Saving money & sanity

Beard Oil

Since June of 2018, I have been growing a beard. Trim once a week, keep it looking and feeling good. The secret to keeping it looking and feeling good? Beard oil. Naturally, the hair of a beard will absorb the oils produced by your face, and they will act to soften the hair and keep your skin from drying out. Where the problem arises for some, especially with beards longer than a couple weeks of growth, is that the skin cannot produce enough oil to keep up with how much the hair needs. That is when the skin starts to dry out, and the dreaded itchy beard presents itself. Or even worse — beardruff!

Thus, for most of us growing beard, it is a necessity to keep it lightly oiled. I personally don’t go through a huge amount of beard oil. Maybe an ounce every two to three months. That would still equate to about 5-7 purchases of oil throughout the year. If we figure an average cost of about $15/ounce of oil (and that’s actually cheaper than many brands!), and 6 bottles purchased over one year. The total cost would come out around $90. Gets expensive quick! And unfortunately, a lot of the pre-made oils available in the grocery store use ingredients that may actually be harmful to beard growth — not cool. By mixing your own, you know exactly what is in it, and can customize the blend so that it is perfect for your own needs.

I won’t be going into a huge breakdown of the ingredients, or costs for mixing your own oils. There are plenty of resources online, which will be linked below. However, I will list out the basic costs for my entry-point that got me started mixing my own.

The order I placed initially was even a bit more expensive than it needed to be. Several of the items could be considered optional if you don’t care for any extra scents in your oil. And of course, if you already have something, or find an option you like better — go for it! It’s your oil, do what feels right and works best for you.

Note: This would be much nicer to read organized into a table. Still very new to the reStructuredText format so this will do, for now. Leaving this note as my reminder to touch this up a bit in the future.

• Jojoba Oil, 4oz, $11

  • Base carrier oil, most closely resembles the natural oil of the skin. I use this in all of my blends.

• Castor Oil, 4oz, $4

  • Carrier oil, used to thicken up a thinner oil. I do not use more than a couple drops of this into a 1oz bottle of finished product.

• Meadowfoam Seed Oil, 4oz, $10

  • Incredibly light, and great feeling carrier oil. Leaves the skin feeling refreshed without a greasy/sunscreen sort of feel

• Essential Oils, 10ml, $5 and up

  • If you want to add your own scent into the oil, essential oils are the way to go. These highly concentrated, natural oils can have some wonderful scents and some are said to have benefits to your beard. Depending on the size of the bottle, and the brand, they can get quite pricey. When getting started out, I would advise to grab no more than a 10ml bottle at once, and always check for an allergic reaction before applying to your face. You will likely only be using a few drops at a time for the essential oils, so they will last a little bit.

  • Personally, the essential oils I purchased are Spruce, Peppermint, Balsam Fir, and Cedarwood. Currently, the only one I use is the Balsam Fir.

• Amber Glass Dropper Bottles with eye dropper, 12x 1oz, $10

  • You’re gonna need something to store your mixes in. I recommend amber glass as it does the best job at blocking out UV light, which can cause some ingredients to degrade. Cobalt glass is fine as well, but I would stay away from the clear, or light colored glass bottles.

• Stainless Steel Mini-Funnels, 1.25” diameter, 6-pack, $7

  • I almost passed on these, but am very glad I decided to pick them up. They fit perfectly into the top of the 1oz glass dropper bottles. Makes for a very easy pour when adding ingredients into your blends. Can be omitted if you are using syringes to fill your bottles, or if you feel comfortable pouring the oil directly into a small opening. I recommend picking these up.

Finally, before moving on, I’d like to list a few of the resources I found to be most helpful as I researched, and began mixing my own. BeardResource has a wonderful introduction guide featuring some ingredient comparisons, example recipes and tips. ToolsOfMen provides another huge guide, full of information such as essential oil pairing notes, cost breakdowns, and mixing techniques. And last, but not least — BeardMountain has some great notes for a variety of essential oils. Note that there was a part one to their article, but the link seems to no longer be valid.

