What is Beard Dry Oil?

Quick tip: Beard Dry Oil is a conditioning product made of a mixture of base oils for conditioning, essential oil for scent, and beeswax to make the product solid and offer you mild styling capabilities. The end result is a product designed to keep your beard healthy and looking great.

Beard Dry Oil is CanYouHandlebar’s premium beard balm. You are likely familiar with beard products on some level, and you may have even read our recent post asking (and answering) the question – what is beard oil? Now we’re back with another post designed to give you some more information on just what it is that you’re putting into your beard. As a producer of beard and moustache products, CanYouHandlebar wants to make sure you’re informed about the products you’re using on your beard. You take the time to cultivate your beard, so it makes sense that you would want to take the time to learn a little more about what you put into it.

Beard oil, with a twist

Simply put – our Beard Dry Oil is a premium hand-crafted beard oil, with a twist. Like traditional beard oils, Beard Dry Oil is a topical conditioner designed to keep your beard healthy and looking great. What makes this beard oil a “dry oil” is the addition of beeswax. We add just enough beeswax to make the Dry Oil (or balm, if you prefer), solid at room temperature.

Beeswax can help you style and train your beard

In addition to having the benefits of a traditional beard oil (read more about those in our post, "What is beard oil?"), the beeswax in the Beard Dry Oil offers hold that will help you to style your beard. The styling properties offered in the Beard Dry Oil are not the type to aggressively style your beard, but rather give you the ability to shape your beard for the day offering you a nice groomed look. Additionally, the beeswax will allow you to train your beard. As your beard gets longer, you may notice that the natural curve of your facial hair gives your beard an unruly appearance. Once you have applied the dry oil, either with your fingers or one of our Beard Oil Brushes (click here for tips on application), you can brush your beard in the direction you want your hairs to lie while using a hair dryer on a low heat setting. Repeating this process on a daily basis will train the hairs to lie the way you’d like.

The consistency of the Beard Dry Oil is thicker and slightly heavier than traditional beard oils. This can be beneficial to your beard in times where your beard is in need of extra conditioning. The beeswax works to give your facial hair an extra coating that helps hold in the oils longer which will in turn more fully condition your beard.

Our Beard Dry Oils are available in the same scents as our traditional oils, Wisdom, Initiative, and Classic (unscented). Regardless of which one you choose, our Beard Dry Oil will keep your beard conditioned and looking great throughout the entire day.

What is beard oil?

Quick Tip: Beard oil is a conditioning product made of a mixture of base oils for conditioning and essential oils for scent, designed to keep your beard healthy and looking great.

What is beard oil?

You may be new to the world of beard products, you may consider yourself an old pro. But outside of knowing that beard oil can help your beard look and feel better while also keeping it healthier, have you stopped to ask yourself – what is beard oil? As a producer of beard and moustache products, CanYouHandlebar wants to make sure you’re informed about the products you’re using on your beard. You take the time to cultivate your beard, so it makes sense that you would want to take the time to learn a little more about what you put into it.

Beard oil supplements what your body naturally produces

Beard oil is a conditioning product, but if that statement doesn’t tell you enough, think of beard products as a topical supplement designed to give your beard the things it needs to stay healthy and looking great. Daily life or an employment situation that doesn’t expose your beard to the elements can still wear on your beard. Even washing your beard, which is something we recommend of course (with a proper beard soap), can remove some of the oils that keep your beard healthy. So we offer beard oils to help fill in those gaps.

We care about what goes into our beard oils, and you should too

When we first introduced our oils to the CanYouHandlebar community, we wrote: “The base oil was designed to help your beard look great and maintain its health. The aroma is made of high quality essential oils with no cheap fillers. The attention to detail extends to the labeling. Knowing that your beard oil will likely be stored in your bathroom where water and small amounts of oil will get onto the label, we spent a little extra and used water- and oil-proof labels! Your oil will look as good from the day it arrives until you've used the last drop!”

