Before I knew that Novembeard (also known as No Shave November) had charitable and awareness-related purposes, I used it as an excuse to try growing my first full beard. I had failed at attempts before this one particular November, but until I was close to 30, any “beard” I tried to grow that was more than a goatee looked more like a Fisher-Price “My First Patchy Beard” playset than actual adult facial hair. But I stuck it out and eventually managed a decent full beard (and mustache, as my kids always point out, because while they aren’t wrong, they aren’t willing to accept that I mean both my beard and mustache when I say just “beard”).
But not terribly long after growing this first beard, I became painfully aware of the need for specific care for facial hair, and how it differs from the overly simple shampoo/conditioner routine of head hair, or a facial scrub for non-beard face cleaning. After a bit of research, I decided to keep it simple and started using straight jojoba oil after showers, because jojoba’s lipids (fats) match the natural sebum (the lipids in our skin) more closely than just about anything else. I didn’t want to get really complicated, I just wanted healthy skin and hair. And jojoba does a pretty good job. But the longer I kept this beard, the more I felt the need to nurture it a bit more, to get it under control and be able to shape it a little more, and that led me down the beard oil rabbit hole.
If you haven’t shopped for or researched beard oil online, just Google “beard oil” and settle in for hours of combing through the endless lists, articles, stores, and so forth. Now I’m adding an article to that mix. There’s so much out there, and beard culture can get pretty intense. Just look at this.
But why is this on your cannabis blog, you may ask? A couple of reasons. Thinking about beard oil is in many ways like thinking about cannabis. There are seemingly unlimited options, most are probably just fine, some might be favorites, some might not work for you personally, and in the end there’s a ton to know, but you can also just give it a try and see what you like. There’s a lot of good science behind how cannabis affects us, and the same goes for beard care products. Also terpenes. Keep reading.
Let’s get into.
My personal recipe, having used several different commercially produced beard oils over the last decade and change, comes down to these base ingredients, with the following benefits:
Argan Oil: Hydrates skin and hair, has anti-inflammatory benefits (Cleveland Clinic)
Sweet Almond Oil: Anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, emollient (helps soften and smooth skin), helps heal damage, contains vitamins A & E (Healthline)
Avocado Oil: Moisturizer, contains vitamins A, D, & E, antimicrobial (Healthline)
Grapeseed Oil: Contains vitamins C & E, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, helps decrease clogged pores (Prevention)
Jojoba Oil: Antioxidant, antimicrobial, contains vitamins A, B, C, & E, helps retain moisture, promotes hair growth and thickness, helps minimize hair loss and grays, matches our sebum (lipids in skin) (Prevention)
But what do all those vitamins do?
Vitamin A: Stimulates collagen production, prevents cell damage, reduces acne damage (Healthline)
Vitamin B: So many B vitamins and so many benefits (Bloom Clinic)
Vitamin C: Prevents dandruff, stimulates collagen production, helps prevent hair loss, protects against sun damage (DCSI)
Vitamin D: Helps increase immune response in skin (National Institute of Health)
Vitamin E: Anti-oxidant, moisturizer, anti-aging (Cleveland Clinic)
So that’s what I use as the base for my beard oils. I could stop there, but what took my vague idea for making a beard oil to an actual inspired plan was learning about some of the therapeutic benefits of terpenes in cannabis. As with most of my posts, here I’ll mention that in the future there will be more posts dedicated to terpenes specifically, but the real short on terpenes is that they are the naturally occurring flavor and aroma compounds in plants, and in cannabis specifically they are the primary agents for the individual effects of each cultivar (strain). They’re basically the reason White Widow and Super Lemon Haze have vastly different effects. And it’s not just the highs. They have different health-related benefits as well. I could get into all of them, but like I said, that’s for another post.
Here, I’ll focus on those in my recipe for Acapulco Gold, a Mexican landrace cannabis that is known for its uplifting, energizing, and creative highs. The primary terpenes (and their topical effects) in most grows of Acapulco Gold are as follows:
Carene: Anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal (Royal Queen Seeds)
Camphene: Fights bacterial and fungal infections, psoriasis, eczema (Royal Queen Seeds)
Myrcene: Anti-inflammatory, helps reduce tumors (Royal Queen Seeds)
Limonene: Insect repellant, facilitates absorption (Royal Queen Seeds)
Terpinolene: Antibacterial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, helps reduce tumors (Royal Queen Seeds)
Caryophyllene: Anti-inflammatory, pain reduction (taken orally) (Royal Queen Seeds)
Oil Instructions:
- Determine the volume of beard oil you are making. Most commercial beard oils come in 1oz, 2oz, or rarely 3oz bottles. I use 1oz. bottles, so this will follow that total. If you’re making more or less, simply adjust accordingly. The ratios are very, very simple.
