Beard creams, oils, shampoos, waxes, it’s hard to keep track of all the beard grooming products promising Odin-worthy beards.
Of course, many men are blessed with natural beard growth and great facial hair from day one.
But there are plenty of things you can do to intervene if you aren’t among that lucky number.
We’ll look at one of the easiest beard care products you can use to enhance growth. Beard growth creams. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of the different creams, key ingredients that can boost growth and maintain beard health, and some tips for how to use the creams most effectively.
You’ll be rocking your new, thicker, longer, beard in less time than you think!
Budget |
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Beard Balm Softener Cream & Growth Conditioner |
4.7/5.0 |
Size: 2.0 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: All-natural ingredients, vegetarian |
Combination of plant-based oils for nutrition and growth support. |
Check Amazon |
Best Value |
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Kerah Lane Thicker & Healthier Beard Balm |
4.8/5.0 |
Size: 4.0 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Vegan and fragrance-free |
Cruelty-free, looser cream is easy to work through your beard. |
Check Amazon |
Top Pick |
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Beard Bolt XL Hair Growth Stimulating Beard Balm |
4.9/5.0 |
Size: 2.5 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Vegetarian and Gluten-Free |
Contains Biotin, from a company that specializes in beard growth. |
Check Amazon |
Beard Growth Cream Tips and Tricks
Like most products, good beard care requires a combination of both good products and good technique. If you want to make the most from your new beard growth cream, these tips and tricks will help you get started.
Start with a Little
While adding too much of these products won’t hurt your skin or hair, they can quickly make your beard look and feel greasy or stiff.
Start with a minimal amount of product. No more than about the size of a dime in your palm. Once you’ve gotten that distributed through your beard, evaluate if you need more.
You’ll probably also notice that you need less product over time since your beard’s overall health will improve.
Don’t Apply Directly to Your Beard
Beard creams are thick. If you apply the product straight to your beard, you’ll likely end up with clumps and uneven distribution.
Instead, put the cream in the palm of your hand and work it with both hands until you have an even coating on your palms and fingers. Comb your fingers through your beard. Try to make sure you get the beard balm all the way to your skin but without coating the skin in your product.
A beard comb or brush may help with this process if you have a longer beard.
Don’t Miss Your Chin or Jawline
While the front of your beard is the area people are most likely to see, it’s not the only place you should apply the product. All your beard will look better if you make sure you’re taking care of every section. Even the hair growing under your chin, along your jaw, and by your ears.
After you’ve applied the cream, and any other grooming products, wash your hands and gently check your work. Your beard should feel the same all the way through. If your beard feels a little too dry anywhere, give it a quick touch up.
Massage Your Beard and Skin
A gentle skin massage will help bring circulation to the area, improving your hair and skin health over time and encouraging more growth.
When you’re applying product, you should massage hair and skin both. This will help make sure the product is distributed more evenly throughout. It also gives you a chance to find tangles and other potential problems in your beard before it turns into a rat’s nest.
Lifestyle Stuff
Your beard is, in part, a reflection of your total health. All the products in the world won’t help if you aren’t taking care of your body in other ways. These lifestyle tips will help your beard grow in faster, fuller, and healthier.
Avoid Tobacco Products
Nicotine and tobacco get in the way of hair growth regardless of how you imbibe. Chewing can damage the cells in and around your mouth. Smoking affects the same area. Plus, smoke residue can build up on your skin and hair (both your beard and the hair on top of your head) and cause further damage.
Avoiding tobacco is good for your overall health and will also help you grow an enviable beard.
Get Regular Exercise
Facial hair relies on good body chemistry, and also needs testosterone. Working out regularly will not only keep you looking and feeling better, but it can also boost your testosterone levels and grow more facial hair.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Diet is critical for all hair growth. If you want to have an awesome beard, you need to get complete balanced nutrition. Focus on getting whole proteins and healthy fats. Your carbs should come from whole-grain, low sugar sources. Vegetable and fruit carbs are also beneficial.
Ingredients to Look For
These ingredients will all help boost your skin health, stimulate circulation, and promote beard growth. Look for these ingredients in particular or include them in your regular diet to reap additional benefits.
