I like essential oils. I add them to a homemade beard balm to make my face smell nice all day. I like prescription drugs, too. Weird to mention those two in the same sentence, but OK.
There are plenty of essential oils that smell really nice, and are nice to have in soaps or candles or whatever, but I just can’t bring myself to give money to any of the companies that make them cause they all support crazies and pseudoscience. If there’s a company that doesn’t, I’d love to hear about it.
Is beard balm like Dapper Dan hair wax?
“I don’t want FOP, goddammit. I’m a Dapper Dan man.”
What else is in your beard balm?
Coconut oil and beeswax. Keep it simple. I used to add jojoba oil and other carrier oils, but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
Equal ratio?
3:2 wax to coconut oil for more hold in summer, 1:1 in the winter.
Final question: will my cat lick my beard even more fervently if I try this?
Is that a desired effect? You can use catnip or essence of tuna.
No.
Do you mind sharing your recipe for the beard balm and how much oil you use in a batch?
Ingredients:
3 oz beeswax
2 oz coconut oil
1 tsp essential oil or beard oilIn a double boiler, melt coconut oil and wax.
Stir until thoroughly mixed.
Remove from heat and allow the mixture to begin to cool.
Before the melted mixture begins to solidify, add essential oil and stir thoroughly.
Pour into containers and allow the mixture to harden.To use, scrape a pea-sized amount with the back of your thumbnail, and rub it between your palms to melt.
Rub the melted wax into your beard, starting at the follicles and comb through with your fingers.
Shape and style as desired.
Reapply as needed.Sure, I do roughly 3:2 ratio of beeswax and coconut oil by weight. I have a long, curly beard and a long mustache, so I like to have a little bit of hold to it. My beard is naturally soft, so it doesn’t really get scratchy or oily, but it will tangle if I don’t brush it frequently. The wax helps me look like less of a crazy homeless person.
Melt them both in a double boiler (I just use a metal bowl that fits in our small saucepot). After it is thoroughly melted and mixed, I take it off the heat and stir in about a teaspoon of essential oils. Heat can denature or evaporate the flavor compounds, so you don’t want to cook them. Then just pour it into a jar and let it cool. I’ve kept a bunch of old Oui Yogurt jars and bought lids, and I also bough a 48 pack of tiny plastic lip balm containers for portability. Those are great because I can put different flavors into different containers and try smaller quantities without wasting a bunch of wax.
I’ve also received a few different gift sets of various scented beard oils, which in my experience are often too strong, so I’ve used those to flavor the balm.
For essential oils, I like citrus like lemon, bergamot, or grapefruit, sometimes I use tea tree or eucalyptus and mint, and my wife really likes sandalwood, vanilla and bourbon. I am not a huge fan of cedar or oak, or the floral scents like lavender or rose. It’s going to be on my face all day, so I want it to be something that I like to smell, but not overpowering. Nobody on the subway should be able to smell my beard.
I think overall I spent about $50 on beeswax, organic coconut oil, and essential oils (not including the gifts) and have been using it almost daily for about 2 years.
The coconut oil did pass the “best by” date a few months ago, but I keep it in a cool, dark place and it doesn’t smell off yet. I’ll probably buy some fresh this fall.
The balm will develop an “off” smell if you leave it in the sun. I usually make fresh balm every 6-8 weeks. The small plastic jars last about a week, and the yogurt jar lasts about a month.
Edited to add the recipe up front. I realized I did that recipe blog thing that I hate where you have to read a journal entry to find the actual recipe.
Sounds like a good balm, but I think it will be a bit much for me. My hair is fairly scratchy, and i need stuff to soften it, so I think this may be a bit heavy for me.
You can decrease the wax and add more oil. But yeah, that’s a different problem than what I have. You might sub in shea butter, which I found made my beard too soft, but take that with a grain of salt because I didn’t like it.
Ya the deep conditioner I use like once a week has a ton of shea butter in it. Thanks for all the info.
My hot take is to completely avoid beard balm because it’s so greasy.
I used Groom and Clean, which is a water based leave in conditioner. Life chnaging.
Any chance you can link me to the one you buy?
