Beard Oil Benefits: The Pros and Cons of Using Beard Oil

Some people love beard oil. Some people don’t. Others? Well, they just aren’t aware it’s a thing.

We may have covered this before but we want to be absolutely clear:

Beard oil? You need it.

“Why?”, you ask impatiently. Well, we completely understand your eagerness so let’s dive right in.

Beard oil huh? What is it good for? Well, more than you might think. Beard oil is packed full of benefits for both beard hair and underlying skin that will leave you looking, feeling and smelling great. Let's dive in and take a look at them:

The best beard oils (like ours, cough cough) are packed with ingredients that nourish your beard hair and the skin underneath, and help protect both from the elements (and constant stroking).

When buying your beard oil, look for carrier oils like argan oil and jojoba oil. Argan is rich in fatty acids and vitamin E, and jojoba is very similar to the natural oil your skin makes, so it absorbs well.

One heavy oil on its own can leave some beards feeling greasy, which is why good beard oils use a blend. Ours combine argan and jojoba with lighter, silkier oils like sweet almond and rice bran.

Beard itch sucks. Before Alex started Mission Beard, it was the bane of his life, and it’s been the death of many a beard over the years.

The oils he tried didn’t do much to help. That’s the reason Mission Beard exists: to make fairly priced, great-smelling beard care that actually works.

But that's where beard oil comes in. With its line-up of nourishing, soothing and anti-inflammatory ingredients, a good beard oil will help relieve beard itch from the first use, and tackle the dryness that causes it when you use it every day.

Your hair follicles produce a natural oil called sebum which keeps hair hydrated and the skin underneath happy. As your beard grows longer, your hair follicles don't have enough sebum to go around. When it runs out, dryness and itching occur.

Beard oil is the closest thing you'll get to bottled sebum. Pick some up and start using it - trust us, your grizzly grill will be grateful.

Fake it ‘til you make it. The natural oils help add volume to your beard,  making it appear thicker and fuller whilst it grows out.

This happens in 2 distinct ways:

Volume:  using oil naturally adds more volume to your beard, helping to hold it in shape, which makes it appear thicker.

Less breakage:  soft, conditioned hairs are less likely to snap, so more of your hard-earned length stays put.

This is particularly useful if you're trying to grow a beard style like a goatee or a full viking beard where density is important.

The natural oils coat and condition your facial hair, making it softer. Although you'll notice your beard feeling softer almost immediately, the effects will really kick in after several days of continuous use.

Incorporate beard oil into your daily routine and you'll bring life back to that dull, dry beard. Touch it. Touch it again. It really can be that soft.

Let’s be straight: beard oil can’t make hair grow faster, and it won’t fill a patch that isn’t growing. What it can do is keep the skin under your beard healthy and your hairs conditioned, so dryness and breakage don’t hold you back.

How fast and how full your beard grows comes down mostly to genetics. Beyond that, sleep, a healthy diet and regular exercise are the best things you can do for it.

Beard tip: All our oils share the same carrier blend of jojoba, argan, sweet almond, rice bran and Inca Inchi oils, which is rich in omega fatty acids, plus vitamin E, a natural antioxidant.

Tired of flyaways and stragglers making your beard look more like a bird's nest? In combination with a beard brush and comb, beard oil can help you bring order to even the most unruly of beards.

Don't let annoying hairs run the show and ruin your confidence. Grab some beard oil, put it to work and bring your facial fur together.

The benefits of beard oil go beyond standard facial hair health. Fragranced beard oils don’t go unnoticed. While this can come down to personal preference, there are some incredible smelling beard oils out there which can both complement colognes and work as standalone fragrances as well.

Beard oils are fragranced with essential oils, synthetic fragrance or a mix of the two. Either way, the fragrance is only a small part of the bottle, with carrier oils making up the bulk of it. Ours are scented using essential oils, though our fragrance isn’t 100% natural.

It’s also the thing our customers mention most in their reviews. Knowing you look and smell great will be gold dust for your confidence. And when confidence is the key to success, beard oil is well worth the investment.

Nothing is perfect.

That’s right –we hate to admit it, but even beard oil can have its downsides.

Here are a few minor flaws to the nectar of the bearded Gods:

Beard oil is, well, oil. Whilst many high-quality beard oils will absorb into your skin quickly, use a low-quality one - or use too much - and you'll end up with oily skin.

This can cause a whole host of problems. Beyond looking and feeling a little bit gross, excess beard oil can clog up your pores. Leave this unchecked for too long, and the very product you've used to cure beard itch can actually cause it. Not fun.

If you're concerned about oily skin and the problems that come with it, look for beard oils with lighter ingredients like rice bran oil and sweet almond oil, which absorb quickly and easily to help you avoid any unnecessary greasiness.

It’s one of the things our customers pick up on. As Roland M. put it in his review: “I have used many oils and always been disappointed… smells great makes beard soft and for once an oil that isn’t greasy.”

Beard oil can help tame the occasional flyaway hair and will definitely help you grow a healthy beard which is naturally less unruly.

However, like some other beard care products, beard oil doesn't add any extra hold. So, if you're looking for something to keep your face mane under control during the windier months, it's well worth looking at a product like beard balm in addition to your oil.

Beard balms are popular products made with similar ingredients to beard oil, but also commonly contain shea butter for extra nourishing benefits, as well as beeswax for a natural hold.

If you use both, put the oil on first, give it a minute to absorb, then add the balm. Go a little lighter on the oil than usual, because balm contains oil too.

Once you realise what you’ve been missing out on, you’ll find yourself trapped in a beard care routine that can be as addictive as it is beneficial.

You might be able to pick up beard oils online for a fiver, but trust us when we say these aren't worth your money. The ingredients that benefit your beard don't come cheap, and companies selling oils at rock-bottom prices are known to cut corners.

That said, you shouldn’t have to pay a fortune either. Fair pricing is one of the reasons Mission Beard exists: our beard oils are £16.99 for a 30ml bottle, which lasts 4 to 10 weeks depending on the length of your beard.

Take it from me - that blog post you're supposed to be writing for your small beard care business will take at least 20% longer when you factor in regular breaks to stroke that silky-soft face mane of yours. We'll be damned if it isn't worth it though.

Ok, you got us - we snuck a benefit into the cons section. While your beard hairs won't become soft like your head hairs (because that would be weird, imagine them swaying in a breeze), they will become noticeably softer.

Not only is this kinder on your partner, who will no longer have to contend with scratchy upper lip syndrome®, it's also kinder on the skin beneath. Coarse hairs cause irritation, which cause itching, which causes dry skin and beard dandruff.

Introvert? Germaphobe? A head-turning, well-groomed, shiny beard just might not be for you. They WILL want to touch it.

Friends, family and members of the public will see the difference beard oil has made, and you'll get potentially unwanted attention. If you like attention, though, this is definitely a benefit. Because let's be honest, us men don't get enough of it sometimes. Who doesn't like free compliments?

Once or twice a day. Alex uses his twice: first thing in the morning after his shower, on a blow-dried beard, and again before bed.

Apply it to a clean, dry (or towel-dried) beard, work it into the skin as well as the hair, and brush or comb it through. If your beard still feels greasy a while later, use a drop or two less next time.

Ultimately, that's for you to decide. Take a look at our range of UK-made beard oils, or check out our curated list of the best beard care products from across the web.

You can use beard oil for well-nourished, itch-free skin sprouting a soft, tidy facial fleece… Or you can put up with a dry, scratchy one. We know which we’d pick.