“You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion”.
G.K. Chesterton
Although I have long admired this notion, only recently has the statement come to carry any real meaning for me, because finally I’m growing a beard and in deed I can tell you, it is not something that happens quickly, after only two weeks I am already resigned to the fact that I’ve entered a marathon, not a sprint.
A small disclaimer; I have an ulterior motive to this little flight of fancy, in that for many months people have been asking the Triumph & Disaster team about a beard oil; why don’t we have one? When will we do one? My answers have always been vague.
The reason for this is that I do not understand beard oils. Moisturizers I get, cleansers and scrubs I get. I even get toners, but beard oil has always felt, well, a bit gimmicky. And we don’t want to make gimmicks. However after months of watching the proliferation of branded beard oils, I thought the very least I should do is grow a beard and try to understand this phenomenon before disregarding it entirely. After all maybe I’m wrong; maybe beard oil is an essential piece of kit for those bearded grizzlies that walk amongst us.
So over the next few weeks or perhaps months, I will grow the best beard I can muster, it will no doubt be sprinkled with grey, which at least will serve to hide the ginger. I do not expect it to be a keeper.
Before I start let me outline the two main questions I have about beard oils;
Firstly, skin is a multifaceted organ, at Triumph & Disaster we have through study, expertise, personal experience and trial and error worked out an ethos and routine that is founded on science and drives the way we design our products. We know that the hair follicle is an easy access point for toxins to enter the body, as the base of a hair follicle penetrates deep into the subcutaneous layer of the skin and can act like a highway into our blood stream. So what we put on our hair (perhaps even more so than our skin) needs to be treated with care, this is the same reason I strongly believe in using gentle, natural shampoos. So when we apply a beard oil what is it we are setting out to do? Are we trying to treat the skin, the beard, or both and can this be achieved effectively and safely?
Secondly when I look at the ingredients of many beard oils, I feel like they are exactly that, oils, so won’t they not make my skin oily? I imagine given the extra levels of naturally occurring keratin due to the growth of the beard itself that adding even more oil would be like tipping petrol on a fire. On this point I could be wrong and I will provide feedback as we go on this very issue, perhaps the skin acts differently when covered with hair, perhaps the oil adds something unexpected. But to me the concept of adding oil to hair makes little sense, I do not add oil to what hair I have on my head, why put it on my face?
The fact is many people use and believe in the benefits of beard oil, so it must do something, what I’m setting out to do is learn what. I hope that in answering my own questions and documenting the process it will give some insight into the best way to treat a beard and the skin beneath it. So here we go, let the cards fall where they may and let the growing begin.