Great for hair instead of Hairspray too. That’s what it’s primarily for, but it leaves everything feeling so smooth without any greasy feeling.
Awesome I’ll give it a shot next time I’m ordering on amazon.
I’m not a fan of leave in conditioners. Everyone I have tried has left me feeling idk gross after an hour. I occasionally use oil, but I mainly just use beard conditioner or this super thick coconut and shea butter like once a week. I just want a balm for a light hold.
I think any pediatrician would be happy to see unvaccinated kids. So they can vaccinate them and keep them safe.
I love how “snake oil” literally became a shorthand for a medical scam that does nothing. Then millions of people one day just decided the “snake” part was the only problem.
Well, now it’s vegan
I went to a restaurant last nice that served “Vegan Chicken Wings”. It was just a plate of bones with a side of bleu cheese & a few carrots.
I told them to add a $2 up charge for boneless wings.
?
I’m confused at what this joke is supposed to be and is it based on a true story?
Yes, it’s a true story. I just thought about it when I read your comment. No other purpose.
There has always been a portion of the population willing to buy the snake oil.
The cocaine and heroin did something.
In Germany such doctors are all over the place and embedded within the statutory health care system. It was a huge shock to me, when I first arrived here. Their health care system has been a huge let down, in general, but this was beyond crazy to me. Sometimes, if you are not careful you go to a pharmacy or a doctor’s clinic and you get prescribed snake oil voodoo medicine, if you are not careful.
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PSA: keep essential oils away from your cats. Don’t pit them in them, and especially don’t use those vaporizers. Most of those oils are toxic to cats. If you want your house to smell nice, burn incense.
If you don’t have cats, go wild; there’s nothing wrong with the oils themselves, and they smell nice. But many are toxic to cats, and it can be hard to get a complete list of which.
Neither are going to protect or cure you of anything (except, perhaps, a cat infestation), but scent can be nice.
Incense and smelling nice is combination I never thought I’d see.
So, of course there’s absolutely preference, but there’s only one hard rule about incense: you have to be the inner burning it. Walking into a room full of incense that someone else picked and burned is rarely fun. Strong scents like that depend a lot on mood to be pleasing. It’s like a curry at the office: if you’re the one having it, it can smell great, but walking into a break room filled with the smell of someone else’s curry they just heated in the microwave can be nauseating.
So, why do these child abusers even want to see a doctor when they don’t believe in medicine?
“Can anyone recommend a local shaman…?” would’ve been more like it.
I went to see the doctor
He said, “You’re pretty sick
You got some real bad habits
You’d better stop right quick”I said, “Doctor, that’s real bad news
Don’t know what I’m gonna do”Doctor, there’s nothin’ wrong with me
Doctor, doctor, can’t you see?
Doctor, I ain’t gonna die
Just write me an alibiI went to see a shaman
He said, “You’ll be alright
Just keep doin’ what you love
Every single night”I said, “That’s what I need to hear”
Took away my childish fearsDoctor, you’re a stand up guy
Doctor, doctor, my, oh my
Doctor, you’re the one for me
That’s the mojo that I need
It’s the “fine people on both sides” mentality applied to medicine
Several years ago at my kids’ pediatrician’s office they hired a new doc. As soon as she started advocating raw milk I knew that was the last time we’d be visiting that office.
I’ve had raw milk twice in my life, once straight from the tank at the dairy. I hate how astronomically delicious it is. I wish we could have it safely cuz damn. I can’t even credibly compare it to pasteurized when it comes to taste.
That’s how good cheese is made dangit
Omigod. You can’t even get raw milk where I live.
I want to hear the long, raging, cathartic answer to feel better.
I hate them all so much and wish COVID had wiped out more of the obnoxious ones.
Crackpot theory: pictured poster is trying to do a twin study, giving one twin medical care in accordance to generally accepted best practices and the other almond mom style care but they want to control variables by having them see the same doctor. I look forward to reading their study when they publish it in 2-18 years depending on if the one participant survives
almond mom
Typically white suburban moms who were 90s girls and never accepted they had an eating disorder, so now they have to make it everyone else’s problem
“A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips is my almond moms favorite mantra”
