Looking after your beard in hot weather can be a challenge, especially in the varying climates, temperatures and weather conditions that we experience in our day to day. A dry summer in particular is a time where I, among many others find it difficult to look after our man-manes.
I personally find the dry heat makes my beard end up dehydrated and rough feeling. This can make it brittle leading to the hairs snapping and split ends, not an enjoyable experience for you or your beard!
In order for me to manage my beard in hot weather (and the skin beneath it), I need to change my care routine in a way which will get the beard back to a healthy hydrated level that I am happy with. In order for that to happen I have to do a bit more than just the usual applying oil more regularly.
What is 'more regularly'?
For starters, what is 'more regularly'? Well everyone is different in how much
Braw Beard oil they apply to their beard, and theres no hard and fast rule for it either, so do what suits you and your beard first and foremost. For me, my 'normal' day consists of one application of
Braw Beard oil (rub a 5 or 1 pence sized pool of oil in the palm of my hands.) Then gently massage it under the hair trying to get it into the skin, which moisturises it stopping it drying out and getting sore. Also focusing on working the oil into the base of the hair and into the follicles which is beneficial in strengthening the hair as a whole, I then go over the rest of my beard to coat the rest of the hairs.
In order to give the oil time to absorb in my skin and beard and give it protection before heading out into the elements, I normally do this in the morning which also aids in the shaping of my beard. I follow this by using the
wooden Braw Beard pocket comb as this glides through my beard much easier with the oil and it helps me gentle release any snags or tangles in the beard and spreads the oil further along the strands of hair.
To manage the beard in hot weather in particular, I recommend selecting one of the
Braw Beard oils that has Argania Spinosa Kernal Oil (AKA Argan Oil) in it. As this oil has many benefits including being a great moisturiser. But more importantly in the summer, it is a very good oil for heat protection and acts as a barrier for your skin and beard quite effectively.
This would normally be enough for me, but in the dry, hot weather (that our summers are bringing more and more of in the UK). I am finding I have to apply oil another once or twice a day depending on the condition of my beard and how hot and dry the weather is. This is normally spaced evenly throughout the day, so I tend to apply my second application of oil mid afternoon around 3pm in order to re-moisturise my skin and beard, giving it that final boost to see the rest of the day out.
A head start for the next day
The final application I do is before I go to bed. I find this potentially the most important application you could do, as it gives your beard and skin the entire night to absorb the oil, allowing it to recover and rehydrate after the whole day which in turn aids in the healing of split ends and strengthening the follicles reducing the chance of your hairs breaking or being pulled out. This also gives it a head start for the next day and stops you having to chase your tail trying to quench the thirst of your beard.
Next in my handy tips on how manage a beard in hot weather, is the using of a beard butter. The
Braw Beard Butters are great in adding further moisturising of the beard and has the benefits of a balm but the nourishment of a butter. You wont need to apply that 3 times a day, once or twice is enough. I personally do it twice a day, using the back of the finger nail, I scrape some
butter to get an amount that is a little bigger than the size of my nail and then rub it my hands before working it gentle through my beard. I do this after applying the oil on my morning and night time applications.
The reason being is in the morning it acts as a second barrier for your beard from the heat and UV rays from the sun, as well as a much better help at getting the shape you want for your beard and aiding in the controlling of the wilder hairs that I have. And at night it helps lock in the oil, letting it soak in better and stopping it coming out on your pillow as much during the night. I work this through my beard using the
Braw Boar Bristle Brush which evenly distributes the butter through the beard from top to bottom as well as helping spread the applied oil further.
Brilliant beard specific shampoo
One of main things I have started doing to manage the beard in hot weather is reducing the amount of times I washed with my beard with a product. I use the
Braw Wash which is a
brilliant beard specific shampoo, it is very gentle on the beard and made with natural ingredients and leaves the beard so soft after just one use. But I've found in this heat, even with my extra oil applications, my usual wash routine dried out my beard too much. As what happens when using a product to wash is it remove some of the natural and applied oils away from the beard. This is still a good thing for cleaning the pores under the beard, taking out excess build up as well as the sweat and grime that comes with this heat. But unfortunately it also causes the beard to dry out, as those natural oils protect and hydrate the beard in a vital way, so it's all about finding the balance.
The amount I wash my beard with the
Braw Beard Wash is never normally a problem and works well for me (normally every 2-4 days-ish) but I have found in the hot weather that is too frequent. So in my showers I just gave it a wash with warm water (not hot because it dries out the beard further as it opens the pores and follicles more which flushes out oils and lets air get in, increasing the amount the beard and skin dries out) and went down to using the
Braw Beard Wash every 7 days unless I had been particularly sweaty or dirty. This lets the oils stay in the beard as much as possible which often gets sun or wind blasted out but doesn't leave it too long for the grime to build up.
So that is my advice, it's not gospel and it might not work for you all, but it's worked well in my experience and I thought it was only right for me to share it with my fellow bearded brothers who may be having a rough time with managing their beard in hot weather!
Thank you for reading
Conor Gillies
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Scottish beard care.
Born in Scotland, enjoyed Worldwide.