Can you cure an itchy beard with coconut oil?
I’ve come across a few articles online where beard owners have asked that exact question. Beard oils are available to help keep beards soft and well-kept but some men seem to be on the lookout for something natural and perhaps cheaper in the long run.
Some suggest that coconut oil can also help to increase beard growth although I’ve come across no specific research that proves this to be true or accurate.
Coconut oil is known to have many health benefits. People use coconut oil for cooking, for skin irritation and eczema, for mouth and dental health, stain removal and more. Healthline came up with 29 uses for coconut oil that cover a wide variety of possibilities.
A quick search on Amazon for “coconut oil cream” returns over 5,000 products. I found hair moisturizers, skin moisturizers, hand creams, anti-aging creams, lotions and much more. All of these products contain coconut oil. You can also find sunblocks and other topical products that contain coconut oil. It’s easily found in products these days.
You’ll notice that many of the uses for coconut oil concern skincare and in particular, products that moisturize and protect the skin.
So it should come as no surprise that plain coconut oil can be used for beard care for the same reasons. We have already spoken about how to fix an itchy beard at home through better cleaning, exfoliation and grooming.
But coconut oil may offer a further, natural remedy that can be used in combination with your current beard care routine.
What Is Coconut Oil?
Coconut oil is made from the inside white flesh of the coconut. It is generally considered a superfood given its high healthy fatty acid content.
The funny thing about coconut oil is that it comes in a semi solid form rather than a liquid which is what we tend to think of when we hear the word “oil.” Coconut oil comes in a form that is somewhere between refrigerated butter and margarine in terms of how solid it is, to give an analogy. It’s solid but you can easily scrape it out with your finger at room temperature.
Rubbing the coconut oil in your hands or between your fingers quickly turns the oil into a softer form if not an actual liquid. Heating coconut oil does turn it into a liquid form when cooking for example.
Nutrition Facts for 1 Tablespoon (15 mL) of Coconut Oil
| Calories 130 | Calories from Fat 130 |
| % Daily Value | |
| Total Fat 14g | 22% |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | 0% |
| Sodium 0 mg | 0% |
| Total Carbohydrates 0 mg | 0% |
| Protein 0 mg |
As you can see, coconut oil has a high fat content – about 82% – and is higher in saturated fat than many cooking oils. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil has around 6 times the saturated fat as 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
So while you might not want to swap your current cooking oil for coconut oil, the high fat content may come in handy for your skin and helps to explain why so many creams and lotions use it as an ingredient.
Coconut Oil Benefits For Beard Owners
Coconut oil has been shown to be as effective and safe as mineral oil when applied as moisturizers for mild to moderate xerosis*.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796020/
*Xerosis is the medical term for dry skin.
Coconut oil has been shown through research to have skin barrier repair, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, wound healing and skin aging benefits.
It can be very helpful for dry skin as shown above and it’s natural and fairly reasonably priced:
| I found an 84 ounces container (that’s over 5 lbs!) for $31 on Amazon. That’s 170 servings of 1 tablespoon each which if you’re using it once per day, will last almost half a year. The container specifically states that it contains 100% organic virgin coconut oil and can be used for both baking and as a moisturizing body butter. |
Here are a few of the main benefits that pertain to beards and skincare for men.
Moisturizer
As mentioned above, coconut oil is a common ingredient in many popular skin creams, lotions and even in sunblock. Coconut oil’s high saturated fat content may help to keep your beard hairs and skin soft which can help to prevent one of the main culprits in itchy beard, skin dryness.
Softer Beard Hair
Coconut oil contains lauric oil which makes up about half of the fatty oils contained in it. A 2015 study appears to show that lauric acid may be a significant contributor to the benefits found in coconut oil.
Anti-Inflammatory and Antibacterial Properties
Research has shown that coconut oil has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that benefits the skin. This may be particularly helpful for men with beards who find themselves suffering from ingrown hairs, blemishes and other conditions that could benefit from quicker healing.
My Itchy Beard Coconut Oil Remedy Experience
OK, first off I don’t actually suffer from an itchy beard nor do I have an actual full beard. I have a goatee but whenever I have grown full beards in the past, I did experience an itchy beard early in the process. I know how annoying it feels from memory.
So my experiment is what it is.
I tried applying coconut on my goatee to see what it felt like and more specifically, what it smelled like.
Not surprisingly it smelled like coconut so if you’re ok with the smell, so far so good. The smell isn’t overpowering to me and I generally like the smell and taste of coconut.
I scraped a small amount of coconut oil on my finger and rubbed it together between my fingers and quickly turned it into a soft paste. I applied a small amount of the oil to my goatee by hand.
There is a greasiness to the coconut oil so if you have dry skin it could certainly help you. As mentioned in the Healthline article above, people do use coconut oil for skin benefits including skin irritation, eczema and as a moisturizer.
An hour after applying the oil, I rubbed my goatee and could feel a small amount of greasiness on my fingers but nothing to really complain about.
I continued applying coconut oil to my goatee for the next 3 days and while I can’t say I noticed a difference in the feel of my goatee, I wasn’t having any trouble to begin with.
One side note: I could still get a whiff of coconut oil from my beard hours after I applied it. Plain coconut oil is an acceptable smell to me but I have to say I think I’d prefer the smell of a nice beard oil if I’m going to smell something on my facial hair.
Again, I don’t currently experience itchy beard so all I could test was the feeling of applying coconut oil to my facial hair and in that regard, I don’t have any complaints.
Coconut Oil For Those With Oily Skin
That includes me….I tend to avoid moisturizers as I already have fairly oily skin even at my age.
As noted above, coconut oil is very high in saturated fats. It helps to explain why it hasn’t really caught on as cooking replacement for say olive oil. It’s much higher in fat than olive oil. And olive oil is fairly high in fat and calories.
I’d be careful about rubbing coconut oil on my face and especially the nose areas if you already have oily skin. It can clog your pores and given your oily skin already does that on its own, you don’t want to make things worse. Especially if you already suffer from acne.
If you’re going to test coconut oil as a beard oil replacement, test it on your beard to see if it suits you and helps. If not, I’d suggest looking at a proper beard oil which is beard-specific and may suit your skin type better.
Conclusion
- Coconut oil is known to have many health benefits including anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.
- Many creams, lotions and sunscreens among other products have coconut oil for healthy skin and other benefits.
- If you suffer from dry skin particularly in the beard area, coconut oil may be used to help with itchy skin due to these and other conditions.
- Coconut oil is made from the white meat from the inside of a ripe coconut so if you don’t like the smell, try a scented beard oil instead.
- Coconut oil has a slight greasiness to it as it is very high in saturated fats.
Have you tried coconut oil to fight an itchy beard? What was your experience like?