Caffeine
Caffeine comes from many different sources. Green tea is one of the better sources of caffeine for hair, but it’s not the only good one. Coffee, black tea, and even cacao can all boost the caffeine in your hair products.
Caffeine boost circulation, promoting hair growth and hair follicle health. Better circulation means more oxygen, better nutrient access, and thicker, stronger hair.
Caffeine also helps smooth the hair cuticle and keeps the individual strands healthier.
Rosemary
Rosemary is a botanical ingredient that also works to boost circulation. It’s packed with trace minerals and other nutrients and can be carried by other oils deeper into your skin where your hair follicles access those health benefits.
At most concentrations, rosemary isn’t a skin irritant. It can cause a slight tingle, though, a little like clove or mint on your skin. (side note, clove, and mint are helpful ingredients too.)
Argan Oil
While Argan oil isn’t the best oil for your skin, it does penetrate more deeply than many other healthy fats. It’s also shown incredible promise as a hair growth boosting ingredient. It’s one of the better oils for both hair and beards.
Argan oil also has immediate health and appearance benefit for your beard. You’ll notice that your beard looks fuller and more lustrous within only a few days of using products with argan oil.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is one of the best oils for your skin. It’s rich in multiple types of fats, contains important nutrients, and penetrates your skin almost as deeply as your natural sebum or jojoba oil.
It also avoids clogging your pores or making your skin and facial hair dependent on the outside moisture.
Pro-tip, you can use plain coconut oil to supplement your other beard care products. Since it’s good for your skin as well, you don’t need to worry about using too much or clogging your pores.
Top 6 Beard Growth Creams Comparison Table
Product Name | Ingredient Requirements | Size | Price |
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Beard Bolt XL | Vegetarian and Gluten-Free | 2.5 oz | Check Price |
Bossman Relaxing Beard Balm | All-natural ingredients, cruelty-free | 2.4 oz | Check Price |
Best Beard Balm for Men by Hair Thickness Maximizer | Meets FDA, GMP, and NSF safety guidelines | 2.0 oz | Check Price |
Beard Balm Softener Cream & Growth Conditioner | All-natural ingredients, vegetarian | 2.0 oz | Check Price |
Kerah Lane Beard Balm | Vegan and fragrance-free | 4.0 oz | Check Price |
Beard Growth Serum with Biotin & Caffeine | Handmade and all-natural | 16 fl oz | Check Price |
6 Best Beard Creams for Beard Growth: Detailed Reviews
Before we get started, beard growth creams are a limited market. Not all of these creams are specifically designed for causing beard growth. But we’ve evaluated their results and ingredients and are confident that each will help with growing and maintaining a thick, long, beard.
After we go through the products, we’ll also cover some tips and tricks, and talk about some of the best ingredients for promoting hair growth.
1. Beard Bolt XL (Top Pick)
Editor’s Rating: 4.9/5.0
Beard Bolt is one of the biggest brands in beard care and beard growth products. Their line of products includes this beard cream, as well as a supplement and several other products geared for growth. That means that they really know what they’re doing.
That’s one of the reasons they made our best overall designation. Since beard growth is their specialty, they know what works and what doesn’t.
This balm includes a variety of different plant-based healthy oils. Using multiple oils is helpful since each contains different nutrients and fats. While some oils, like coconut oil and jojoba oil, have better penetration rates, they might not be the best choice for your specific hair type and texture.
It’s also gluten-free and vegetarian. That means more men can use it safely, and there are fewer things you need to worry about causing bad reactions. This is a good choice for men with sensitive skin.
One of the primary hair follicle stimulators in this formula is caffeine. Caffeine not only stimulates your hair follicles to grow more, thicker hair, it’s also good for hair and skin strength as a nutrient.
The slight stimulation of caffeine is usually mild. Some men don’t feel it at all while others experience a slight warmth or tingling sensation.
Whether you feel anything or not, he caffeine works to improve circulation to your skin and hair follicles. That means more oxygen, more nutrients, and better protection from free radicals, toxins, and bacteria.
