Beardbrand is a story unto themselves. Admittedly, it’s a longer story, so we’ve shaved a bit off to get it to fit here, most of it retold from their website, but who can tell about their inception and rise better than Eric Bandholz, the man who started it all? It’s worth reading to understand how Beardbrand became the company “that fosters style for the urban beadsmen.” To get all the impressive details, see their story at beardbrand.com, but for now, here goes:
In February 2012 Eric attended the West Coast Beard & Mustache Championships in Portland. He was about 8 months into his yeard (a year-long beard) and it was his first beard competition. Basically, it was love at first sight as he experienced the bearded lifestyle. He never looked back. Soon he launched Beardbrand with a vision to unite beardsmen and build a community. There was a blog, a YouTube channel and Tumblr. He shared his knowledge about growing a beard and provided style inspiration to others, while building confidence in other men to grow their beards. More intently though, he worked to dispel negative stereotypes about beardsmen as being lazy, scruffy or messy. He always had a vision for more and Beardbrand slowly grew… before really taking off, that is.
Through other efforts, he met Lindsey Reinders and Jeremy McGee, a threesome that soon found they worked well together. Before long, a New York Times reporter contacted Eric, dazzled by the growing community. That lead to the team officially getting together to launch the Beardbrand store, which they managed to put together with $30 and a vendor commitment, just before the Times article ran and they began their escalation upward.
Fast forward: Today, Beardbrand doesn’t like kitschy, cheap products (that only adds to the belief that beards are a fad). They instead bring you high quality natural products with positive results. Their vision remains “to change the way society views beardsmen” while their mission is “to foster style for urban beardsmen.” Whew!
We’ve picked a few products we’d recommend to get you started. After that, once you realize the difference Beardbrand offers, you can explore their other collections to your heart’s and your face’s content.
Blank Slate Beard Wash: If you don’t like scented products, this one’s for you. Blank Slate has no fragrance and was developed just for beards. You’ll find a soft lather that’s gentle on the face, yet strong enough to tackle curly, coarse beards. With multiple five star reviews, it’s a hit.
Spiced Citrus Beard Oil: They spent months cultivating this one. The result? The finest blend of lightweight natural oils that will leave your beard conditioned and looking shiny and healthy, without feeling slimy or weighed down. With an appealing fragrance that’s fresh and light, a one-of-a-kind blend of spices and grapefruit, Beardbrand offers a word of warning — the smell is so delicious, it’ll be hard not to munch on your mustache. Maybe have breakfast before you groom your beard!
Tree Ranger Beard Softener: This one took a year to develop and it was worth the wait. It’s the finest beard softener out there, designed specifically for the beard. It’s silicone-free, a hair conditioner to soften your beard hair without silicone and its nasty build-up. You can use it daily if needed, but once or twice a week should do just fine. This one also overwhelmingly gets five star reviews.
Beardbrand offers many additional products to choose from, so spend some time on their site. Visit beardbrand.com for a variety of soaps, oils, washes, mustache combs, waxes, and kits. We like their story and think you will find they’re truly a cut above the rest.
