Beards — You grow and shape them for months, and one day you get distracted while trimming and botch things up so seriously that the only option you have left is shaving completely. Blunders like this happen — a bad beard trim, a bad beard neckline, accidental wrong clipper settings. Then there's also the dilemma of having a new barber with a different opinion about your cheek lines and your sideburns. It's only smart to equip yourself with the right system of fixing trims gone wrong. These simple tips below will spare you the embarrassment of sporting an awkward beard and hopefully help you from having such problems in the first place.
No Bad Beard Allowed! | 5 Fixes + 5 Grooming Mistakes You Ought To Avoid
In This Article:
- Bad Beard Fixes
- 5 Grooming Mistakes You Need To Stop Doing
Bad Beard Fixes
1. Use Your Words (And/Or Hands)
Going to a good barber is your best bet when you want your beard groomed right. But if he's got pretty strong opinions on you having a different style, it could be quite a discussion. The key to not messing your beard up is clear communication. Use your words and/or your hands! Tell your barber if you want to make the edges look natural or you'd prefer having them defined. Specify where you want your beard to end — point and draw lines to be perfectly clear about what you want.
2. Keep Your Eyes on Your Beard Lines
Despite how clear you are when communicating what you want to your barber, the chances of the edges of your beard moving inward are still pretty high. All the more when you frequent the barbershop.
You can't have a messed up beard line: it'll ruin your look and it's gonna take a bit of time to grow it back in. So, keep an extra watchful eye when you're having your beard groomed. Speak up and point out things you don't want. A simple, "Go easy there, buddy," can save you a whole lot of frustration.
3. Go Short To Go Long
When your beard lines have moved in too far or when you've shaved a patch in your beard, going short to grow is the right fix. If you've touched up your beard neckline too high, trim it with a buzzer on medium setting. Take down your beard's length overall. Then, with a slightly shorter setting, taper the edge down to a short stubble.
When working on your neck, adjust the line as you please. It's going to be a little bit shorter than the hair nearby. The final look is essentially a taper, a fix to growing your facial hair back without having a harsh divide between the short and long sections.
The hard lines soften in just about a week and some hair grows back. Go with your usual trimming routine, and you'll eventually see it blend together nicely.
4. Taper as a Fix, Taper as a Bad-Beard Prevention
Taper as a fix? Creating a taper is basically your best shot to grow out beard mishaps. Taper as bad-beard prevention? Tapering your facial hair offers quite the flexibility to avoid mistakes in the first place.
If you have a tapers-under-the-neck kind of beard, fading on the neck will clean up the look sans the hard lines. But if your facial hair connects to your chest hair, a boundary has to be established.
Nonetheless, letting your facial hair grow naturally allows for minimum maintenance. A natural taper gives a softer look but is still style-able when need be.
5. Long Beard Grooming Rule: You Need a Barber's Help
Let's face it, grooming a long beard by yourself is impossible. There's the requirement of having to look underneath it and having to use scissors to trim it. So, when grooming a long beard, buddy, you need a barber's help. Look for one who won't botch your weeks to months of beard-growing. If you have a friend with a good-looking, long beard, ask him for a recommendation.
You'll want to have your neck cleaned up while keeping your beard full. Don't forget to have the beard length by your ears trimmed. You can also ask your barber to blend your beard with your haircut. Having the sides of your hair cut short creates a contrast that makes your beard look fuller.
5 Grooming Mistakes You Need To Stop Doing
1. Keeping an Unkempt Beard
Growing a beard can be a double-edged sword. It's either gonna make you look like a hobo or a man who means business. The fine line between the two is proper grooming. Wash and condition your beard regularly, apply beard oil, trim it, and make sure all the strands are untangled. The take away here is: don't look like a hobo.
2. Careless Trimming
Yep, you've trimmed your mane a thousand times already that it comes like second nature to you. But even with years of beard growing and trimming experience, slip-ups happen. Rushing a trim can literally take your hard work down your bathroom drain. Go slow and steady, concentrate. Precision is your friend here.
3. Wild, Uneven Beards
In a perfect world, you'll get a perfectly kick-ass beard by letting it grow out by itself without having to touch it up. In reality, achieving a handsome beard requires pruning and shaping. You have to trim stray whiskers and shape it to complement your facial features.
4. Impatience
Growing an A+ beard is a test of patience. The lengthy waiting game can be really frustrating. Then there comes the b*tch of an itchy phase. There's the grooming and maintenance. Sporting a respectable beard is a true commitment.
5. Clipper Mishaps
If you're living with a roommate who also shaves or with kids who might mess with your clipper's setting, you might want to check first before putting that thing anywhere near your precious beard. All it takes is a momentary lapse and it's bye bye beard-y.
Don't mess your beard up! Watch this video below from spacypice:
It pays to be informed and prepared for fixing beard grooming blunders. Man, to suddenly lose all the effort to get a beard you can be proud of... Imagine the sheer frustration. This doesn't have to happen to you.
Got any bad beard anecdotes you want to share? Let us know in the comments section below!
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