Beard Oil

Beard hair is coarser than the hair on your head, and the skin underneath doesn't make enough oil to keep up with it. Left alone the beard goes dry and wiry, the skin beneath gets tight and flaky, and around week two it starts to itch, which is the point most blokes give up and shave it off.

Beard oil replaces what the skin can't make. It softens coarse hair root to tip, hydrates the skin underneath, and stops the itch and the flaking that comes with it. What it does not do is grow hair: nothing applied to the surface adds follicles. The honest version is here: does beard oil actually grow your beard.

• Sandalwood • Black Pepper • Lime: the one most people start with. Warm sandalwood with a bit of bite. Suits nearly anyone, works all year.
• Silver Birch • Bergamot • Forest Cassis: brighter and greener. The lighter option if sandalwood feels heavy.
• Cedar Wood • Amber • Orange Peel: dry cedar over warm amber with a citrus lift. The polished one.
• Tobacco Leaf • Guaiac Wood • Spiced Plum: dried tobacco with smoke, spice and dark plum underneath. The richest, and the one for cold weather.
• Wild Fig • Sea Salt • Vetiver: coastal and a little salty. Best in warm weather.
• Unscented: same oils, no fragrance. For sensitive skin, or for wearing under a perfume.

Every one of these scents also exists as a perfume, a balm and a wash block, so your beard doesn't have to argue with what you're wearing.

Most beard oils give you one fragrance level and you live with it. Regular sits quietly and is the right choice if you wear a fragrance on top. Double is where most people land. Triple is for a full beard, which swallows scent, or for anyone who wants to still smell it at 4pm.

The oils underneath are identical at every strength. Only the fragrance load changes.

The smallest bottle is a few months of daily use on a short-to-medium beard, and it's the right place to start if you're trying a scent for the first time. Move up once you know what you like. The bigger bottles are considerably cheaper per millilitre, and because we blend to order they're just as fresh.

Sweet almond and macadamia for softening, apricot kernel because it absorbs fast and doesn't leave a shine, vitamin E to keep the blend stable. Australian oils where they're available, from Australian suppliers. No silicones, no mineral oil, no fillers to pad the bottle out.

Carrier oils go rancid slowly, and most beard oil on a shelf here was blended months or years ago in bulk. Yours is mixed when you order it, labelled by hand, and posted from Moss Vale, NSW. Nothing is white-labelled, nothing is decanted from someone else's drum.

Three to five drops into the palm depending on beard length, warm it between your hands, then work it in from the skin outward. The skin underneath is what needs it, not the ends. Once a day after a shower, while the hair is warm and slightly damp, is plenty. Twice if your beard is long or the weather is dry.

Oil goes on first. A beard balm goes over the top for shape and hold: oil conditions, balm styles. Not sure which you need? Read beard oil vs beard balm.

The itch at week two to four is what ends most beards, and it's dry skin rather than the hair. Oil daily through that stage and you'll get to the point where it's worth judging. The full timeline, the three month rule, and what to do about patchy bits: how to grow a beard. Not sure what shape to grow? The beard styles picker matches one to your face.

The bottle on its own is the right buy if you already have a comb and a balm you like, or you want to try a scent before committing to the set. The beard grooming kit pairs the oil with a scent-matched balm, a wooden comb and a caddy to keep them together. The complete beard kit adds the wash and a matching fragrance and comes boxed as a gift. Both kits use the same oil, in the scent you choose.

A beard wash block cleans without stripping the oils you've just put in. A wooden comb distributes the oil evenly and won't build static the way plastic does. Want the long version? Read our guide to the best beard oil in Australia.