Without knowledge of beard shaping, your beard can grow wild and unkempt. It’ll turn into a savage animal too difficult to tame. To salvage the situation, you’ll need more than beard grooming tips or run-of-the-mill beard care. You need the beard shaping advice right here.
Kick-Ass Beard Shaping Know-How for That Killer Look
1. Go for Volume First
Beard shaping is its own art. If there isn't any material, there is nothing to sculpt. So for the first 4 to 6 weeks, you need to grow your beard out.
Sadly, not all men are created equal when it comes to beard growing prowess. If you’re clueless about how to grow a beard faster, the answer lies in your diet. Eat foods rich in Vitamin E and biotin, like avocados, sweet potatoes, nuts and seeds, and salmon. Or, you can also try beard growth products which have these vitamins and minerals plus horsetail extract. That ought to give you more volume to work with by keeping the hair you have healthy and setting you up with the right nutrients to encourage new hair growth.
2. Let Your Face Define Your Beard’s Shape
When you get some volume going, you need to plan the sculpt of your beard. This is because beards are flattering when they strengthen or balance the shape of your face. Here’s a quick and dirty guide on what your beard should look like based on the proportions of your mug:
- Oval Face Shapes: You can go for any beard shape just as long as there are no sharp angles.
- Round Face Shapes: Aim for a longer beard to lengthen your stockier face shape.
- Oblong Face Shapes: When you have a long chin, go for a beard with a shorter end but fuller sides to give your face more definition.
- Square Face Shapes: Balance out that jawline by going for a beard with a long end and shorter sides.
- Triangular Face Shapes: Men with small foreheads and wide jawlines can benefit from a short, trimmed beard, or a long one sculpted in a way which makes the front prominent and the back less so. This should give your face a more oval look.
- Gem Face Shapes: If you’re a man with a narrow forehead, wide cheekbones, and a sharp jaw, grow your beard long. You should also trim the hair on your chin shorter than the rest to soften the cut of your features.
3. Invest in the Right Tools and Supplies
Beard maintenance gets better with the right tools and supplies. The act of sculpting a beard is by turns large-scale and surgical. One moment, you’re hacking away at a large clump, only to carefully snip away at the tips in the next. This is why you need tools to get the job done and the right set of goods to ease the work along.
Beard Shaping Tools
- Cordless hair trimmer with different guard settings: For trimming away large sections of your beard. It needs different guard settings in case you need a more layered look for your beard.
- Scissors: You need these when you’re fine-tuning your beard shape and snipping away at smaller hairs.
- Beard comb: Because regular combs won’t be able to groom those fine hairs like beard combs do.
- Razor: In case you need to shave some sections off.
- Hair dryer: This one is really just optional in case you do your beard trimming after a shower. Never trim your beard while it’s wet.
Beard Grooming Products
- Beard softener: Softens your beard and conditions it for easier and better styling.
- Beard oil: Moisturizes the skin under your beard and puffs it up for better volume.
- Beard wax: Helps keep the hairs in the direction you want to shape them in.
4. Prep Through Proper Grooming and Skin Care
So you have the tools and the supplies, next you need to prepare for the trimming session by grooming your beard. Wash with hot water, clean and soften it, and then dry the beard. Start combing the hair downwards once you’ve removed all moisture.
5. How to Shape a Beard Neckline
Your beard looks its best if you trim along what savvy beard aficionados call a beard neckline. A beard neckline is an imaginary curved line that runs from one earlobe, over your Adam's apple, and onto the other earlobe. Cutting the hairs under the beard neckline will set your beard apart from your neck. Not doing so will give the illusion that your beard is part of a larger hair carpet which goes all the way down to your chest. That’s great if you’re a werewolf but super bad if you want to look cool for the ladies.
You can find your beard neckline by putting your pointer and middle finger together and resting them horizontally above your Adam's apple. Just cut away or shave the hairs under the fingers. Next, you’ll find that your beard lends itself to trimming according to the beard neckline if you pull back your head to one side and then cut any hair that goes beyond the imaginary line under the lobe.
6. How to Shape a Beard Cheek Line
When your cheeks are flush with facial hairs, you also want to sculpt those areas. To do this, you need to establish a guiding line by finding your beard cheek line. First, look for the point where your sideburns meet your beard and then go straight down to the bottom of your lower lip. Trim, style, or cut away anything above that line on either cheek for a cleaner look.
7. Trimming the Sides of Beard
First, you need to comb your beard to remove tangles and to make the hairs more pliant for styling. You can use a normal comb to tease sections of the beard’s sides out, and then use the hair trimmer with the number 4 setting. You can also use a higher guard setting the lower you cut on your beard. Go for the scissors for some detailing once you’re done with the big adjustments.
8. How to Shape a Short Beard
Shaping a short beard is a simple affair. Once your beard hairs are at least 2 cm long, you can start shaping it for a short and cropped beard style. Just wash your beard, clean it, dry it, and then start trimming or shaving away hairs from your beard cheek line and beard neckline. Once this is done, go for the hair trimmer with your desired guard setting. Fine-tune with scissors.
9. How to Shape a Long Beard
It’s counter-intuitive to trim your beard when you’re growing it out but doing so will keep its growth under wraps and help you tame the hairs while that beast is hulking up. You need to comb the beard first and then set to work using the hair trimmers. The trick is to start with the middle setting like number 4 and then work with higher guard settings as you grow your beard out.
In case you're looking for supplies for beard grooming, here's a review by Tools of Men on Wild Willies Beard Wash and Rinse:
Now you know how to shape a beard. Like anything worth doing, it can be challenging at one point and simple and subtle the next. Your beard requires both concentration and passion from you as you grow it out, keep it, and maintain it. A beard is like a beast in a way, and like any beast, you need to tame it before it lends you its power.
What do you think about this beard shaping guide? Do you have any other beard shaping tips we didn't cover here? Please give us your answers by writing them in the comments section below.
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