Balm works on a mustache, with one caveat: it is not mustache wax and it will not hold a curl. What it does is soften coarse hair, stop the skin underneath itching, and keep the whole thing lying where you brushed it.
Balm versus mustache wax
They are different products for different jobs. Mustache wax is mostly hard wax, often with a much higher beeswax or pine resin content, and its entire purpose is stiff hold for shaping and points. It is not really trying to condition anything.
A tallow balm is mostly fat with enough beeswax to stay put. It conditions the hair and the skin, and gives light control. If you want a handlebar to hold a shape all day, you want wax, possibly over balm. If you want your mustache to stop being wiry and stop poking your lip, this is the one.
How to apply it
- A very small amount. Less than a pea. A mustache is a tiny area and this is the easiest place to overdo it.
- Warm it fully first, until it is oil on your fingertips. Cold balm in a mustache leaves visible specks.
- Work it in from underneath first, against the grain, so it reaches the skin on your upper lip.
- Then comb down and out with a small comb. The combing is what makes it look deliberate.
- Keep it off your lip line if you can, or accept you will taste a little of it.
The two complaints, and both are fixable
"I can taste it." Use less, work it in from underneath rather than over the top, and comb the ends down and away from your mouth. If it still bothers you, Raw is unscented and tastes of very little.
"It gets in my food and drink." Anything you put on a mustache will, to a degree. Less product and a proper comb-through is most of the fix, and a mustache trimmed clear of the lip line is the rest.
The skin under a mustache
Easy to forget, and it dries out for the same reason the rest of a beard does: the hair wicks oil away from the skin at its root. Upper lip skin is also thin, so it chaps in wind faster than your cheeks. Getting balm underneath rather than just over the top is the whole point.
Related
Softening coarse hair, balm vs. butter, and how much to use.
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