How Much Beard Oil to Use, and How to Put It On

Start with two or three drops on a short beard and add a drop at a time as it grows. Put it on when your beard is damp after a wash, warm it between your palms, then work it into the skin underneath first and out through the hair after that. Once a day is the usual baseline, and you leave it in. If your beard starts to look slick or the hairs clump together, you've used too much, so drop back.

That covers most of it. I blend Stuga beard oil to order in Moss Vale from sweet almond, macadamia and apricot kernel oil with vitamin E. I also keep a beard myself, growing it out and then trimming it back, and I keep the routine simple and straightforward. The rest of this page is the detail behind those few lines, for when you want it.

How many drops for your beard

Every drop count you'll find online comes from a brand's own house rule, and they don't all agree. What they share is the rule underneath: start small and add. Beardbrand's length table is the clearest version:

- Under 1 inch: 2 to 3 drops, daily - 1 to 3 inches: 3 to 6 drops, daily - 3 to 6 inches: 6 to 8 drops, once or twice a day - 6 to 9 inches: 8 to 10 drops - Longer than that: as many as you need

The long end is where the advice spreads out. For a beard past about three inches, Beardbrand says six to eight drops, while WhollyKaw says ten to fifteen. Healthline gives three to five drops as a plain everyday amount. So use the numbers to get started, then adjust by how your beard looks and feels.

If you've only got stubble, or just a moustache, stay at the very bottom of the range. There's less hair to cover, so there's less for the oil to do.

Should beard oil go on wet or dry?

Damp. Not dripping, and not bone dry either. WhollyKaw explains it well: water sitting in the beard stops the oil spreading, and dry skin takes it up unevenly. The easy moment is straight after a shower, once you've given your beard a quick towel off.

If you haven't showered, run wet hands through your beard first so it's damp rather than dry, then put the oil on.

How to put it on

Drip the oil into your palm, rub your hands together to warm it, and work it into the skin under the beard first. Then draw your fingers down and out through the hair. Healthline suggests a downward motion over the whole beard, and on a long or thick beard, a comb through afterwards spreads it evenly. Beardbrand and Live Bearded give the same order: skin first, then hair.

Starting with the skin makes sense once you know what the oil is for. It conditions the hair and the skin under it, and the skin is the part people often miss.

Morning or night, and how often

Daily is the usual baseline. Healthline says to try anywhere between every day and every other day and see what suits you. Beardbrand says daily at minimum, and more than once a day for a long beard, coarse hair, dry skin or a dry climate.

As for when, WhollyKaw recommends mornings as the default, because the skin under a beard is at its driest after a night of moisture evaporating. They suggest morning and evening only for very dry skin, cold climates or new beards. If you live somewhere dry, or your skin is, a drop more or a second go in the evening is worth trying.

How long do you leave it on? You don't rinse it off. It stays in until your next wash.

Signs you've used too much (or too little)

WhollyKaw lists the signs of overdoing it: the beard looks slick or stringy, the hairs clump instead of moving freely, and breakouts appear in the beard area within two or three days. The fix is simple. Drop back a drop, or, if you have oily skin or a short beard, go every other day.

The other way round, if the skin under your beard still feels dry, add a drop or try twice a day.

If you use balm as well

Oil first, then balm. The wax in balm sits on top of the beard and blocks any oil you put on after it. Give the oil a moment to sink in before the balm goes on. Stuga's own Grooming Duo post says a minute, and WhollyKaw says five to ten minutes, so anywhere in there works.

Stuga's balm does the same conditioning job as the oil and adds hold and shape, which comes from the beeswax and shea butter. You only need a small amount on top of the oil. If you're still working out whether you need oil, balm or both, I've covered that in Beard Oil vs Beard Balm.

Regular, double or triple?

Stuga beard oil and balm both come in three scent strengths: regular, double and triple. The oil base is the same across the range, and the only difference between them is the scent. That means everything above about drops, damp beards and timing applies to all three.

The downsides worth knowing

The main one is allergies. Healthline's advice is to never use a beard oil that contains something you're allergic to. Hives, itching, burning or redness are the signs to watch for. Stuga's oil is sweet almond, macadamia and apricot kernel with vitamin E, and every strength also carries a scent, so those oils aren't the only thing to check. Read the full ingredient list on the label, and patch test a little on a small area of skin before you use it all over. If anything on that list gives you trouble, it isn't the oil for you. Healthline also warns against putting undiluted essential oil straight onto your skin.

Also, beard oil hasn't been scientifically shown to make a beard grow. It looks after the beard and skin you've already got. I've written more on that in Does Beard Oil Actually Grow Your Beard?

If you're buying it for someone else

Here's the short version to pass on: two or three drops on a damp beard after a shower, skin first then hair, and add a drop if it still feels dry. That's enough to get anyone started, whatever length their beard is. You'll find Stuga Beard Oil here, blended fresh to order.

For the whole routine of washing, oiling, combing and trimming, see 4 Steps to a Healthier Beard.