Something waxy for the weekend.

OldGoat

Despairing of ever finding a good moustache wax readily available and cheap to purchase I decided to make my own. I had a look around the interweb thingy and found the basic recipe is simply pure beeswax and petroleum jelly, or Vaseline as we all know it. The differing strengths of wax are made by changing the ratios of the two substances in the mix.
I've been looking for a very strong wax, something that will hold for the night through wind and rain and guinness and cocktails and sweat and a hundred cheek kissing greetings to friends. (I love my nights out). Up to now I've been using hair wax, pomade, to groom my beard & 'tache and it works fine for my handlebar but I wanted something more sculpted, an english. With the pomade my handlebar always curls upwards and no matter how much I twist the ends it always splits and frays.
I bought a tub of Vaseline and a few bars of beeswax from a health store. The wax was hidden in a dusty back of the shelf box that hadn’t seen daylight in years.

I made up a few different ratios just to check strengths, just a few grams in weight of each as samples. A 1:1, a 2:1 and a 3:1 mix of wax:Vaseline. I put the mixtures into those little cup-cake waxed papers and put them into the oven at about 100 degrees for 5 minutes to melt the wax. I poured the concoctions into urine specimen jars (don't ask) and allowed them to set.
The first mix, the 1:1 was soft and brushed through the 'tache easily and held it fairly well, a bet better then the pomade in fact. I figure it will make a suitable wax for day to day grooming. The strong wax, 3 parts wax to 1 part Vaseline was a revelation. It is very stiff and a little difficult to work into the hair but the hold was magnificent. My 'tache stayed super straight, narrow, pointed and never a hair went astray all night. The following morning the wax just combed straight out again without any difficulty. I have yet to try the middle mixture, the 2:1 ratio one but I'm hoping that the wax will have the malleability of the 3:1 and the holding strength of the 1:1.

The wax, when first melted is the colour of pee and I thought my urine sample jars were most appropriate but as it set it turned a cream-white colour. When put into the 'tache it lost all colour completely and could not be seen against my grey/red/brown hair. Some of the sites I've looked at say that by adding a little shoe polishing cream you can colour your wax to suit or change your hair colour but I don't think I'll be going down that route. However I might add some fragrance to the wax. When first melted the wax does whiff a bit but it has very little fragrance when applied and I kinda like the scent of the beeswax but I think it might be good to add something new. My next samples will be fragrance tests. I'm going to try a few different essential oils in the mix to see what happens. I'll go with the traditional base notes of mens scents, musk, citrus and sandalwood. I'm looking for a source of these oils if anyone knows one.

So there ya go, a brief history of my weekends experimenting. If anyone wants to sculpt their facial hair into something outlandish then give me a shout and I'll let ya try some of the waxes.

Gran Hermano

http://www.tayloroldbondst.co.uk/ manufacture and sell moustache wax.
(Easiest way to find it is to just search for wax on their site).

Gran Hermano

OG, here's a page I just happened across with links relating to moustache wax
http://www.handlebarclub.co.uk/waxindex.shtml

OldGoat

Cheers Gran. It was something I read in the HandleBar Club site that started me thinking about making my own waxes. I've tried a few of the commercial hair and 'tache waxes already but I like the idea of making my own. Sucessful too! Last night I sculpted my goatee into a trident and the 'tache into a FuManchu.


I need a life :rolleyes:

Shiminay

I've been getting so annoyed with my beard lately, there's no managing it. I had a big meeting today and ended up having to trim quite a bit off the ends to make it manageable, but a solid wax like the one you've made up might just be the trick I need - I'd love to get a sample of it if you're willing to share?

OldGoat

Not a problem at all Kharn. You in Dublin?...or PM me an address and I'll post some to ya.

DevilsBreath

Going to have to give this a go. Trying to plate my Goatee at the moment but it keeps coming appart.