How many handsome beards and goatees have you come across randomly on the street, in magazines, or on TV sets? A true trend phenomenon, over 90% of 25-35 year olds and more than half of fifty-somethings wear a beard.
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Romantic evening beard, sophisticated short beard, or vintage long beard, all these goatees, sideburns, cheekbones, chin, or mustaches demand daily attention and care.
Pre-trim preparations, precise shaving at home or at the barber, many products exist for each step and for each hair type. Cleansing lotions, shaving foams, beard lotions and oils, beard balm remains the essential star product in the barber's kit.
But what are the truly unsuspected benefits of this fabulous ointment with multiple virtues?
Natural ingredients with ancient benefits
Neutral or scented with musk or vetiver, beard balm is a cosmetic product made from natural ingredients and composed only of fatty substances rich in active principles.
Resulting from an emulsion of vegetable oils and butters, beard balm is a waxy ointment, made solid by the presence of vegetable butters, texturizing agents used for their virtues and their ability to stabilize preparations.
Originating from very hot regions, these natural components excel in their content of fatty acids and vitamins, essential for skin, hair, and beard hair. Jojoba oil or "Inca Gold", shea butter or beeswax used since Antiquity, the main ingredients of beard balms have already proven their extraordinary moisturizing, nourishing and repairing power.
Oil or beard balm?
For a 3-day beard or a longer beard, personal aesthetic preference remains major, but hair type and implantation often dictate which beard style to choose. Thickness and density according to age, growth rate, hair shape - all these criteria modify the beard's appearance.
While beard oils are widely used for short beards, they do not, however, tame rebellious, split, and dry hairs of longer beards. Easy to apply, they moisturize and nourish skin and hair thanks to the active ingredients of natural oils but do not have the styling and much more protective effect of balms made from vegetable butters.
Oil or balm, having a beautiful beard means above all having healthy skin, regularly cleansed of all sebum deposits, dead skin, and bacteria. Thus rid of all impurities, the hair follicles will allow the hair to grow faster and will easily absorb all the nutrients contained in your elixir.
A beauty balm for your beard
- optimal hydration, thanks to the high moisturizing power of vegetable oils and butters. Growing a beard also means facing uncomfortable tightness and itching due to a lack of sebum and water loss from the skin. The strong affinity of fatty acids with those of human sebum in vegetable oils like jojoba promotes their assimilation into the skin and hair and limits water loss. Shea butter or beeswax, being more occlusive, form an additional impermeable barrier on the skin and hair, preventing any potential dryness.
- a restructuring of the superficial layers of the epidermis and hair thanks to the presence of ceramides in vegetable oils, true vectors of cell cohesion, and thanks to the stimulation of collagen fiber production by the active ingredients of vegetable butters. Beard balm restores the integrity of dry, brittle, or split hairs and promotes impeccable beard styling.
- a soothing and repairing action thanks to the anti-inflammatory properties of all components. Healing small wounds and skin rashes, beard balm preserves skin integrity and limits minor inflammations.
Unsuspected benefits
Styling, moisturizing, nourishing, softening, and repairing power, beard balm still hides other unsuspected virtues.
- protection against external aggressions, whether sun, wind, temperature contrasts, beard balm forms a real protective barrier thanks to the ability of vegetable butters, especially beeswax, to form a protective impermeable film on the skin and hair.
- an action on regrowth, stimulated by the propolis contained in beeswax.
- a treating power on ingrown hairs thanks to the exfoliating action of shea butter.
Choosing a beard balm
Whether you make it yourself at home or buy it in a specialized store, beard balm must be composed only of 100% natural ingredients. Free from all petroleum residues, synthetic products, preservatives, or dyes.
It's up to you to choose, according to your current desires and needs, whether or not to scent your beard with the deep and woody notes of essential oils often offered in your beard balm!
