Challenge Accepted: Beard Conditioner

Being challenged is as good a time as any to start a blog. But for real, not like the last five times I putz around with the idea. In all fairness, the third attempt was actually successful, but I changed my business so I discontinued that blog. This first post is to answer the imperative to post pictures of my initiative on beard conditioning.

My initial pictures are not raw beard after a washing, it has a small bit of conditioning in it from this morning, and has gone through the day. Nonetheless, the beard looks like after my usual coconut-tea leaf oil conditioning.

The before pictures:

 

I am nearly out of the coconut oil based conditioner; but, I intend to revisit when I hit, "Awkward Phase II."
You can see well enough the mufti-directional, wiry "fuzziness" making a sort of halo effect about the beard.
I wanted something to really bring the edge of the beard. Something with greater cohesion for the beard. After some investigation (thanks Art of Manliness!), I decided to try Jojobo Oil (which brings me to another thank you: to the kind lady who gently corrected my pronunciation of Jojobo, from a misplaced English phonetics to the proper Spanish).

The conditioner mix is Jojobo and Eucalyptus. The proportions can be seen in the tools-of-the-trade:

So to properly investigate the difference, I used some witch hazel extract to dislodge the old conditioning, soap and water to detergent the beard and drain the diluted oils out, dried it, and brushed it out (would that I had boar hair than this synthetic bristling as you see above).

The Conclusion:

This challenge comes from over at Primal Happy Place. I lamented already having store bought lotions, so I couldn't justify making my own. But, I was inspired to follow up on my musing of yesterday: beard oil.  For now, the beard is only coming out of "Awkward Phase I," (more on the Awkward Phases, later) and the coconut oil base is don't keeping it together as well as I would like. In part, it's my hair: wavy, naturally, and doesn't-hold-my-natural-oil-or-store-bought-hair-conditioners-as-well-as-I-would-like. The only real solution for a solid look was beard oil. In this case: 1/5 Eucalyptus Essential Oil and 4/5 Jojobo Oil (which is actually about fifteen times more essential oil that aromatherapy would suggest... because who reads every single, tiny syllable before they do something that can't be undone).

The after pictures:

 

 

I think it is pretty clear that there is better form and less "halo fuzz" surrounding the beard. I'm going to stick with my over-incensed Jojobo for the time being.... though I may remake some with Cedarwood (which actually add strength and isn't just a smell) in the correct proportions, when the super-nice lady from Yareck's gets some in next Tuesday.