Choose A Beard Style

The right beard style can add weight to your jaw and deliver a more masculine profile photo, but you need to get the shape right. From light stubble all the way through to Gandalf, facial hair should be in proportion and well-balanced to look its best.

A good beard should complement your face shape, but it can also manipulate it too. Keeping it tighter under the neck and slightly longer around the chin and face will make it look as though you’ve got a stronger jawline, so keep this in mind when growing it out. If in doubt, consult a barber.

Facial Hair Maintenance

Precision Trimming

Whether you want a full lumberjack bush or designer stubble, you will need to arm yourself with a decent beard trimmer to keep it at your preferred length.

For more serious shaping, some trimmers have precision settings, giving you more creative freedom. Deploying one of these marks you out as a follicular connoisseur and allows you to take the chin, cheek, neck and jaw areas down to zero, but still gives you the option of a leaving a little length if face adornment du jour, the beardstache, is more your kind of thing.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Patches

Growing facial hair only to find it resembles crop circles can make it feel like the grooming gods have come together to plot against you. But you’re not follicularly effed, so to speak.

“Now that beards are tolerated more in formal environments, so too is stubble – and it’s particularly popular with men who can’t jump on the beard trend because they have patchy growth,” says Denis Robinson, creative director of barbershop mini-chain Ruffians. “That’s because it’s possible to grow stubble to a certain point and keep it looking less patchy than if you were trying for a beard.”

Hair Care

So, you’re the proud owner of a facial hair style in some form or another. But your work isn’t done yet. Properly maintaining a beard makes or breaks your look, as wispy curls do not a handsome face rug make.