Combine the caffeine with the natural oils and other key nutrients, and you have a potent combination of growth benefits and hair strand strengthening.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 2.5 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Vegetarian and Gluten-Free |
The Pros |
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Vegetarian |
Gluten-free |
A large combination of natural oils and botanical extracts |
Smells good |
A little cream goes a long way |
From a company that specializes in beard growth |
Contains Biotin |
Made in the USA |
Itch free |
Botanical oils including pumpkinseed, argan, jojoba, avocado, and others |
The Cons |
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A bit more expensive than most competitors |
2. Bossman Relaxing Beard Balm
Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0
This is one of the beard creams on our list that isn’t specifically designed for growth. We recommend this balm for men who are looking for slightly more modest results. It will help improve your growth rate while also improving the strength and luster of your beard.
This is a more strongly-scented cream than some since it’s primarily targeted as a grooming product. It’s a complex scent, a little woody, little fruity, and a little floral, but no one note stands out above the others.
We really appreciated that the scents also help stimulate your skin and help promote growth. This is an accidental effect, growth isn’t why they were included, but it’s a nice bonus.
It’s also made from all-natural ingredients, include jojoba oil, vitamin E, and several other critical nutrients for hair growth and health.
Despite including several different oils, this balm doesn’t look or feel oily in your beard. It also offers superior control and grooming management.
This is a good product choice for men who are concerned about brittle facial hair, itchy skin, or who get beard dandruff. Moisturizing your beard and skin is a great growth booster. This is best for men who can grow a beard but can’t get it to the length or shape you want.
Bossman’s balm won’t necessarily fix patchy or slow growth, but it’ll help with everything else.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 2.4 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: All-natural ingredients, cruelty-free |
The Pros |
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Pleasant scent |
Huge moisture booster |
Helps with grooming and shaping |
A little goes a long way |
Non-greasy texture |
A little thicker than most beard balms |
Adds luster to your beard without shine |
All-natural ingredients |
The Cons |
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Not specifically designed for hair growth (while effective) |
Essential oils may cause a slight skin reaction for some |
3. Best Beard Balm for Men by Hair Thickness Maximizer
Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0
This beard balm combines a growth treatment with a leave-in condition for a luxurious feeling treatment that also boosts hair health and thickness.
This balm uses tea tree oil to help promote hair growth and stimulate circulation. Tea tree oil is incredibly effective. But tea tree oil is also a little harsh and can cause a skin reaction or a rash on your skin.
However, it’s combined with a ton of skin-soothing ingredients like beeswax, coconut oil, and apricot oil.
In addition to boosting circulation and promoting thicker, faster, hair growth, this balm also cuts down on beard itch and dandruff.
The beeswax also makes styling significantly easier. You won’t find yourself fighting flyaways, split ends, and broken strands when you’re shaping your beard.
Made in the USA and designed to meet a number of quality standards for safety. Hair Thickness Maximizer also offers a 90-day customer guarantee.
Not only does this balm help encourage growth. It also helps preserve your existing hair follicles, making it a superb choice for men experiencing facial hair loss.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 2 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Meets FDA, GMP, and NSF safety guidelines |
The Pros |
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Improves circulation |
Protects and preserves your existing hair follicles, while encouraging others to grow hair thicker and faster |
Uses a combination of botanical moisturizing ingredients |
90-day customer satisfaction guarantee |
Tea tree oil |
Meets FDA, GMP, and NSF safety guidelines |
The Cons |
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Only 1 ingredient focused on promoting growth |
Tea tree oil can cause negative skin reactions in some people |
Scent is slightly sharp |
4. Beard Balm Softener Cream & Growth Conditioner (Best Budget)
Editor’s Rating: 4.7/5.0
This beard cream manages to promote hair growth while still being incredibly gentle. It’s a good combination for men with sensitive skin, or who have had negative reactions to beard balm in the past. While it doesn’t promote growth as quickly as some of the products on our list, it’s a good middle option.
The ingredients include sweet orange oil and argan oil, both of which promote circulation and growth.
Plus, they’re soft and skin-soothing. Even if you aren’t looking for more growth, this product will help eliminate dandruff and itchiness. The softener cream also makes styling easier and more effective and helps you avoid a lot of everyday damage that slows growth.
Mango butter combines with the sweet orange oil for a pleasant fresh sensation and lends a slightly fruity scent to the final product.