Our beard oils will keep your beard healthy and looking great

With all beard oils, the base oil blend provides the conditioning aspects that keep your beard healthy and help tame it. With a properly produced beard oil, the scent comes only from essential oils, no fragrance oils and certainly nothing that includes alcohol as an ingredient as alcohol can quickly dry out your beard. After applying our beard oil (see more information on How to Apply Beard Oil here), you should notice that your beard looks better and smells great (unless you choose Temperance, our unscented beard oil). While the scent will fade gently throughout the day, the conditioning will not. Our beard oils will keep your beard conditioned as you go throughout your day.

Tip for entrepreneurs and idea people: how to get out of first gear

Long Version:

I have had a variation on this conversation with a few people recently and so I figured it might be helpful for some of you. Here is the scenario

1. You have lots of good ideas
2. You tell your friends about your good ideas
3. They say "yep, sounds like a good idea"
4. You feel a sense of satisfaction that you have a confirmed good idea
5. You get stalled and never ship that idea
6. You beat yourself because you have a habit of quitting as soon as you have solved it in your head

Deja Vu

Does this sound familiar? Perhaps a year or two later you see "your" idea in the marketplace and you poke your wife, husband or friend in the ribs and say , "remember when I thought of that?!" When I thought about starting CanYouHandlebar I felt like there was a gap in the market for a brand that was:

1. Upfront with ingredients. So many brands have proprietary mixes and I wanted to know what was in the wax that would invariably get in my mouth from time to time
2. Awesome at customer service. This was never meant to be a get rich quick business. It was meant to be built one relationship at a time and I give my customers the benefit of the doubt more than maybe I should. I tell the truth about when I have screwed up even when I could get away with bending the truth a little
3. Designed for people that appreciate a simpler time. If you don;t have any sense of nostalgia then my brand probably doesn't appeal to you. I miss the idea of living in a neighborhood where neighbors knew each other and smoking was healthy. I with we all could meet up every night at Cheers and grab a drink and catch up
4. Really high quality. I don;t cut corners I could cut that you'd never know the difference. I make stuff I am proud to wear and I am not the cheapest guy in town because of that. I think making something the right way is worth it for everyone.

So. That was my idea. I mulled it over for a year and filled pads of paper with notes and took lots of screen shots that inspired me. I also stalled. I found ways to put off important next steps and I got discouraged. Then I had the idea that got me out of first gear and eventually launch on November of 2012: I leveraged my own pride. I don't know if I read this from somewhere or made it up myself. I just knew that if I could force myself into a situation where my pride was threatened enough I would follow through. First, I paid for a logo before I even had my recipe down for my first two waxes. That got me going for a couple weeks. When I felt myself stalling again, I bought 10 pounds of lanolin that I sat on my desk as a reminder that I was "all-in" as far as my ego was concerned. What was I going to do with that much lanolin if I didn't follow through? I know that lanolin would haunt me unless I sold enough wax to get rid of it. That did the trick for me.

Short Version:

If you have doubt, laziness or anxiety keeping you from following your dream, put your pride on the line and you'll be amazed how your mind goes from noisy to focused. I hope this Wisdom helps you take Initiative!

How to apply beard oil

Instructions:

As with most things, there is more than one way to apply Beard Dry Oil and Traditional Beard Oil. Master beardsman, Andy Pokorski shows us his method for applying beard oils to his award winning beard. Included below are written instructions and videos to help you on your bearded journey! First things first, in order to apply beard oil and use your Beard Care Kit, you will need to own one! Here is where you can pick the best Beard Care Kit for your needs. Here is where you can pick up a world class Kent beard comb. We made some videos that cover beard and moustache care, over here.

1. First, check out the videos! to see master beardsman Andy cover beard and moustache care
2. Get out your CanYouHandlebar oil: Open your new CanYouHandlebar beard oil and set it aside
3. Oil your brush: Gently twist your beard oil brush on top of your Dry Oil and twist a quarter turn or so. If you are using a traditional beard oil, add a nickel sized dollop to the center of the brush
4. Condition the front: Start on one side and brush the Dry Oil down into the beard from the sideburns. Move on to the middle and other side.
5. Condition the back: Now, make sure you brush oil onto the underside of your beard.
6. Optional comb through: If you’d like you can comb your beard out to ensure total coverage. If you do this comb your beard horizontally and then finish by combing down and out into the final shape
7. Optional hand sculpting: If you’d like, grab the outside of your beard and stroke your manly beard into its final stately form.
8. Not optional: Admire your birthright in the mirror and each time you see the branded question mark, ask yourself what you need to do to be the sort of man you want to be.

