Beard oil is one of the most essential products that any beardsman can own. Given its awesome blend of carrier and essential oils, beard oil can make your beard go from looking just “meh” to unbelievably good.

From beardruff to beard itch, and the general texture of how your beard feels, the benefits are far and wide. We will go into each one specifically in just a moment.

But before we do, it’s important to understand the composition of beard oil and what exactly these ingredients do when applied to your beard.

Editor’s note: If you want to skip ahead, be sure to check out our in-depth guide on the best beard oils that we reviewed.

You can also find some great beard oils listed in our guide at online retailers.

To Understand the Benefits of Beard Oil, You Must Understand the Ingredients Within the Bottle

Any high-quality beard oil is typically made up of two distinct ingredients: a carrier oil and an essential oil.

In some cases, the higher end beard oils may include added ingredients like Vitamin E which delivers key vitamins for healthy hair and skincare.

Carrier oils themselves will typically deliver many of the core benefits of any given beard oil as they make up about 90% of the actual oil.

Typically derived from seeds and nuts, carrier oils are completely all-natural with the most popular ones typically being jojoba (pronounced “ho-ho-ba”), argan, sweet almond, grapeseed, and several others.

These oils are often found in several different beauty products besides just beard oil. If you typically purchase higher-end beauty or all-natural products, you will see ingredients such as jojoba in shampoos, soaps, creams, lotions, etc.

The reason why these oils are so vastly used in beauty products is due to them being completely all-natural and having terrific hydrating/moisturizing abilities for your skin and hair follicles.

Instead of using a mixture of chemicals to achieve the same hydrating effects for your skin, a decent carrier oil will deliver the same, if not better, moisturizing and nourishing abilities.

We will touch on why this moisture is so important in just a moment, but before we do, let’s also examine essential oils:

Many of the more expensive beard oils will typically include several essential oils in addition to a carrier oil. These oils, which are extremely volatile and are required to be diluted by a carrier oil before application to your skin, are the life of the party.

Coming in several different scents ranging from citrus and lavender to sandalwood and tea tree, the options are truly limitless when trying to determine a scent for any beard oil.

Traditionally speaking, beard oils that cost more will typically contain several essential oils within the solution as essential oils are by themselves relatively pricey when compared to carrier oils.

Many price-conscious beardsmen do oftentimes decide to pick up just a bottle of jojoba or argan oil and directly apply it to their skin and beard as they will be able to achieve many of the same benefits as any sort of beard oil.

But you shouldn’t initially scoff at using essential oils without trying them out first. Many essential oils are used for natural remedies of which can be pretty effective. For instance, an essential oil such as sandalwood or tea tree are natural antiseptics; therefore, when applied to your skin, these essential oils may actually do a really good job in clearing out your pores to reduce the occurrence of acne.

Now if you are put off by strong smells like me, don’t be too worried about beard oil smelling too overwhelming. Typically the scents of beard oil may smell a bit stronger at first but will quickly reside after a short amount of time.

Therefore, it’s important to remember that the essential oils within beard oil aren’t a cologne–they are a complimentary scent.

The last thing we wanted to touch on is the cheap beard oils. Recently, there has been an uptick in the number of imitation beard oil products making its way to the market. These oils typically contain chemicals that simulate a slippery feeling (i.e. silicone) and deliver zero benefits to your skin and beard. Therefore it’s strongly recommended that you steer clear of these products. Secondly, if a beard oil doesn’t have its ingredients listed on the bottle, you should pass on purchasing it. Now to note, some fancy/highly marketed beard oils like to use a botanical or scientific name instead of the carrier/essential oil name. Therefore, Google is your friend; if you see Simmondsia Chinensis, this is really just jojoba oil.

Here’s How Beard Oil Will Help You Get Rid of That Dreaded Beard Itch

Just about every man that grows a beard after about one month will start to notice that it gets a bit itchy. While some beardsmen like to just “push through” this phase, this discomfort is completely unnecessary with the added use of beard oil.

To understand why your beard is getting itchy, it’s important to look at what is going on with the skin beneath your beard and how beard oil plays a role.

At the root of every one of your beard follicles, you have a pair of glands called sebaceous glands. These glands are key to making sure that your beard stays well-nourished. The sebaceous glands create this oil called sebum oil.

As your beard follicle gets longer, it simply requires more and more sebum oil to coat the follicle while also keeping your skin well-nourished and moisturized.

One important key to understand is that no matter the length of your beard, your sebaceous glands stay the same size. Given that they are finite in size, their sebum oil production can’t effectively keep up with the demand of your beard follicle.

