In today’s market there are a lot of options to choose from for washing your beard. They’re even carried at everyday pharmacies and grocery stores in the health and beauty aid section. The handcrafted soap market is heavily populated with these as well. Sellers on Etsy are trying to make it with beard care, with some even selling on other sites like eBay. So, what should you pick up to take the best care of your beard? Why should you choose a Normal Street Soapworks product?
A beard care routine can't be complete unless you start with a foundation of the best beard wash, with the best ingredients. Our beard bars offer the best solution for time, money, and convenience.
The short answer is simple: Normal Street Soapworks Beard Bars are formulated with carefully chosen ingredients that will clean your beard and face gently, while conditioning it in the process.
Let’s talk a little bit about the science behind soap. Soap is the resulting salt from chemically combining sodium hydroxide (lye) and fatty acid, which can be anything from animal fats to grapeseed oil. A molecule of soap has an end attracted to grease and grime and dirt, and an end attracted to water. Any soap you’re using works so that one gets hold of what you want to clean off, and the other end rinses it away nicely with water. This is how humans have washed for thousands of years! That’s as simple as it gets and is the function of all soap.
Normal Street Soapworks bars are formulated with something called a “superfat,” or sometimes a “lye discount.” 5% of the oils that compose one of our Beard Bars are left free-floating in a finished bar. Any handmade soap is made in this way with a bifold benefit for the maker and for the user; we are sure the soap is safe to use, while the bar is left being much richer and more conditioning than a bar of soap from a major manufacturer. When it comes to a bar made to wash hair of any kind, there were some reasons why the ingredients of a Normal Street Soapworks bar were selected, and why it’s something that sets us apart from what you’ll usually find available.
Two really common ingredients in bars of soap are simply not included in a beard soap from us: coconut oil and palm oil. Don’t get me wrong, they are part of what makes a fantastic bar of bath soap you’d use to wash your skin in a shower. In fact, they’re in our own bath bars! With the structure of a hair follicle vs the moisture your skin needs, though, it’s important that they’re omitted here. They can leave behind a film on hair that builds up, weighing your beard down.
Avocado oil, Olive oil, & Shea Butter clean the hair shaft gently while moisturizing and sealing the cuticle.
The Beard Bars you buy here are composed of just a few simple ingredients. Olive oil brings very gentle cleansing to the bars. It is in fact one of the oldest known plant oils used in making soap. Avocado oil and Shea butter are emollient, humectant, and very luxurious for the structure of hair. This is especially true for coarse hair, like a beard. Castor oil is remarkably humectant, attracting moisture from the environment to keep your beard hydrated through the day, with the added benefit of boosting the wash into a rich lather. Soybean oil, interestingly, serves two purposes: it helps the hair shaft retain moisture, while also allowing me to work longer in the making process as it slows the science down (the artist in me loves this benefit for being able to bring you soap designs that are always the best they can be!)
Our final beneficial ingredient is activated charcoal. Anything nasty your beard managed to pick up throughout your day is sure to be washed away with this! Activated charcoal is incredibly porous, featuring over 1000 square meters of surface area in a gram. It loves to grab hold of microns of other things like soot, pollen, or dust, to get rinsed away. You’ll love the difference.
A wide array of fragrances are available to suit your mood; what do you most want in your face when you wash your beard?
The fragrance is always kept light; the bar goes right in your face! There is some debate about the use of fragrances versus essential oils in soaps used on hair, but we find that not only is light usage of fragrance not damaging when you do proper aftercare for your beard, but there is no added benefit of the use of essential oils. With respect to makers who choose to do only essential oils in their line, we prefer the diverse options in fragrance. There may be an all-natural line introduced to Normal Street in the future, but that’s not where we are right now. You’ll remember from the previous blog post that even when they arrive, essential oils cannot be touted to have added benefit or tales of folk remedies attached without risking some federal retribution.
The good news is that you can definitely use a Beard Bar to shower. After all, at their core, they’re extremely high-quality soap. These can absolutely be your 3-in-1 go-to in the shower, washing everything that needs washing in one easy step. Visit the shop to grab a couple and see how it can dramatically improve your grooming routine today! And always, tag us on Instagram to share how happy and fresh you feel with your new Normal Street Soapworks goods.