The Faces of Beardsgaard series takes you inside the story and the world of each of our products ~ our real live regular clients, cut by the barbers of Beardsgaard, groomed by River Peak Apothecary, on location, often just off the beaten path.

Journey to our realm, nerds.

SCENT MEMORY

The human animal has five senses, but only two of them pass through the portion of the mind linked to emotion and memory. Of the five, only taste and smell can instantly bring to you faraway and long ago places.

The way a favorite aunt's house sometimes smelled like something heady you couldn't identify until you were a teenager.

The exact scent of the leaves underfoot that afternoon of your first kiss.

It is for this simple reason that we made a whole year of the scents of the seasons, so that you can change along with them.

It is for this simple reason that we made our grooming products in the scents of the seasons, so that you can change along with them.

Hearthstone is for: Crisp, dry evenings when the mind wanders to home and hearth.

THE STORY

Having created the world of Beardsgaard, you can imagine that when we decided to delve deeper into our craft and introduce our own product line, we felt we also needed to delve deeper into the mythology we had been creating amongst ourselves.

We already had the map of the Realm on the wall, after all. So when it came to creating the scents of our grooming goods, we first looked to the seasons that our corner of the world has in abundance, all from natural sources.

And then came the names, which are added as locations on the map, each with a mythology all its own.

Our beard oils, balms and butters are created by barbers to tame the most Ent-like beards of the thousands we encounter, but more than that, they tell a story.

This is the story of Hearthstone.

THE MYTHOLOGY

The mythology of the realm of Beardsgaard grows and grows. And we do not speak of some metaphorical mythos of a business, we actually started writing origin stories, and kept writing.

In the Hearthstone mythology, a human explorer embarked upon a quest to find his missing map maker father, deep into the dead forests of Svartalfheim. There are...a lot of people who don't come back from Svartalfheim, but not for the reasons one might expect.

Keep up with the story as it unfolds right here.

THE FACE

This is Dan, a client since right about the time we opened Beardsgaard Barbers. He is a husband, father, and quite the photographer, but that's not why we requisitioned him to be the face of Hearthstone.

It is because we needed a windblown wayward adventurer with a great beard and hair, and his has long been one of our favorite heads in the shop. He also likes to hike, so Blademaiden didn't feel bad dragging him around a state park for lo many hours.

This was the first of our photo shoots, when the idea was to make our models real world versions of the mythological ones. Immediately after this, we began veering into full on fantasy garb, because it's just so much fun. Countless thanks to Una Mae's in Chicago for lending us the wardrobe for this shoot, which matched the setting so well it still gives us goosebumps.

THE SETTING

STARVED ROCK STATE PARK • OGLESBY, ILLINOIS / GUNNAR ANDERSON FOREST PRESERVE • GENEVA, ILLINOIS

Starved Rock is, frankly, one of the most impressive places Illinois has to offer, and while the boardwalk and wooden bridged trails closer to the Lodge are HEAVILY trafficked, there are plenty of more remote trails where you get a bit messier, along with other rewards.

The mythology of this story required some spectacular natural elements that we got at Starved Rock, but we needed something built by hands to tell the rest of the tale. Enter, the grotto at a little forest preserve right behind the government center where you go vote around here.

It has sadly been much vandalized over the years by jerks (much of which has been photoshopped off here), but it's one of the most magical things you can come across in the suburban woods.

THE SPIRIT OF HEARTHSTONE

Night settles across the wilds, untouched by man for eons. Centered in a glade of crumbling ruins rests a stone of eternal flame that smolders with scents of comfort, familiar and perhaps eternal.

Let us take you there.