No matter the length of your beard, sebum oil remains constant. Therefore, when your beard gets to a certain length (every man is different but typically after a few weeks of growth), their sebum oil just simply isn’t enough.

This is when your beard, and more importantly, your skin becomes dried out and itchy.

Therefore, the introduction of beard oil will actually act as a supplement to your sebum oil making the dreaded beard itch go away while also giving it the proper nourishment that it is seeking.

But Beard Itch is Only Half the Story. How Do You Get Rid of Beardruff?

As we covered above, when you slop on some beard oil to your beard, you are essentially splashing a much-needed bucket of water onto your face.

It literally is like an aftershave, only you didn’t shave at all!

When you don’t use any sort of beard oil on your skin for an extended period of time and are constantly itching it due to irritation, beardruff will be born.

Beardruff is essentially dandruff for your beard. Your skin is so dry that when you start to itch it, the skin begins to flake causing white specs of beardruff to show up on your shirt.

While we have been focusing a lot on your skincare with beard oil, it does actually help make your beard feel a lot softer while looking great as well:

Maintaining Your Beard Better with Beard Oil

When you slop on some beard oil, your beard will start to become a bit more maintained and less tangled.

Therefore, if your beard is feeling a bit scraggly or straw-like, regular application of beard oil will help in making it feel much better.

This regular use of beard oil will also help with the reduction of split-ends occurring. If you are taking your beard-growing seriously, the reduction of split-ends will be good news as you won’t have to trim your beard nearly as often.

In addition to the feel of your beard, the general appearance of itwill also improve with the introduction of beard oil.

The follicles of your beard will look a bit shinier and healthier.

Learning How To Apply Beard Oil

Applying beard oil is actually a pretty straightforward process.

In fact, you can just put about a dime-sized amount into the palm of your hand and rub it in from the base and work the way to the ends.

Once applied thoroughly, you will want to use one of the best beard combs for styling.

I’m Convinced: Now Where Do I Get Beard Oil?

Beard oil has gotten incredibly popular over the past couple of years. It seems as though every day there are new beard oil manufacturers popping up and selling some excellent quality oils.

If it’s your first-ever time picking up a beard oil, we recommend checking out an online marketplace given their low shipping costs and easy return policy that you may not be able to get if you order from a boutique vendor.

In addition, on Amazon, many of the most popular beard oil company brands do sell their flagship oils on there as well.

If you are looking for a bit of guidance on selecting your very first beard oil, we do recommend that you check out this epic post that we put together on determining what the best beard oil is.

Last but not least, if you are a hands-on kinda guy and are taking your beard growing seriously, you should check out this post on how to make your own beard oil.

Now as a word of caution, making your own beard oil isn’t for everybody. In fact, the upfront cost of making your own beard oil will be a bit more than actually buying beard oil off the shelf. However, just about with anything that you do yourself, the long term savings are going to be much higher than buying the retail beard oil every time (hint: about $5 an ounce for DIY beard oil vs $25 retail beard oil).

While The Benefits of Beard Oil Are Vast, What About Beard Balm?

This is a question that I get a lot!

You see why not ditch the oil and go straight for the beard balm?

Well, you can…in some instances.

If you make the plunge to get your very own beard balm you MUST make sure that it has conditioners.

Many men may think that beard wax is the same as a beard balm. However, these two products serve completely different cases.

If you want to enter into the annual World Beard and Moustache Championship, these guys are using beard wax heavily to form their beard into unique shapes.

Beard balm, however, does contain beeswax, but it also contains other key ingredients like carrier and essential oils (as does beard oil), along with the extra moisturizing agent shea or cocoa butter.

Therefore, you just need to be mindful of looking at the ingredients on the beard balm to make sure your beard isn’t losing out on any of the essential nutrients that it needs along with preventing beardruff.

Thinking about picking up a beard balm instead-but unsure which one to get? Be sure to check out our in-depth guide on selecting the very best beard balm.

Last But Not Least, Don’t Forget To Pick Up a Beard Comb or Brush

When first starting to use your beard comb or brush, many men may borrow a girlfriend or wife’s comb or just head to the corner drug store and pick up the cheapest one that they can find.

Unfortunately, these alternatives aren’t the best to use on your beard.

Instead, if you prefer a brush, you should pick up one that is made of boar’s hair bristle as this fiber does an excellent job in trapping in the carrier and essential oils and helping distribute them along the skin and beard follicles.

Beard combs, on the other hand, are terrific for styling purposes and not so much for the distribution of oils.Check out our review of the best beard brush here, and the review of the best beard comb here.