Every beardsman wants full, healthy facial hair. There are countless products on the market that promise to grow and thicken beards, but what about that baby oil you already have in the medicine cabinet for your child? Will baby oil promote faster beard growth?
Baby oil will undoubtedly help repair and foster beard hair, but it will only marginally help faster growth. Nonetheless, baby oil is an acceptable substitute for products marketed specifically for beards. A high-quality, plant-based baby oil will improve your facial hair’s appearance and durability.
Choosing the right baby oil to encourage an attractive beard means learning the pros and cons of certain oil types. Here are some insights to guide your search.
Benefits of Baby Oil over Beard-Specific Products
If you’re interested in growing and maintaining a robust beard, you have no doubt found that beard oil is a useful tool. Oil structures unruly hair, creates a pleasing luster and scent, and heals both beard hair and its underlying skin. It also prevents dryness and skin flaking.
In short, you’re not really caring for your beard if you aren’t applying oil on a regular basis.
Yet, with so many high-end, beard-specific products on the market, you might wonder if using baby oil means going with a cheap, less effective route. That is not the case at all. In fact, baby oil has many benefits to recommend it over oils that are specifically sold to the hirsute-faced gentlemen. For example:
- Baby oil is markedly less expensive than pretty much all beard oil.
- Baby oil is excellent for moisturizing skin.
- Baby oil is generally free of agents that can clog pores and stifle hair growth.
- If you (or your partner) aren’t a fan of cedar, patchouli, and pine-needle, baby oil imparts a much milder scent.
On the other hand, no product is perfect. Baby oil is not designed as a styling tool. While it might partly tame your wild beard hair, you won’t find the same shaping capabilities you get in beard oil or balm.
Choosing the Right Baby Oil for Your Beard
Not all baby oil is created the same, so men need to look closely at the ingredients that go into their product. Natural ingredients are always preferable to lanolin-heavy chemicals.
For example, the most common baby oil on the market, Johnson’s, is petroleum-based. This makes it free from impurities and also free of many nutrients necessary to repair and feed your follicles. Petroleum-based baby oils – and hybrid oils containing a large quantity of petroleum – might offer some slight styling and moisturizing help, but they won’t do anything to promote hair health or growth.
For real beard-growing benefits, you need to use a natural, plant-based baby oil derived from coconut and jojoba oil. These oils promote strong, rich facial hair and soothe the sometimes under-attended skin below your beard. In fact, they are common carrier ingredients for beard oil.
So, when you are at the store looking for a baby oil to pamper the thicket on your face, pay attention to what is in the product. A plant-based, low-petroleum oil is best for your beard. It is also better for your baby’s skin!
Expectations for Beard Growth with Baby Oil
Encouraging fast, durable beard growth is a multi-front war. There are plenty of factors that can inhibit growth. They could include stress, diet, washing routines, sleep patterns, and even climate.
Oil is only one front in this war. Many beardsmen are convinced that tenderly brushing beard oil into their facial hair is the key to fast growth. That’s not surprising. Doesn’t it kind of feel like you’re coaxing the hair along when you massage oil into it? And doesn’t the resulting shimmery mane look like your beard has grown more quickly?
Unfortunately, neither beard oil nor baby oil is a silver bullet for faster beard growth. The plant-based nutrients you impart via natural baby oil also need to be combined with a diet rich in protein, fruits, and vegetables. Regular sleep patterns and frequent exercise are as important as a high-quality grooming product.
Faster beard growth requires a holistic approach involving diet, exercise, regular sleep, as well as a concerted wash and oil plan. You should consider baby oil to be just one item in your toolbox. If you combine it with the other variables mentioned above, you will find that your beard grows faster and fuller.
Baby Oil Usage Tips for Beardsmen
As with beard oil, the best time to apply baby oil is after a nice hot shower. You can also add it after washing your beard over a sink. The important thing is that your beard is clean.
However, you need to make sure to dry your face so that your beard is just damp, not soaking wet. Remember that adage about water and oil not mixing?
Pour a few drops onto your fingers, and massage the oil into your mostly-dry beard. Be sure to hit both the beard itself and your face beneath. Both need conditioning and moisturizing, and both will benefit from the baby oil. If you have a beard brush in your personal grooming kit, this would be an excellent time to bust it out!
As stated earlier, baby oil is not ideal for shaping uncooperative beards. However, a bit of brushing with baby oil will provide some structure. It will also work out and kinks and tangles that might have developed since your last application.
Beardsmen invariably find that their facial hair looks cleaner, healthier, and more luxurious after incorporating either beard oil or baby oil. For lasting benefits, you should apply these oils twice daily, once in the morning and once before going to bed at night. The cumulative effect – both in appearance and in beard development – will be undeniable.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, regular applications of baby oil can yield a more handsome, robust-looking beard with a fine sheen. Baby oil reduces tangles and bare spots, and it provides a pleasant, but not overpowering, aroma. A natural baby oil derived from coconut or jojoba also contains nutrients necessary to bolster and repair facial hair.
However, it is important to measure expectations for how fast your beard will develop. There’s no such thing as Miracle-Gro for your face! So, for all the benefits of using baby oil, you can’t count on it to make your beard grow faster all by itself.
For tips and best practices for promoting beard growth, check out our prior articles on natural supplements and serums.