The Birth And Evolution Of Braw Beard Oils - The Braw Beard Story - Pt 3 of 6

Getting To Know JJ In More Depth.

Since a very early age, I’ve been ambitious. 

Boxing and biking all helped to expand my willingness to take on new challenges that most people don’t casually embrace. 

And Braw Beard Oils came about as the result of me breaking my neck and back in a mountain bike racing accident. 

If you’ve watched enough Fail Army videos, you know that it is REALLY easy to fuck yourself up while mountain-biking at high speeds… 

I’d been racing for a few years, mostly downhill, and endurance. 

In 2011 there was a 6-hour downhill endurance race at Fort William. It was to see how many times you could do the World Cup Downhill track in 6 hours.

2 weeks prior to the race, I was training, went over the handlebars, hit a big rock and broke C7 and T1 in my back. (Click here if you want to see the trail and bastard boulder I rammed my head into) 

I went to the hospital but I didn’t need to get surgery. I had stable fractures so I had to wear a neck brace for a while.

When I asked the doctor when I could get back on a bike and he said, “You need to stay away from any kind of bike for 6 months.” 

Inside my head I was like, “FUCK! I’ve been training for a YEAR for this race and its only 2 weeks away.”

Something inside of me clicked and I said, “To hell with it” and I ended up doing the race two weeks later anyway, against the doctor’s wishes.

It’s not hard to imagine how my upbringing probably unconsciously influenced this decision… you get hit in boxing – you hit back… you get knocked down to the canvas – you get your ass up… seeing my Granny bounce back after breaking her hip twice, etc. 

So yeah, come race day I dosed myself up on painkillers and slapped some Kinesio tape on my back, which helped to stabilise my spine, and donned my clunky neck brace. 

This was before and during the race.

This was lap 9 or 10. I forgot I even had 2 broken vertebrae at this point.

The plan was to do one lap, see how I felt after that, if it that felt ok, then do another lap. 

Well… the adrenaline kicked in and I ended up finishing the whole race and placed 18th out of 133 competitors. 

It was very stupid to be honest because if I had crashed again I probably wouldn’t be walking at this point. But hey ho, if I never did it, I wouldn’t be where I am now with Braw Beard Oils so, y’know. 

When I look back at my life I can see how determination has been my thing and it is what brought me to where I am now. 

After the race I smartened up and took 4 or 5 months off the bike to let myself heal.

While going through rehab, the physician who was treating me realised I had an understanding for anatomy and offered to teach me sports massage therapy. 

This same person then taught me how to make my own massage oils. They showed me the basic ingredients, schooled me on all the different oils, hempseed, jojoba, argan, etc. and how to use them.  

And while talking about everything I was learning with my girlfriend, I came to find that she was using hair oil for her split ends and to keep her hair moisturised. 

Being a guy, I’d never even known hair oil existed. 

When I finally got back to training on the bike, I had a beard and underneath the helmet strap was always getting itchy. 

The obvious reason for this was because the strap was irritating the hair and skin underneath.  

I’d suffered this problem for years because I thought there was nothing I could do about it. 

It took what happened after my accident for the following thought to occur… 

“I’ve got this understanding of how to make massage oil. I wonder if I can make hair oil and tailor it to suit thicker facial hair?”

And so I set out to do so and through trial and error… some months later I finally got it right. 

I figured out a blend that would keep the irritation and redness away and from then on I never left to a race without making sure my oil was in my kit bag. 

An “Oh by the way” side benefit that came with applying the oil after racing was that my formula was keeping my beard hair from drying out with the weather. 

I hope you enjoyed that.
Thanks for reading.
JJ.

Join the #Brawtherhood
Scottish beard care.
Born in Scotland, enjoyed Worldwide.

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