Should I get Beard Dry Oil or Traditional Beard oils?

Taking care of a beard is like taking the tire off a bicycle.

When I was about eight years old I decided my bike wheel needed to come off so I flipped my bike upside down and attacked the nuts that held the wheel to the frame with a Crescent wrench and a hammer because the threads were too tight for my little sausage fingers. My dad noticed what I was about to do but couldn't stop me in time. I managed to practically weld the nut to the shaft by cross threading it something fierce. What I learned was any time it occurred to me to grab a hammer to finish a job, I should probably also ask for some advice. (By the way, I was without a bike for a whole summer as a result of my "creative" approach to bike repair!).

Use the right tool for the job.

Suffice to say, I am now a big fan of using the right tool for the job. It helps if you have a good toolkit. For beards, this means having a traditional beard oil and a beard balm of some sort. My beard balm is called "Beard Dry Oil." It is also a good idea to have a high quality beard comb, a brush for shaping your beard and a Beard Oil Brush for application. With these tools, you are ready for anything. That said, you may not need everything at once. Since I have a year old beard and use both a traditional oil as well as Dry Oil. If you are buying a gift or want to know what to start with, here are some tips for picking the right product.

For shorter beards (or for more control)

In general, a Beard Dry Oil is best for beards younger than a couple months or for when you want a little more control. A beard balm style oil adds a little volume and really helps control "fly aways." In particular I use Beard Dry Oil for my sideburns or whenever I have slept on my beard and I have a bad case of "bed beard," or whenever I just want to have a sculpted look like Santa had in A Miracle of 34th Street. The way Beard Dry Oil works is that it contains a little beeswax and lanolin and provides a little structure. While it is mainly designed for shorter beards and touch-ups, it can be used as a daily oil, even on longer beards. Case in point, Brian Furby the beard expert from the beard and moustache product review site TitleBeard has a year old beard (aka "Yeard") and uses Dry Oil daily. He likes it because it provides the control he desires.

For longer beards (or for for shine without hold)

As my beard has gotten longer, I have come to really appreciate traditional liquid beard oils. These oils provide great hair health properties, add a really nice shine to my beard and smell awesome. Most folks I talk to with more than a few months growth prefer liquid oils because the Beard Dry Oil can weigh down longer beards if that is all that is used. Some guys like to use Beard Dry Oil and traditional oils together for maximum control over the way their beard behaves since they can use as much of each type of oil as they like. There really isn't a right or wrong when it comes to beard oils, just what works best for your beard and how your beard is behaving on a given day.

Getting the right tool for your beard!

Like I mentioned earlier, it is good to have the right tools for the job! My guess is that curiosity will get the best of you and you'll want both eventually. If you buy both at the same time you save on shipping! :} The good news is that the Beard Oil Brush works great with either type of oil. You can buy just about any combination of beard care kit that you want, including getting a Beard Oil Brush, a Beard Dry Oil and Traditional Oil by using the pull-down option on that product page. Now, you'll be ready for anything!

Why Use Beard Oil

History of beards

When I tell people what I do I am often asked, “why does a person need a beard oil?” The reason may not be obvious at first. Until recently, mankind didn’t bathe everyday or so and the oils from our sweat made it into our beards and kept them looking pretty swell. These days we need to replace the oils we lose down the shower drain by adding good oils back to the hair every day or two.

Hair cannot be repaired

Having a beard can make a man feel very alive. However, strictly speaking, all of that hair is dead and despite what you might have heard you cannot repair damaged hair. All you can do is keep it from getting brittle and splitting to begin with. Hair that is well maintained will look good several years after it has left the follicle. Several of the guys I know with amazing beards recommend washing the hair with shampoo around once a week and using a conditioner.

Applying beard oil

After towel drying (avoid heat from hair dryers if possible), a little beard oil will make the beard look good, smell good and stay in good working order for years. A good beard oil brush will help get that oil all the way into the hair and massage the skin too. CanYouHandlebar offers a handsome and very useful beard oil brush!