Scotch Porter’s conditioner has a pleasing spice, musk, and vanilla fragrance that’s not too strong. The formula contains moisturizers such as Abyssinian oil, castor oil, shea butter, and coconut oil. It also uses white willow bark to fight dandruff and biotin to support hair growth. This leave-in cream softens your whiskers and is ideal for all hair types, including textured hair.
Plus, 2 More Leave-In Conditioners We Love
The Shop is a new men’s grooming brand born out of the Emmy Award-winning talk show of the same name. Like the show, The Shop grooming line is backed by LeBron James. The Shop’s Beard Cream is an affordable and lightweight leave-in conditioner that’s well-suited for textured hair (and any hair type, really). It has a classic, fresh-out-of-the-barber-shop fragrance I enjoyed, and it provided a nice shine to my hair. It uses shea butter, aloe vera juice, and vitamin E, and I appreciate that it has a short list of ingredients. Jack Black’s leave-in hair cream is unscented and sulfate-free, and it strengthens the texture of your hair over time. In the meantime, it can help soften hair and get frizz under control, using a combination of squalane and jojoba oil for maximum hydration.
The Best Beard Balm: Honest Amish Beard Balm
Beard balms are lightweight but, compared to beard oils, offer significantly greater control over your beard’s shape and style. This makes them optimal for longer beards, though guys with full scruff may also want to use beard oils to help nourish the skin beneath all that bush. The best balms are chock full of beard-softening oils, butters, and possibly even waxes, depending on the recipe. You can use them in the morning to get better control over your beard. To keep it simple: If you want styling assistance, then beard balms are preferable to oils and wash-out conditioners.
Honest Amish keeps its formula simple in the best possible way. Halfway between a balm and a wax, it uses a blend of argan, avocado, almond, pumpkin seed, and apricot kernel oils. And to make your beard hair extra buttery soft, it also uses shea and aloe butter. This balm has a woodsy fragrance similar to the brand’s famous beard oil. It provides instant shine to your beard (more than any other product in this guide) and lets you shape your hair to your liking. Plus, it provides a reliable defense against dandruff and itch.
Plus 3 More Beard Balms We Love
Honest Amish is an old favorite, but if you’re looking for an upgrade, try the Byrce Harper balm from boutique brand Blind Barber. Formulated with help from bearded baseballer Bryce Harper, it’s suitable for all hair and skin types. If you have sensitive skin that gets irritated by the essential oils in many beard oils, this is a luxe alternative that also conditions and shapes your facial hair. The excellent Scotch Porter beard balm is another winner, adding instant shine, shape, and softness to your hair. Guys with thinning hair will also appreciate the use of biotin to support hair growth. Finally, for a completely fragrance-free option, try Every Man Jack’s Unscented Beard Butter, which is thick enough to provide help with styling.
Best Conditioning Shave Oil & Lotion
Multipurpose grooming products can be hit or miss. Usually, it’s a real master of none situation. However, that’s not the case with Anthony’s conditioning shave oil and lotion. First off, I have to rave about the fragrance, which is refreshing and masculine. Seriously, I could huff this stuff and call it aromatherapy. The oil has a blend of herbaceous and minty notes, and the formula itself blends natural oils with botanicals such as orange peel, calendula flower extract, eucalyptus, spearmint, basil, and rosemary. As a conditioning oil, it softens coarse and wiry hair, but as a pre-shave oil, it nourishes and soothes your skin to minimize redness, irritation, and flakes.
Plus, 2 More Conditioning Shave Lotions We Love
Beardbrand doesn’t try to be a jack of all trades. The company makes killer products for your beard, and that’s it. The Utility Softener is another multipurpose product, and you can use it as a hair and beard conditioner, leave-in conditioner, shaving lotion, or any combination thereof. Personally, I prefer the Tree Ranger fragrance (“Tree Ranger will have you smelling like you just hired through a Pacific Northwest forest”), but YMMV. My recommendation: Keep it in the shower and use as needed to wash your beard, then break it out when you need a shave. And finally, we’ve got Jack Black’s Beard Lube, which is a smart alternative to your drug store shaving cream. For bearded guys who still use a razor around the edges, the transparent lotion lets you create clean lines. Plus, the blend of jojoba oil and eucalyptus is good for your face and beard alike.
The Best Ingredients To Look For in a Beard Conditioner
Before getting into the different types of beard conditioners, let’s quickly spotlight some of the best ingredients you should seek out. You’ll notice a pattern here: They’re mostly oils and butters, which will seep into the hairs and even into the underlying skin. They prevent things like beard itch, split ends, brittle hairs, beard dandruff, and to even promote beard growth and shine.
One of the best hair growth oils, in that it promotes longevity with its extremely nourishing properties.
This ingredient softens and moisturizes, while neutralizing bacteria and fungus with its antimicrobial abilities. (Note that coconut oil can clog pores of acne-prone individuals.)
Bolsters defenses with its antioxidant powers, thus preventing dryness, split ends, and more.
Conditions hair and skin with fatty acid and a roster of vitamins.
Simultaneously softens hairs and strengthens their shafts. (Also highly comedogenic for acne-prone individuals.)
You might find this more commonly in balms and heavy-set styling products. Still, beeswax is extremely moisturizing, and it coats the strands to trap moisture inside the hairs.
Do I Need To Use Beard Shampoo and Conditioner?
When it comes to shampoo, in general, we think not. Truth be told, you don’t need a 10-step beard care routine, no matter what Big Beard would have you think. But, there are two possible exceptions to this rule. First, bald guys who don’t otherwise have shampoo or conditioner in the house may benefit from investing in facial hair-specific products. Second, guys with extra-long, extra-thick beards who need all the help they can get. Otherwise, you can get aways with using small amounts of your regular shampoo once or twice a week. (Even better, use a co-wash—whatever you do, don’t call it a 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner—that will condition your beard hair and soothe the skin underneath.)
We do, however, recommend using some type of conditioning product. Your beard hair will benefit from some extra moisturizing (as will the sensitive skin on your face and neck), and the best beard conditioners also help tame flyaways and manage beard itch. You can’t go wrong with a conditioning beard oil, beard balm/butter, or a beard conditioner, but we don’t recommend using all of these products in combination.
Should I Use Beard Growth Oils and Conditioners?
On Amazon, you’ll find tons of beard oils, serums, conditioners, and balms that promise to help lackluster beards grow longer and faster. However, there’s a reason you won’t find any of these products in our beard care guides. If there was an elixir that could guarantee hair growth, it would be priced at $5,000 a bottle and my friends wouldn’t be flying to Turkey for hair transplants. Some dermatologists and barbers do recommend products formulated with biotin, a.k.a. vitamin B7, though it’s definitely not a silver bullet. If you want to incorporate biotin into your beard care, then we recommend using Scotch Porter Beard Balm, which uses shea butter and biotin to support overall beard health.
