Should You Use Castor Oil on Your Beard?

Castor oil in your beard. At first glance, an odd pairing. Most people know castor oil as a dependable laxative, and on that basis it has been put to work in more than one successful prank.

That reputation is shifting, and castor oil is turning up across a far wider range of uses.

Beard care is one of them. Built into a grooming product, this oil supports and brings out some genuinely good qualities in your facial hair.

Below we explain what castor oil can do for your beard, and why it is worth giving your beard the occasional treatment with it. Your pride and joy deserves that much.

The Wonder Tree, Ricinus

No, dear reader, we do not mean the tree-shaped air freshener dangling from half the rear-view mirrors on the road.

The wonder tree, or castor plant (Lat. Ricinus communis), is the plant whose seeds give us castor oil. The castor beans, which look a little like ticks that have had their fill, are where the sought-after oil sits. The plant grows naturally in the temperate zones of the world as well as in the tropics. In temperate regions it stands out as an annual herb and flowers between August and October; in the tropics ricinus comes back year after year.

For the record, ricinus, the wonder tree, was voted Poisonous Plant of the Year in 2018.

A Poisonous Plant for Body and Beard Care?

The word “poisonous” next to ricinus will remind a few readers of “Breaking Bad”. Dealt a bad hand by fate, its protagonist Walter White works his way up to drug lord of the Albuquerque underworld in New Mexico.

To take out one of his rivals he uses ricin, the toxin from the same plant seed the oil is pressed from.

That said, there is no need to worry about poisoning yourself when you use it as a grooming product.

Ricin, the toxic part of the seed, is water-soluble but not fat-soluble, so with cold-pressed castor oil it stays behind in the press cake. That process leaves you with a virgin (unrefined) oil, which means the oil keeps its natural components. Refined oil is a different story: refining strips out much of what makes an oil worth using, which is why refined grades usually end up in industrial applications.

Supplements ....

There is no shortage of extravagant products promising to feed your body nutrients and, by extension, improve how you look. Very often they are taken orally, as supplements.

Castor Oil in Your Beard

We are not going down that road here, whether the target is the hair on your head or your beard. Anything that looks like medication stays off the table.

This is also where you want to be careful with castor oil. For the average person it is not meant to be swallowed, unless you fancy a very literal brown surprise a short while later. Castor oil for the beard goes on the hair itself, exactly like any other grooming product. In the context we are describing here, we strongly advise against eating it.

What Castor Oil Is

Castor oil is a thick, clear oil, one of the highest in viscosity and density there is. In colour it runs from clear to faintly yellow. As mentioned, it works as a strong laxative. The smell is faint but distinctive, the taste mild and still unpleasant. With a shelf life of roughly six to eight months it stores well for grooming purposes without turning rancid on you. And let us be honest: nobody keeps a year's supply of castor oil for beard care anyway.

The Ingredients

Castor oil is mostly, around 85 percent, triglycerides of ricinoleic acid. It also contains the saturated fatty acids palmitic acid and stearic acid. The one that matters most here is linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid and one of the key nutrients for healthy hair growth. That is why this compound is credited with boosting hair growth, or at least strengthening it.

Why Use Castor Oil in Your Beard

Using castor oil in your beard usually comes with a very specific goal in mind.

In women's cosmetics, castor oil has been credited for years with influencing lash and brow growth so they look denser and fuller. That reputation has pushed castor oil steadily up the ranks in hair care generally, and beard care along with it, so men are paying closer attention too. Patchy or uneven growth, or no beard growth at all, leaves plenty of men wondering what they can do about it. In most cases the search lands on natural products, so the job gets done without adding chemicals. Castor oil in the beard also does real work on the facial skin underneath, which means it doubles as a treatment for spots and blemishes.

How to Apply It

As touched on above, you apply castor oil directly to the beard hair. Take a few drops from the bottle, put them in your palms, then work the oil through your beard with your hands. Be thorough and massage it properly into the facial hair so the results actually hold.

As you can see, castor oil, despite the folklore and the prejudice attached to it, has real grooming credentials.

To sum up: thanks to an almost unique set of components, castor oil can give your hair a first-class treatment. That goes double for beard care. Users often report not just a fuller beard but a silky, matte sheen to it, and that impression should not be underestimated.

We will go ahead and assume you are interested in beard care generally. You would not have landed on this blog otherwise. So a look around the Charlemagne Premium shop is worth your time. You will find high-quality beard care products there, made in Germany, to get the best out of your facial hair.

„A healthy and well groomed beard is important for a real man, that's why we offer everything you need to keep yours doing so.“

As barbers with more than 20 years in the trade between us, we went looking for styling and care products that convinced us 100%. There were good products on the market, but none that gave us everything we needed. After some thought, in 2014 we decided to develop our own line. For two years we spent every free minute after work at the barbershop down in our cellar, refining the formulas. When it came to ingredients, only the best was good enough. We bought the finest jojoba oils available in Morocco and argan oil from Italy.

After two years and a fair number of attempts, our first product range was ready, and it has been winning customers over ever since. We think 98% positive reviews speak for themselves. Since the official launch in 2016 it has of course kept evolving. That is one reason Charlemagne Premium products have won not one but several comparison tests in recent years.

You will find all our products right here in our online store. For any questions about them we are reachable any time at info@charlemagne-premium.com We are happy to help.