For most men, their facial hair ( a beard) is one of their most prized facial features. Different tastes exist and as a result, not everyone lets theirs grow out.
But if you let it grow out, or plan to, you must do things right. When letting your beard grow out, you should form a habit of grooming it. This will help achieve the best texture, length, and color.
A variety of grooming techniques and methods are in existence today. However, one thing remains constant across all these techniques and methods. And that is the use of beard oil or balm in the grooming process. More commonly, we use one of the two, it doesn’t mean we can’t use both together.
You might be wondering what difference exists between both. Well, there isn’t a world of difference between both, but then a difference exists. The beard balm contains the same type of oil present in beard oils. But it goes a step further with some of its additional ingredients being beeswax, cocoa butter, and shea butter. These ingredients are their primary base.
Why Chemical Based Oil And Balms Are Bad For You
In selecting what beard balm or beard oil brand to use, a factor that should help in determining your choice is the ingredients of the balm or oil. If you intend to give your beard an A+ outlook and still maintain your skin health and general well being, then it is very important to make sense of the ingredients of these products.
To help you make sense of these ingredients, it is important to know what exactly to avoid. Summarily, I’d say avoid chemical-based oils and balms. Why? It’s simple – when we apply the oil or balm, some of the applied content comes in contact with the skin and it gets absorbed.
What goes into the body is very important. Due to the presence of chemicals within the product, it can pose damage to the skin.
Harmful Effects Of Chemical Based Products
Sadly, more products than less, contain harmful ingredients. We can classify these ingredients into four classes. Namely Sulphates, Phthalates, Paraffin or Petroleum Jelly or Mineral Oil and Formaldehyde. These might seem harmless but that’s far from reality. Concerns associated with these ingredients are;
- The stripping of the beard and skin of their vital moisture and sebum (the oily secretion from the sebaceous glands) that helps lubricate the skin.
- Messed up hormonal levels (this can spiral out and lead to infertility).
- Decreased sperms count
- Abnormal sexual development
- Birth defects
- Allergic contact dermatitis
- Heart palpitations
- Dizziness
- Cancer
- And hair loss (quite ironic isn’t it?)
The Right Choice Of Beard Oil
Looking at the above, those are a lot of health problems from just one tiny balm or oil. So how do you guard against buying products with these four ingredients? What things do you look out for when you go beard balm shopping?
Some of the terms to look out for when making a purchase are – Petroleum Jelly of any kind, Formaldehyde, DMP (dimethyl phthalate). DBP (di-n-butyl phthalate), DEP (diethyl phthalate), DEHP (di-(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate or bis (2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate). And BzBP (benzyl butyl phthalate), Sodium lauryl sulfate, or sodium Laureth sulfate.
You have taken note of these terms, the harmful effects present in most of these products, and all that stuff. Next on your mind must be what replacement product to use on grooming those full beards sitting pretty on your face. Since most of the products have one or more of these harmful ingredients. The answer is simple and direct. Go natural! What does that even mean?
Well, the next best thing is all-natural beard care products. These products do not contain those harmful ingredients and they are made from things found in nature; things like beeswax, jojoba oil, shea butter, etc.
All-natural beard balms contain Vitamin E. This vitamin serves as a protectant to the skin and also helps with giving the beards a healthy outlook. In addition to their pleasant scents, they are environmentally friendly and can keep the beards from itching.
These natural products promote beard growth, they condition the skin and beard, they prevent the clogging of pores on the skin. And moisturize the beard all without creating health risks. Work with nature to get the best out of that beard today!