Haircuts

One of my flaws is that I can never seem to get a haircut until it is far, far overdue. One could argue that is a money-saving technique in itself, but I don’t think it is entirely that. At least for me. I just end up caught up with other things, and don’t really place haircuts high on my list of priorities most of the time. Especially not when every cut sets me back around $25 or so. Not gonna break the bank with that, but every dollar saved helps.

This can be a little bit tricky to get done in such a way that it looks good. In particular if you are going to be cutting your own hair. You will get a lot cleaner results if you can get someone to help you out for the neckline, and detailing. If all you care for is a quick, and simple haircut. This can be a great way to save money over time.

I’m still very new to cutting my own hair, only having done so once at the time of this writing. Already I can tell that I’d much rather cut my own than deal with getting over to the barber — Sorry, Eddy! Originally, I had planned a few years back to cut my own hair. Picked up a decent set of clippers with a variety of guides for about $25 or $30. Got cold feet at the last minute and copped out. Now that much of the world, and all of my local area has been put on hold while Coronavirus makes its rounds, I found myself pushed back to cutting my own. Not going to wait months (potentially) for business to re-open. I needed a haircut now. Was able to get the cut down, all on my own, minus the neckline. Called in some help for that one.

The finished results, I’m very happy with. No longer need to deal with my hair all over the place, and each haircut from here on out will get cheaper and cheaper. Considering I only paid around $25 for the hair clippers, this one has paid for itself with only a single haircut. And with the potential to save me about $100 annually that would normally go the barber, I am a very happy man.

This one had me a little nervous going into it. Did not want to screw up. Or cut it so badly I would need to cut it all off. It turned out much much easier than I had thought. A couple tips though..

• Start with the longest guides you have. Can always cut more off. But you can’t add it back on.

• Get help for detailing, and the neckline

• Use a handheld mirror in combination with your bathroom mirror to see what you’re doing on the back of your head. The angles can be quite tricky to line everything up right. It gets easier with practice.

• Do your first cut on the weekend, or when you have some time off. Should you happen to cut a little more off than you like, this will give you a few days so that it naturally blends itself in a bit as new hair grows.

Cooking

Most people might not consider this a Do-It-Yourself thing. My question to that, why not? Being able to cook edible food, and sustain yourself without having to involve fast food or restaurants is great. And (possibly) healthier! Admittedly, I did not cook much at all until I moved out on my own. No longer having anyone around who might cook for me, and having to stock the pantry fully on my own. That’s kind of what pushed me into learning more, and trying some new things.

As it turns out, cooking can be damn simple at times. There are easily thousands of recipes online for quick & easy meals. Just a quick DuckDuckGo search away. I got myself started by writing down ideas I would have throughout the day for things to eat. From there searching out recipes and writing them down in my notebook. The notebook works great for me due to it being small enough to fit in my pocket, and non-digital so I need not worry about batteries or network. That makes it very easy to pull it out while grocery shopping and start collecting your ingredients.

If you’re like me, and like to cook in bulk, you can really save on money and time spent cooking. One of my favorite foods to cook has been a Crock-pot Chili. Incredibly simple to the point it’s almost too easy. Yet complex enough to not get boring, and very easy to tweak over time to perfection. I’m planning to write out a separate post detailing the recipe and how I modified it to suit my own tastes. But for now, I’ll leave you with the original recipe from Food.com.

Note the recipe does mention to be cooked in the oven. When I first found it, a crock pot was suggested. That version seems to no longer exist. Whether I’m looking in the wrong place, or if the linked version was updated, I’m not sure. If you do want to try out that recipe in your crock pot, I cook mine for about 9-10 hours on low heat, but have gone up to 12 hours for larger batches.

In conclusion

Armed now with some basic, and accessible ideas to DIY your own solutions, it’s your turn now. Make yourself something nice, save a little money. I can promise you experimenting and feeling of ‘getting it done’ will be very much worth the time put in. Not to mention that along with saving money, a lot of the time you get a product you like better in the end. After all, no one knows you better than yourself!