English teacher Seth Czarnecki: beard oil

Do you have a particular reason for making beard oil, or just for fun?

“When I first started growing my beard and was reading up on beard culture…one of the things [I found] is that you need to use beard oil to hydrate [your beard], so that it doesn’t get wiry or dry or dandruff, which is a real problem. You use oil to keep it hydrated. Anyway, you can go on Etsy or Google and for one ounce [of beard oil], it’s like $20 plus…And so [making my own beard oil]  was just practical…I want to save money and so I bought a bunch of carrier oils which do all the hydrating, a bunch of essential oils which give it the scent and the aroma, a little dropper bottle, and so I started just mixing and matching scents. I have three seasonal scents…one is ‘face foliage’ which is my fall/winter blend. It’s woodsy…kind of smells like earth. Then I have a spring and early summer blend which is lemon, black pepper and ylang-ylang. And I also have a summer one which is citrusy. It is fun and easy to make…anytime I see a friend with a beard I ask them if they want some beard oil.”

What are the benefits of doing it yourself?

 “I think the benefits other than financial [are] it’s just fun. With the kombucha it’s totally new…It’s just fun because you learn about the process of something that you enjoy and then you get to experiment. I made regular kombucha, which tasted great, but then I thought, ‘Oh we can do a second fermentation; it can be carbonated and add some flavor to it,” so we did a mixed berry puree and put it in the bottle…and I opened one after a week and it exploded everywhere…but that’s what makes it fun, and it’s so easy. The thing I appreciate about people like [English teacher] [Renee] Moffat who are artisans is that they have a spark of curiosity about a form of art or a craft and they pursue it. I’m choosing things that are super easy and take no time at all and financially benefit me.”

Do you ever give your creations as gifts?

 “No…[but] my best man at my wedding has a beard and I sometimes give it to him”