Beard Care On Outdoor Adventures
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Beard care and personal grooming aren’t always top priorities on shorter outdoor adventures and certain longer trips like thru-hiking or camping weekends might have you neglecting your grooming too.
But what if you want to keep your beard looking its best on your outdoor adventure?
Ever been on a group outdoor adventure with a woman you want to impress?
Maybe you want to stay on your A-Game for family or friends.
Whatever the case, beard care in the outdoors is a little different from in your bathroom at home.
Let’s look at what you’ll need for building the perfect outdoorsman beard care kit that will keep you looking great without drawing bugs, bears, or other hungry critters. Yep, certain beard care products could actually attract the wrong attention.
Related Content: Beards In The Great Outdoors: Pros and Cons
How to Build the Perfect Outdoorsman Beard Care Kit
First off, unless you always use unscented beard products, you should have an outdoorsman beard care kit separate from your everyday beard care products and styling tools.
Why should you have a separate beard care kit for the outdoors?
- Unscented beard oils and beard balms are best outdoors. Scented products can attract bugs and other animals like bears. (Bears can smell scents miles away!)
- You can opt for smaller versions that will be easier to pack and carry.
- You don’t want to use your everyday beard comb and beard brush that will have residual product in the bristles.
You’ll probably want to limit your outdoorsman beard care kit to no more than six items including your travel bag.
The following six items may not be needed by everyone. If you don’t use one of the beard care items at home, you certainly don’t need it on your next outdoor adventure. In other words, don’t buy what you don’t need. I don’t want you wasting money.
1. Unscented Beard Wash
Using an unscented, natural, beard wash (beard shampoo) in the outdoors is easier on the environment. Natural beard washes are somewhat easy to find but finding an unscented beard wash is a little more difficult.
2. Beard Comb for Outdoor Adventures
A two-in-one comb is a great styling tool that will pack away easier than a longer comb.
Two-sided beard combs have a fine-toothed comb on one side and wider-spaced teeth on the other side. The fine-toothed comb is ideal for mustaches and beards that aren’t as coarse or long while the wider-spaced teeth easily comb through thicker, coarser, and longer parts of your beard.
I like the two-sided wood combs. The handcrafted teeth are less likely to snag in your beard and wood combs, unlike typical plastic combs, won’t cause static.
The bonus for us outdoorsy guys!… Wood beard combs look super cool and are a natural product.
If you prefer plastic beard combs, a 4″ comb from Kent will easily fit in your outdoorsman beard care kit. It’s not two-sided so you’ll only have two inches of the fine teeth and two of the wider.
Kent combs are made of cellulose acetate, a non-petroleum-based plastic that is less prone to static than cheaper plastic combs. They’re also saw-cut, hand-polished, and buffed to prevent snags and beard damage. If you don’t know Kent combs, you should check them out. They make a great product.
3. Beard Brush for Outdoor Adventures
Need a beard brush too? Having a compact beard brush in your outdoorsman beard care kit is far nicer than having a full-size brush.
Smaller beard brushes provide a nice grip and like their larger counterparts are made of boar’s hair bristles to reduce frizziness while distributing oil and/or balm evenly throughout your beard.
4. Unscented Beard Oil
You’ll probably want to keep your beard looking great and healthy with some beard oil. Whether you’re hiking, trekking, backpacking, camping, or other you’ll want to use unscented beard oil, like Cremo Revitalizing Beard Oil. You don’t want to run the risk of attracting nature with certain scented beard oils.
5. Unscented Beard Balm
Scented beard balms can attract bugs and critters too. If you use a beard balm, you’ll want to add an unscented beard balm to your outdoorsman beard care kit as well.
6. Travel Bag
If you don’t have a travel bag already, you’ll want one that will fit your outdoorsman beard care items and other essentials as well.
Depending on your trip, you might want a dry sack for your toiletries. I have a Sea to Summit Big River Dry Bag. I’ve used it for 6 years and couldn’t be happier. You’ll probably want the 2-liter dry sack. The size is perfect for waterproof packing inside your backpack.
Dry sacks don’t have compartments like travel bags but they’re great for keeping your toiletries dry on outdoor adventures.
Conclusion
Many of the readily available beard kits are great for home use but I’ve not found any that have a two-sided beard comb and a compact beard brush along with unscented beard wash, oil, and balm. Unless you’re willing to make compromises, you’ll probably want to build your own kit.
Whether you use your new outdoorsman beard care kit on your next camping trip or at home before your next day hike. It’s nice to know you’ll have the right beard products for your outdoor adventure.
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