is the consistency.
Because butter is soft, it is used as a moisturiser. On the other hand, a wax can be used for styling and shaping because it has a better hold.
