When you’re growing a beard, you’ll try anything to make sure it looks fantastic and is healthy. The last thing any man wants is an ugly beard. One question many men have when it comes to their beard care routines is whether or not they should use beard oil before bed? In short, it depends. However, The Gentleman’s Playbook generally recommends beard oil use before bed as part of our breakdown on beard hygiene and our greater beard growth playbook.
In this guide, we’re going to go over some of the benefits of using beard oil before bed as well as some reasons you may not want to use beard oil right before you hit the sack for the night.
Benefits of Using Beard Oil Before Bed
Many of the reasons that we recommend using beard oil shortly before you head to sleep for the night revolve around the fact that beard oil helps speed up beard growth and improve the health of your beard.
Softens Beard Prior to Sleep
Beard oil is a great way to soften your beard prior to sleep; some men have issues with their beard having coarse hair that gets stuck in their pillow while sleeping, causing pulls or snags. An easy way to combat this before it becomes an issue is to apply some beard oil 30 minutes before you head to sleep, after cleaning your beard properly. We cover proper beard hygiene in The Beard Playbook.
Having your beard hair more pliable during sleep can also generally help combat ingrown hairs, itchiness, and harshness that can come from sleeping.
Helps with Skin Moisture
Another benefit of applying beard oil before bed is that it can help out with moisturizing the skin under your beard.
Many men struggle with having dry skin – add a beard onto that issue and you may find you have both dry skin and a dry beard. One of the most universal solutions that is both beard-safe and helps moisturize your skin is to apply a beard oil that uses jojoba oil as the primary carrier oil.
Jojoba oil soaks into the skin very well and doesn’t clog your pores. It’s also safe for facial hair and incredibly hydrating, making it an ideal carrier oil for men who have dry beard or dry skin under their beards.
Improves Beard Growth
The third reason we strongly recommend taking advantage of using beard oil before bed is that it can help speed up beard growth as well as make your beard thicker or fuller. Learn more about how beard oil can help stimulate beard growth.
We go over beard oil extensively in The Beard Playbook, but as a quick overview, here are some of the ways beard oil helps with beard growth:
- Softens the beard
- Stimulates capillaries in the skin
- Certain essential oils are antibacterial, help stimulate circulation, or improve growth
- Moisturizes facial hair to combat brittleness and breakage
Now, even though beard oil is incredible and can be especially beneficial when used before bed, there are some reasons you may not find this to be something you want to do.
Considerations when Using Beard Oil Prior to Bedtime
For some men, there are some considerations to keep in mind when using beard oil prior to bedtime. For each of these, we will offer some solutions, that way if you want to harness the glorious growth power that is beard oil, you still can!
Your Pillowcase May Absorb Some Oil
When you apply beard oil before bed, you may find that your pillow case begins to absorb some of the oil over time, making it uncomfortable to touch, or even gross. This usually depends on how much beard oil you’re using at a time or how quickly your skin and beard absorbs it.
It could even soak through into your pillow. Some ways you can combat this:
- Wash your pillowcase more frequently & have multiple pillowcases to swap out every couple of nights
- Get a pillow liner (these also extend the lifespan of your pillow in general, even if you don’t use beard oil at night)
- Apply less beard oil before bed – you really only need a couple of drops depending on the length of your beard.
Fragrance May be Disruptive to Sleep
Another consideration you may want to keep in mind is that you may find certain fragrances disruptive to your sleep. Some essential oils such as peppermint or tea tree are very pleasant to smell, however can increase your level of alertness. One alternative is to use an unscented beard oil, or to just use plain ol’ jojoba oil before bed.
If you still want to use essential oils, here are some suggestions for nighttime friendly oils:
- Lavender
- Rose
- Eucalyptus (if you have a stuffy nose)
Ones you would want to avoid are:
- Citruses (lemon, lime, orange)
- Peppermint
- Tea Tree
- Patchouli or other peppery smells
Is it Worth Using Beard Oil Before Bed?
You came here wanting to know whether or not you should use beard oil before bed. Our conclusion is yes, it is worth using beard oil before bed. There are a few reasons we suggest using beard oil prior to going to sleep for the night:
- Softens facial hair to reduce snags in pillow case
- Combat ingrown hairs
- Improve growth
- Moisturize skin under the beard overnight
While there could be some considerations or challenges faced with applying oils before bed, generally these are easily prevented as we outlined earlier on this page. We believe these potential considerations are also heavily outweighed by the benefits and improvements to your beard’s appearance and health.
Ready to have the best beard you’ve ever grown? Check out The Beard Playbook! It’s a completely free one-stop guide made by The Gentleman’s Playbook. You don’t need to give us your email or anything, it’s completely free and available on our website! Just click here to get started.