Survivalist Skincare

Many of you know what usnea is, but don’t know that you know. This lichen transforms a beautiful forest into a moody feeling place. Also known as Old Man’s Beard, this green moss-looking stuff is likely “hanging out” in a forest near you.

IDENTIFY properly!

Check out this identification video I made https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OBV0GM8Kv_Q

Ok, so you’re probably saying to yourself that you’ve definitely run across this wild-haired in the woods. The fool-hardy way to make sure it’s the right guy is to gently pull apart a thicker strand of it and reveal an inner white more elastic band.

The outside greenish sheath will open and you will see a white vein inside that has more stretchiness to it.

Look-Alikes

There are not many look-alikes in the woods, but there are a couple of beware. Tortured Horsehair Lichen (yes, lets giggle about that name) is found in the northwest United States and it quite poisonous.

Ramalina is another look-alike, but is far less hairy looking and does not have the white stretchy inner core.

Also do not confuse Usnea with Spanish Moss. Well, actually, no big deal if you do. They actually have similar uses in wound care, though Spanish Moss does not seem to ave AS strong an antibacterial nature. But that is debatable and perhaps just not studied enough.

Don’t Take Too Much

When foraging it, the rules are simple.

1. only take it from fallen branches, please don’t take it from live tree branches
2. do not take more than a handful or two. You simply don’t need more than that, and it’s just going to dry out and be blah very quickly. Take what you will use right away

How to Use:

Wound care with Usnea is simple. Get it on there however you can.

If you are in an emergency situation with little time, Usnea can be packed directly on a wound as an antibacterial. It seems this may be the most common indigenous use.

But here we are with modern tools, even when we are camping or living the simple life.

You can make a simple Usnea Oil for skincare

-finely chop it (coffee grinder or even some blender action works here) and fill a small jar with 25% macerated Usnea and the rest oil. You won’t be going through this oil very fast, probably, so don’t get crazy. You don’t want the oil to go rancid before you’ve had the chance to use it all, then we have just wasted precious material that takes years to grow.

-some people gently heat this in a double boiler or set it in the sun (COVER YOUR JAR COMPLETELY IN A DARK CLOTH, no sunlight please) for a few days. The longer this oil steeps, the better. But you can start using it after a week, and it won’t hurt to use it sooner.

-store in a cool dark place and apply to abrasions, for acne, and some people use it for sore joints

Wound Powder

Powder the material in a coffee grinder or blender.

Put the powder on your ouches.

Done

Note: you can sift out the larger pieces of the plant material that won’t powder, if you’re feeling’ fancy. I also recommend adding some Comfrey powder to this mix. We will go over Comfrey soon. But Usnea powder alone is a great antibacterial powder made of something you can almost always fine nearby.

Tea

This tea can be used internally or as a wound-wash! Or to soak a bandage in to do a 1-hour long wet-healing bandage.

1 puffy tablespoon Usnea and 2 cups hot water (never boiling! boiling any plant kills or degrades the very healing components that we are trying to coax out into the water).

Make a Tincture:

Tinctures are not for the impatient. But they are simple.

1. Fill a jar 2/3 full of Usnea
2. Pour food grade alcohol to the top of the jar
3. Put it in a dark cabinet for 4-6 weeks
4. Filter out the plant material and store in a dark coloured jar or bottle (light always degrades naturally occurring vitamins and beneficial plant chemicals)

This tincture is for internal uses, of which there are so many that I don’t feel like I can cover them all here. Usnea does have some great anti-viral action! Don’t forget that it’s in your cabinet if you’re getting a sick in your house.

It is said that just 3-4 drops of Usnea tincture a few times a day is appropriate, but never use for more than a week at a time. Lots of people use Usnea for

1. onset of viral infection of any kind
2. it is often said to be used for weight loss, but please research this, you should not use usnea internally for long because it can damage the liver. This is true of MANY herbs that we have been using for hundreds or thousands of years. We often aren’t meant to consume them every day, but to use them for specific causes with reverence.
3. coughs and sore throat (I would put a few drops in honey in this case)
4. intestinal upset
5. urinary tract infection
6. fungal infection

Bathing with Beards

Put some Usnea clods in your hot bath and soak away. This can be very useful for those with skin conditions causing weakness in fighting topical infections, bacterial vaginosis, and fungal infections like athletes foot.

If you’ve been living in the woods for a while and have had damp feet for too long, I highly recommend a Usnea Tea foot wash or periodic spray with it.

Thank you so much for ya’ll’s support with this new venture of mine. I have zero things to link to for sale with usnea in it on my website.

Happy trails and happy learning!

Courtney