A great beard takes time, effort and some shea butter!
If you are looking for a natural ingredient that’s quick and easy to apply to help you cultivate the perfect beard, you need to read this guide to using shea butter on your beard.
Whether you want a product that’ll ease the itchiness when growing a beard, moisturize your beard or help create the optimal environment for beard growth, shea butter can help.
Below, I describe what shea butter is, the benefits of using shea butter on your beard, whether it can help with beard growth and exactly how to use shea butter for beard maximum benefit.
What Is Shea Butter?
Shea butter is a popular ingredient in beard balms as well as skin and beauty care, but to understand what shea butter is, you need to understand how it is made and where it comes from.
Shea butter is a natural product which is made from fat extracted from shea seeds. Shea trees are native to West Africa. Fruit grows on these trees and within the fruit are the shea seeds inside shells.
There are quite a few steps to making shea butter though. First of all, these seeds are removed and dried out.
At this point, there are two main methods for making shea butter. One method requires high-heat and chemical solvents and makes what is called refined shea butter. This is the cheapest and easiest type of shea butter to produce but, unfortunately, most nutrients are lost in the shea butter when it is produced this way. This means it’s not the best choice to use this type of shea butter in beard.
Other methods use processes that don’t have high heat or chemicals involved. This produces unrefined or raw shea butter. Most nutrients are retained in this type of shea butter making it preferable for skin and hair products.
Read more about the differences between refined and unrefined (or raw) shea butter here.
This process is often done by hand. It starts by taking the dried shea seeds and grinding them into a powder. This is then roasted.
Next, this roasted powder is ground again to form a viscous substance. This is then kneaded while adding water. It is then whipped while adding more water which forces the oils to come to the surface and coagulate.
The oils are then removed and boiled to find any impurities (which will rise to the top) and to remove any remaining water.
Finally, this is strained and left to cool to form shea butter.
Benefits Of Using Shea Butter For Beard
Raw shea butter is nutrient rich, full of vitamins and fatty acids which can be great for your beard.
When you apply shea butter, it forms a protective coating while hydrating underneath making it great for both hair and the skin beneath your beard.
Here are some of the benefits of using shea butter on your beard:
- Shea butter moisturizes and hydrates your skin under your beard
- Shea butter moisturizes and hydrates the hair in your beard
- Shea butter has anti-inflammatory properties which is great for any rashes or itchiness on your skin
- Shea butter can protect your skin from cold and hot weather damage
- Shea butter soothes and softens the skin and can “fill in” any gaps in your skin making it great for shaving
- The fatty acids in shea butter can help damaged hair in your beard and repair it. It also helps with split ends
- Shea butter can help dandruff, eczema or dermatitis
- Shea butter can soften your beard
Basically, shea butter has many healing and hydrating qualities for your beard.
To get as many benefits as possible from applying shea butter on your beard, make sure you use
Raw Shea Butter For Beard Growth?
There is no evidence that shea butter will help your beard grow faster. However, the extra nutrients shea butter adds and its repairing properties all help your beard be as healthy as possible.
This creates the optimal environment for beard growth so using shea butter on your beard should only help your beard grow well.
Exactly How To Use Shea Butter On Beard
You can use shea butter by itself on your beard or you can use it mixed with other ingredients in a beard balm, oil, wash or shea butter beard kit.
Shea butter is an ingredient in many popular beard products.
To use it by itself, simply take some shea butter into the palm of your hand and rub it between your hands until it softens and melts.
Then apply it to your beard and skin in a circular motion. You do not need to use much.
Shea Butter Beard Balm
You have two choices here; you can make your own beard balm or buy one.
To make your own is quite easy – simply combine two parts
You need to melt these ingredients together, mix and let set. You can then apply this shea butter beard balm in the same way as described above for shea butter.
Or you can buy vanilla beard balm. This balm contains shea butter as well as oils that’ll help moisturize and protect your beard giving you the benefits discussed above.
It also has a great smell and will help you style your beard.
Shea Butter Beard Oil
Beard oil is made specifically to care for your beard. You simply need to apply a few drops after washing and drying your beard making it a super easy way to keep your beard hydrated and healthy.
SheaMoisture Beard Conditioning Oil contains all the benefits of shea butter with maracuja oil to condition and keep your beard healthy and soft with a nice smell.
Shea Butter Beard Wash
Shea butter also works great in a beard wash to cleanse and moisturize your beard without drying it out.
This beard wash also combines shea butter with maracuja oil – this time in a lightweight gel cleanser to clean and refresh your beard while moisturizing and protecting it. Working like a shampoo, you apply it and then wash it out.
Conclusion
I hope you found this guide to exactly how to use shea butter on beards (and why) useful. Shea butter is a great ingredient that can help you cultivate the perfect beard.
Click here to read about using almond oil on your beard, here for using shea butter on curly hair, for stretch marks here or here for all our shea butter guides.
Comments are closed.