Both beard balm and beard oil are used to take care of your facial hair and make sure that it’s looking healthy and attractive. Just as we take care of the hair on our head, it’s important to take care of our facial hair too to ensure that years from now it still looks great. There are so many different beard products out there these days and so it’s more important than ever to do you research and to understand what each product contains and how it works. Beard balm and beard oils are similar in their ingredients and so distinguishing between the two can be difficult for someone who doesn’t understand the industry or the products. Hopefully, this article will be able to explain the difference between the products and suggest which might be better for you to use.
Beard Oil
As you’d expect, beard oil is a liquid at room temperature. You’ll often find it in small glass vials that come with a usual pipette to drip the liquid from. The purpose of beard oil is usually to relieve dry and flakey skin that can make the hair look almost like dandruff. The oil helps to condition your facial hair and because it’s a liquid it can get all the way through to the skin on your face. Beard oil normally contains one or more essential oils that are beneficial to your skin and the hair itself. For example; jojoba oils, organ oils, aloe vera. It is often fragranced which a manly scent like sandalwood or pine.
Beard Balm
Beard balm has much the same ingredients that beard oils do, the main difference is that beard balm contains beeswax and shea butter , this makes it into a solid balm instead of an oil. This means that you can use the wax to style your beard instead of just nourish it. Beard balms are normally only used by men who have longer beards that are long enough to be styled or have the need to be formed into a more professional look. This is normally once the hair passes 2 inches in length. Any shorter than this and it’s tough to style it, you might as well use a beard oil instead. Some beard balms contain synthetic petroleum jelly rather than beeswax and shea butter, for some people this petroleum jelly can be irritating . Beard balm is very thick and rich, you don’t need to use a lot to get the benefits that you desire.
Which Should You Use? Beard Balm vs Beard Oil
Beard oils are generally used by those people who wish to look after the hair and prevent the skin from drying out and becoming flaky. Balms are used if you wish to style the hair slightly. They aren’t as strong as a wax or a gel, but a balm can give you a bit of flexibility to style the hair, whilst also keeping it healthy and nourished. You could, of course, use both an oil and a balm. Some men will use the oil after the shower, massaging it into the beard and then after it has dried they’ll apply a balm to condition and style their facial hair. This gives you the best of both worlds and ensures that the hair is thoroughly cared for.
Conclusion: Beard Oil vs Balm
Overall, beard oils and balms are quite similar. The set of ingredients are often identical, except for the beeswax and shea butter that makes the balm solid rather than a liquid. The main benefit of balm over an oil is that you can use is to manipulate the hair into a style, whereas the oil is too thin to be able to style facial hair. If you do choose to use both, which we suggest, then you should make sure that the oil and balm have different essential oils. This way, you can get the benefits from different ingredients. You might also want to consider the conflicting scents, either choose a balm and oil that have similar scents, or choose one that doesn’t have any scent at all.
