After a historical period of totally depilated faces and bodies, men have rediscovered their long beards. A return in style of the beard has not happened since the 70s, a decade symbol par excellence of the rough and bearded man, especially for the social opposition to the 60s. Today, growing a beard is not only a fashion but the possibility of characterizing one’s face, as always done with hair or sideburns.
To have a long and thick beard it is not enough to let it grow but it is necessary to take care of it to give it a healthy appearance and the style that best fits our face. For the care of long beards, there are numerous specific products on the market, but it is also possible to use products that you already have at home and which will prove to be real cure-all to soften and moisturize your beard.
The first habit is to wash your beard regularly. As the beard grows from the skin, dead cells begin to detach which go to trap, if we then add pollen, food and dust, it is easy to imagine how much dirt can settle in our facial hair. It is also very important to use a special shampoo or at least a product that is not too aggressive. Unlike hair shampoos, shaving ones generally have a more delicate composition and are enriched with substances that serve to hydrate and nourish the hair. For this purpose it is good to focus on products that contain ingredients of natural origin.
The second, excellent, habit is to always use a beard conditioner. Here we can resort to homemade products with exceptional results and absolutely not inferior to the results of the much more acclaimed similar cosmetic products. In preparing the beard conditioner we can choose two different basic solutions: beeswax, more suitable for a medium-short beard, which counteracts the dehydration of the skin and has excellent emollient properties; coconut oil, which adapts more to a long beard being more fluid than a wax and has excellent emollient and moisturizing properties.
Once we have chosen our base, we will add natural active ingredients such as rosemary, sage and pine needles, macerated for a couple of weeks in an oil that can be argan, sweet almond or jojoba. At this point we just have to prepare our balm by melting 100 grams of beeswax or coconut oil in a water bath, if solidified; when the base is fluid, add 100 grams of our oleolite, mix everything and begin cooling. Halfway through cooling, add 10 drops of essential oil (orange or lemon) to characterize our product with a citrus note and take advantage of the sanitizing properties of the essential oil. Remember, as for the hair conditioner, this product must be rinsed.
Certainly oil is the pivotal product for beard care. Its functions are multiple, but the most important is to hydrate both the hair and the underlying skin: this also prevents itching, a very common problem. To prepare our oil we start from a basic mix of three oils such as argan, jojoba and sweet almonds mixed in a 40-20-40 proportion. To our basic mixture we can also add other oils such as andiroba, coconut and castor oil each at the rate of 10 grams per 100 grams of the basic mixture.
We enrich our blend of oils with 20 drops of mint essential oil. To facilitate the mixing of the various oils, we can slightly cool them in a water bath, and during cooling we will add the essential oil. You can use this product on both wet and dry beards, with different results. On wet beard for a detangling, softening and restructuring action. On dry beard for a polishing action.
Finally, we can also think of creating a styling wax for the mustache using beeswax, castor oil and a citrus or mint essential oil. Beeswax and castor oil are very often used in cosmetics as a waxy base for green emulsions which will be added to the aqueous fraction of the emulsions themselves. Then we create our waxy base by melting 100 grams of beeswax in a water bath (to speed up this process I recommend grating the beeswax and not dissolving it as a single block), when the beeswax has melted we add 50 grams of castor oil and mix until a homogeneous compound is obtained and begin cooling. Before our wax solidifies again, add 10 drops of the selected essential oil, taking care not to add it before the product has not dropped below 40 ° C so as not to frustrate its action.
Always remember that your “do it yourself” cosmetic products are not preserved like those on the market so, even if you keep them in the fridge, they will tend to get polluted or rancid. Make small quantities that cover the needs of a couple of weeks and keep them in the fridge.
If over the years you have laughed, joked and made fun of your wives, daughters, sisters and friends for their constant use of “do it yourself” cosmetics, get ready for the revenge that they will take when they see you dealing with the “do it yourself” care of your beard.