- Into a silicone pinch bowl on the digital food scale (measuring milligrams) add 5mg each of Argan Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, Grapeseed Oil, and Jojoba Oil. I suggest using the dispenser top to slowly drip a little at a time. These are small volumes we’re working with, so it’s easy to go overboard. This total volume of oils is a little shy of the total volume of the 1oz. bottle so that you have some wiggle room to add the terpenes later, and for adjusting ratios as needed (Steps 4 and 5).
- Mix the oils in the pinch cup with a small silicone spatula, scraping down the sides as you go, just to make sure they’re all friends in there.
- Using the dropper, test a smaller than normal amount of the oil mixture on your beard (or other hair if you want). I’m assuming that if you’re making this for your own beard, and not for someone else’s, you know how much beard oil you need to use. Just go light, in that case. If you don’t know how much beard oil you need, most non-enormous beards only need between 2 and 5 drops depending on thickness of beard, rubbed between your hands, and massaged into the beard to the skin. If you’re non-bearded, test it on some appropriate amount of other hair, I suppose, or phone a friend. You can wait as long as you like, but once you’re satisfied that it’s been absorbed as much as it’s going to be, you can adjust the ingredients as you like. I find that if I want a less oily feel, increasing everything but the Sweet Almond and Avocado oils can help, so you can add a very small amount of those others. If you feel it’s too dry once applied, add a small amount more of Jojoba Oil, or add a small amount of Vitamin E (listed as optional in the ingredients).
- As an optional ingredient for Acapulco Gold, I added a couple of drops of honey that I gently warmed in the microwave for just a few seconds and mixed into the oil before the terpenes were added.
Terpene Instructions:
- The first thing to know (though this is less of an instructional step) is that terpenes are very, very potent in their raw form, and you’re going to be making more than you need for a single bottle of beard oil, so you’ll want to have an additional dropper bottle ready for storage for the remaining terpene blend.
- Determine the terpenes you’re using, and the ratios you want for the effects or strain you want to replicate. For my Acapulco Gold recipe, the terpenes ratios are as follows:
- Carene: 5 parts
- Camphene: 3 parts
- Limonene: 3 parts
- Caryophyllene: 2 parts
- Myrcene: 2 parts
- Terpinolene: 1 part
- Using the optional syringe (available as an add-on if you are buying the terpene set from Elevation Terpenes linked below) or being very careful to drop single drops from the bottles, add one drop per part of each terpene into a silicone pinch cup on the digital food scale. In theory, you don’t need the scale, but I found that since individual drops of terpenes were likely to be slightly inconsistent, using the scale to balance those ratios helped a lot. I recommend starting with your 1 part Terpinolene, note the weight, and then add your other terpenes matching that weight per part.
- Once all the terpenes are added, give it a smell. You can adjust terpenes as you want from here, until you get the aroma you’re looking for. If you’re trying to match Acapulco Gold directly, or if you’re using this method to replicate a different strain, you’re going to find that the raw terpenes smell much stronger and more pungent than the flower in most cases. This will calm down both once it’s mixed into the oils, and from the natural oxidation of the terpenes over time.
Putting it All Together:
- Using the dropper from the dropper bottle, add 4 drops of the terpene blend into the 1oz. oil mixture. For each 1oz. of oil beyond the first, reduce the drops of terpenes by 1 (1oz. = 4 drops, 2 oz. = 7 drops total, 3oz = 8 drops total). This will ensure that the terpenes are not overpowering. You can always add more if you want a stronger aroma.
- Using the dropper from a dropper bottle or using the pinch cup’s namesake feature – pinching – and a small funnel, carefully move the oil and terpene blend into a dropper bottle. Use the spatula to get all the oil out of the pinch cup. Cap with the dropper cap, and you’re all set.
- Follow Step 2 for the terpene blend, moving it to its own dropper bottle.
- Optionally, I like to use a label maker to put a nice, clean, and waterproof label on the bottles.
I recently set myself up as an Amazon Affiliate, so if you buy any of this stuff from these links, I get a small kickback. As usual, anything that helps support me and this blog is greatly appreciated! Thanks!Argan OilSweet Almonds OilAvocado OilGrapeseed OilJojoba OilTerpenes1oz Bottles2oz Bottles3oz BottlesDigital Food ScalesSilicone Pinch BowlsSilicone Mini SpatulasBrother Label MakerApp-Controlled Label Maker
Terpenes (full set, non-Amazon)
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