No More Beard Conditioner!
First let’s get on the same page about what I mean when I say “conditioner”. I am referring to an in-shower conditioner. Similar to what you would use in your standard shampoo/condition routine on your mop up top. I am NOT referring to a beard balm or beard butter product which would be considered a leave-in conditioning agent.
So…why no more beard conditioner?
Several months ago as my beard started to re-enter what I refer to as the “off the chin” phase, I started re-thinking my beard grooming needs. Ok if I’m being honest I just wanted more beard stuff, lol! Some guys hunt, some guys fish, I take care of my beard. I’d never really used a beard wash or conditioner before so I thought I better change that.
I bought a well-known brand and began to use on a regular basis, about 2 or 3 times a week. It had a great smell and it was yet another product I could use in my man mane, so all in all I was a happy camper. About 3 weeks in I started to notice a sensation on my chin. Being kind of oblivious to that sort of thing (or maybe that’s just being a guy) I didn’t bother looking at it for another week or two. By this time there was no ignoring the sensation. When I parted and peered through my chin whiskers I saw some very red, very angry skin beneath.
I’ve always had mildly sensitive skin but this was new. I’m not the type to run to a doctor unless we’re at the amputation stage so that night I decided to start an aggressive beard oil treatment to see if it would help the skin condition. For the next 7 days I applied beard oil in the morning and a LOT before bed. After a week skin starting peeling off my chin in layers as thick as a dime, it was crazy!
I couldn’t figure out what had caused the reaction until I saw this video from Dan C Bearded (if you don’t know Dan C Bearded he is the trusted teacher for all things beard, highly recommend checking him out on YouTube. He puts out some very good content including the video I linked to). As I learned from the teach, conditioner seals and coats your hair and when applied too liberally (as I was doing) can create a similar seal on your skin, trapping whatever grit and grime may be there. Lightbulb moment.
To be clear, in his video Dan provides instruction for best application and use of beard conditioner which is very important, especially if are currently using a beard conditioner.
I however, am going one step further (or maybe a couple steps) and challenge the need for any conditioner at all. After my enlightenment, I went way down the rabbit hole on the differences in beard hair (androgen), head hair (terminal) and just hair in general. Follow me for a second and then we’ll wrap this up.
You wash your beard right? By it’s nature, whatever soap/wash you used just stripped some (maybe a LOT) of the natural oils from your hair. Then we apply a conditioner to seal the hair? What are we sealing in? We’re maybe doing a bit of damage repair but then the hair is sealed so good luck replacing any of the lost oil with a leave-in conditioner.
I’ll do a deep dive into this in my next post on beard product application. When to apply product and why.
Until then…