While orange oil won’t promote the same level of growth caffeine and tea tree oil can, it can help your beard fill in, grow back after a bad chin, or fill in patches. If you’re looking for mild to moderate growth benefits, and need to avoid negative skin reactions, this is a good choice.
This balm also made our best bargain rating because it’s a highly affordable option that works, but with more mild ingredients.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 2.0 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: All-natural ingredients, vegetarian |
The Pros |
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All-natural ingredients |
Combination of plant-based oils for nutrition and growth support |
Non-greasy |
Quick absorb formula |
Makes styling easy |
Easy to use |
100% natural botanical ingredients and beeswax |
Beeswax, mango butter, jojoba oil, and others |
The Cons |
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Milder ingredients mean it works more slowly |
5. Kerah Lane Beard Balm (Best Value)
Editor’s Rating: 4.8/5.0
Kerah Lane’s vegan beard balm packs more of a punch than we expected given its ingredient limitations. But, despite using entirely botanical ingredients and leaving out beeswax or other common animal-produced thickeners, this beard balm helps with styling and growth, without becoming harsh.
It made our best value designation as a slightly higher quality beard balm that’s still affordable. It’s all-natural ingredient list, and the care paid to promoting skin health and beard growth, pay off. This is a balm well-suited to helping new beards grow in and improving the health and appearance of established beards.
The vitamin E and chamomile both help soothe your skin, while also promoting individual skin strand health. Meanwhile, flaxseed oil penetrates to your hair follicles, bringing the nutrients and moisture they need to function. Rosehip oil packs a variety of key nutrients and vitamins, making sure your skin has all the makings of a great beard.
This is a fragrance-free formula. That doesn’t mean it has no scent, but that all of the scent comes naturally from the included ingredients. Its also a very mild scent, easily covered by a beard oil or other scented products.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 4 oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Vegan and fragrance-free |
The Pros |
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All-natural ingredients |
Looser cream is easy to work through your beard |
Vegan |
Scent-free |
Cruelty-free |
An effective but gentle combination of growth-boosting ingredients |
The Cons |
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Fragrance-free formula means this cream as a slightly floral natural formula |
6. Beard Growth Serum with Biotin & Caffeine
Editor’s Rating: 4.8/5.0
Technically this isn’t a beard cream, but a more liquid serum. But, since there is a relatively small number of growth creams on the market, we thought it would be helpful to include another product that you can use in place of a beard growth cream or to supplement it.
The biotin and caffeine are the two most important ingredients in this formula. Biotin is a critical vitamin that helps promote skin and hair health. Caffeine, on the other hand, promotes circulation for better hair follicle health and faster-growing hair.
Serums can be applied 1-2x a day, and have similar styling benefits to creams and waxes, but without the heavy hold.
This is also a hand-made, made in the USA product.
If you’re looking for something to boost your facial hair or need an additional product to go with one of the other creams on this list, this serum is a good option.
Tech Specs |
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Product weight: 16 fl oz |
Ingredient Requirements: Handmade and all-natural |
The Pros |
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Works well with the other creams on this list |
Is easy to apply |
Works quickly |
Has an immediate boost to hair and skin moisture |
Includes a 30-day customer satisfaction guarantee |
Effective combination of botanicals, vitamins, and caffeine |
Made in the USA |
The Cons |
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Is not a cream, should be used slightly more often |
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading this article, you feel more familiar with the facial hair growth creams available to you.
We’ve covered some of the best creams available, including pros and cons, so you have a quick list to choose from. But the product alone isn’t all you need. You also need good technique. So, we covered that too.
Between these products and good beard care techniques, we’re confident that your beard will grow in healthier, longer, and faster than before.
But, in case you’d rather look for your own products, we’ve also included a short ingredient guide. Looking for these key ingredients, along with Made in the USA, cruelty-free, and 100% natural labels will help you make sure you’re buying a high-quality product.
Before we go, we want to remind you that beard care and growth is more like a marathon than a sprint. You need to build good habits and stick with them over the long haul, not just for a couple of days or weeks.
Find a product you like, and try it for at least a month before you decide whether or not that product is working for you.