Beard Balm vs Beard Oil: Which One Do You Need? | The Pixie Garden Hair Podcast Ep. 20

Balm is structure. Oil is skin and shine. In this episode Delena, a licensed cosmetologist, gives the rule she actually uses: the Spiced Vanilla Beard Balm when the beard is longer, sticks out in different directions, or needs structure to stay neat all day, and an oil when the beard is short, the skin underneath is itchy or dry, or the goal is a natural shine. She also widens out into the men's routine most men were never taught, from the 18.21 Anti-Flake shampoo and conditioner to the Sweet Tobacco Grooming Cream.

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Episode Summary

Beard balm and beard oil solve two different problems, and most men buy the wrong one first. Licensed cosmetologist Delena Markland gives the deciding rule in plain terms, explains how to layer both when a beard needs hydration and structure, and widens out into the men's routine most men were never taught: conditioner applies to you, short hair is more exposed to the elements rather than less, and scalp health is the foundation everything else sits on.

The written companions to this episode: Beard Balm vs Beard Oil: Which One Do You Need? and Men's Dandruff Shampoo: The Complete Guide.

Full Episode Transcript

Jess: Welcome back to The Pixie Garden Hair Podcast. I'm Jess, here with licensed cosmetologist Delena Markland. Delena, we get this question constantly and I've never heard a straight answer from anybody: beard balm or beard oil?

Delena Markland: And the reason you never get a straight answer is that most people selling it want you to buy both without telling you why. So let me give you the rule I actually use. The Spiced Vanilla Beard Balm we carry is the right call when the beard is longer, when it sticks out in different directions, or when it needs a little structure to stay neat all day. That is what a balm is for. It gives you subtle control.

Jess: And oil is for what, then?

Delena Markland: Oil is the answer when the beard is short, when the main problem is itchy or dry skin, or when a guy just wants a natural shine without looking greasy. Those are three different situations from the ones I just described, and that is the whole distinction. Balm is structure. Oil is skin and shine. If you know which of those you have, you know which one to buy.

Jess: What if somebody has both problems? Long beard, dry skin underneath.

Delena Markland: Then you layer them, and the order matters. Oil first, because that is your deep hydration and it needs to get down to the skin. Then a small scrape of balm on top to lock it in and style. A small scrape. Not a scoop. The number one mistake I see is a guy using balm like it is a hair product and ending up heavy and greasy, when the actual job is a thin layer holding everything in place.

Jess: You said itchy skin is an oil problem. Is that common?

Delena Markland: It is enormously common and almost nobody connects it. There is skin under that beard, and it gets neglected because it is covered. A man will tell me his beard is itchy and he thinks the beard is the problem. The beard is not the problem. The skin underneath is dry, and no amount of styling product on the hair is going to fix skin.

Jess: That feels like it connects to something you say about men's hair generally.

Delena Markland: It's the same blind spot, and it starts earlier than the beard. Most men assume conditioner does not apply to them. It absolutely does. I say that in the first five minutes of every conversation I have with a guy about his hair, because it is the single most common thing men have wrong.

Jess: Why do you think that is so widespread?

Delena Markland: Because most men were never taught any of this by their fathers. That is not a knock on anybody. It's just that the information never got handed down. Women get this stuff from each other constantly, from their mothers, from friends, from the salon chair. Men mostly get handed a bar of soap and figure it out.

Jess: Is there anything specific about short hair that people get wrong?

Delena Markland: Yes, and it's backwards from what everyone assumes. People think short hair is lower maintenance because there is less of it. Short hair is more exposed to the elements, not less. Sun, wind, cold, all of it hits the scalp and the hair directly with nothing to shield it. So a short cut is not an excuse to skip care. If anything it needs the protection more.

Jess: So where does somebody start if their whole routine is a bar of soap?

Delena Markland: Scalp health. That is the foundation of the entire men's routine, and everything else is built on top of it. Not styling products, not what the beard looks like. The scalp. Get that right and the rest gets dramatically easier.

Jess: Do you have a case you can point to?

Delena Markland: My own husband. He had thinning hair, an itchy scalp, and scaling, all at once. Once he actually focused on scalp health, all three improved. I want to be careful here, because I am not going to tell you a shampoo regrows hair. I will tell you that when the scalp got healthy, the picture got better on every front, and the itching and the flaking were the first things to go.

Jess: What does he use?

Delena Markland: The 18.21 Anti-Flake shampoo and conditioner, which is what I point most men toward when flaking is the complaint. And the Sweet Tobacco Grooming Cream for actually styling, because it does the job without the crunch. Both are in the shop.

Jess: Last one. If a guy is buying his first real product today, what is it?

Delena Markland: If he has a beard that misbehaves, the balm. If his skin itches, an oil. If he does not know which, start with the scalp and the shampoo, because that is upstream of both. The beard question is a lot easier to answer once the skin underneath is not fighting you.

Jess: Everything Delena mentioned is at thepixiegarden.com and linked on this episode's page, along with our full written comparison. See you next time.

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Hosted by Delena Markland, Licensed Cosmetologist and Owner of The Pixie Garden. New episodes weekly. Browse all episodes.