Diving with a Beard

[drrich2]

lanolin

Interested in this. I shave the top part of mine off, but still get variable leakage ('laugh lines' where the areas meets my cheeks may be a factor). I've tried a number of different masks; the best functionality is my current one, and it varies from a pretty good seal to frustrating.

1.) Petroleum jelly (Vaseline) - I've read don't use because as a petroleum-based product it doesn't effectively breakdown and is an environmental pollutant.

2.) Silicone grease - recommended as an alternative, I bought a little tub in Cozumel years ago and it was too runny and appeared worthless for the task.

Which has left me searching for a thick pasty substance that's adhere to my face and mask, ideally something organic/natural that'd break down in nature, but not necessary drawn in animals seeking food (concern about that put me off from the idea of peanut butter, which otherwise seemed to have potential).

Does lanolin have a strong odor or any other objectionable qualities? How thick/viscous is it?

Richard.

 

[Searcaigh]

(concern about that put me off from the idea of peanut butter, which otherwise seemed to have potential).

On your next dive take some peanut butter with you and see if it attracts fish

 

[johndiver999]

Shaving a tiny strip of the upper lip seems preferable to the risk of getting nasty grease smeared all over the mask between dives. I have to be meticulous about keeping my face plate clean to avoid fogging issues.

 

[Thunder Struck]

Does lanolin have a strong odor or any other objectionable qualities? How thick/viscous is it?

Richard.

No smell I’ve noticed. It does harden up somewhat in the cold, so keeping it in a pocket will alleviate that, or putting into a small canister (like Carmex was originally packaged) instead of in a tube.

It’s non-toxic and natural, expressed from sheep wool. It’s often marketed in small tubes for nursing mothers and as such can be found in the nursing supply section at stores.

You do want to put your defog on first, or make sure you use the other hand so as to not smear lanolin residue on the inside of the mask. But that should go without saying.

Otherwise the Dive Gear Express frameless mask also works quite well for sealing without using the lanolin. The skirt follows a higher line up under the nose. The downside, however, is I need gauge readers and that mask doesn’t offer them. Otherwise it’s the best dang mask I’ve purchased to date for sealing as well as having a good field of view. And for the price I don’t think it can be beat on the price/performance ratio. Now if @DiveGearExpress would just offer it with gauge readers. I’ve tried their offering with but it doesn’t seal as well (needs the lanolin) and has a more reduced field of view.

 

[Thunder Struck]

Shaving a tiny strip of the upper lip seems preferable to the risk of getting nasty grease smeared all over the mask between dives. I have to be meticulous about keeping my face plate clean to avoid fogging issues.

The lanolin simply winds up on the edge of the skirt that it comes into contact with.

Now then if you rub some lanolin on your mustache or laugh lines, then use that same finger to run in the defog, you’ll probably have issues. Something about a cart and a horse comes to mind.

Clean up is pretty easy with no more than a paper towel.

 

[Ryan Neely]

So, I'm super lazy. I rarely shave or trim my beard. As such, I have scraggly hair up along my cheekbones where the mask skirt sits as well as the typical heavy hair just beneath the nose. I typically experience mild leakage to about 50 feet or so. Nothing that a quick puff of air from my nose won't fix. Though, I am on open circuit, so that's not so big of a deal.

I think the reason the leaking stop around fifty feet is that the hair is just super dense and the pressure of the skirt against it at that depth creates a [mostly] water permeable seal. I really only experience annoying flooding when I've trimmed the hair and it is growing back and is either stubble or extremely short. As it grows longer, that flooding seems to stop.

I've tried silicone, and it works fine, but I often forget to apply it regularly (again, because I'm lazy) and, I still experienced some ingress along the cheeks where I have scraggly hair.

Since my buddywife and I typically hang out above the thermocline and don't often dip deeper than 30 feet, I've just learned to live with a little thimbleful of water in the nose cup.

[Note: For any newbies out there just learning to dive who also wear a scraggly beard, this did cause me no end of difficulties with my buoyancy when I first started out. The nose cup would fill with water. It was uncomfortable. Rather than exhaling through the regulator, I would exhale through my nose to keep the mask water-free. I'd do this every breath.

What happened was, I inhaled faster and deeper through my mouth than I could exhale through my nose and, over time, I ended up bouncing all over the place. Learning to breathe only through the regulator took work (and getting used to have a perpetual wet nose) but it helped solve a lot of the buoyancy issues I was having.]

 

[admikar]

For some reason I get more leakage if clear shaven than if I got 2 weeks of growth.
While facial hair is not super long I find that sideways mask wiggle deal with most of my leakage problems.

 

[Pressurehead]

Been doing that for years, works for me too.

Ditto.
And be very careful with ANY kind of grease , it will find its way onto your mask lens and when you de-fog, it will spread, a little bit goes a long way and a bugger to remove.

 

[CaptainPanda]

Food-grade silicone lubricant, like the stuff they use on ice cream machines. Usually more of a gel than the runny consistency.

I also like the Mares X-Vision mask with the Liquid Skin silicone - it's super soft and is really good at sealing over facial hair.

 

[Thrutch]

Never tried it, but, what about chapstick? Isn't that basically wax based? Just a thought.

I use it when I forget/neglect to shave. Works all right for most of a dive. Looks like snot after.