The road to a healthy beard
Keep your beard healthy with a good quality beard soap and oil.
The Greeks and Romans knew what was good for their beards. Do you?
Andrew Geral, an East Rand resident, believes that just like your hair, your beard needs the best treatment and high-quality products to keep it healthy and looking its best.
Having had “some form of beard since I was a young man” Andrew started making his own range of beard oils and soaps in 2015.
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After eight months of testing various combinations of carrier and essential oils, all tried out on his own beard, he found his winning formula and started production to provide others with a great range of products.
Making his products at home, he guarantees none of his merchandise is tested on any animal, with his beard being the guinea pig for every product he produces.
The sight of his beard should be enough to convince any chap with beard envy to start taking proper care of their facial hair.
When asked why men should condition their beards with specialised products, he comments: “Normal off-the-shelf shampoos and soaps are just no good for your beard as most contain chemicals and the soaps have been stripped of their glycerine.
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“These products will strip your skin and beard of its natural oils, damaging your hair and follicles and leaving your skin dry.”
Andrew has created a range of two soaps and eight oils to offer every beard the perfect care it needs.
While he notes there are a number of soaps, oils, waxes and balms on the market, Andrew says he prefers to only use soaps and oils and has thus concentrated his efforts on developing 100 per cent natural oils and soaps.
He explains that his oils, which are cold pressed, are composed of carrier oil and essential oils, each of which have different properties.
Five of his oils contain castor, hempseed, argan and apricot kernel oil and the other two contain castor, hempseed, sweet almond and grapeseed oil.
While he notes that nothing will make your beard grow – “if you can’t grow a beard, you can’t grow a beard” – you can promote hair growth by nourishing your beard from the follicles and the latter combination of carrier oils does, according to Andrew, encourage hair growth.
He then adds a variety of essential oils – including cedar, peppermint, tea tree, clove, lemon and pine – to the carrier oil base to infuse them with individual benefits and scents (more on these next week).
Before applying oil to a damp beard, Andrew suggests washing it with a good quality soap.
He has developed two – a spearmint and charcoal combination which he says is a slight abrasive, and a lemongrass option.
“If you want your beard to grow nicely and stay healthy you need to use good products and look after it,” he concludes.
