Beard Shaping: A Guide

Acquiring a stylish new beard sounds simple enough, right? One day you finish shaving, take a ponderous look in the mirror at your smoothed-off face and decide it’s time for a change. You place your trusty razor back in its holder where it will proceed to gather dust for days, weeks or months – depending on whether you’re plumping for heavy designer stubble or a faceful of fuzz that’s bigger than your head.

If only it were that straightforward. No two beards are the same, but what every man’s facial hair has in common is that it’s spectacularly unruly when left to its own devices. Hairs will sprout on parts of your face you’d never even noticed before, and some will inexplicably grow at twice the speed of others, leaving an unshaped beard soon looking like a badly-mown lawn.

Achieving a great beard isn’t just about seeing how much hair your face can yield. Growing one is first and foremost a game of patience and dedication, but it also requires a well-trained eye for beard shaping and an ability to know exactly what suits you.

So with everyday shaving tools to hand, how do you achieve the kind of pristine shaped look at home that you’d pay handsomely for at your local barbers?

Find the right shape for you

You might have spotted a beard you admire on an A-list celebrity (or an elderly fictional wizard) but wanting to emulate a beard style doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right one for you. If you’ve got a narrow face structure with defined cheekbones, heavy growth is going to overpower it, so a shorter beard might do the trick – whereas a wider face shape will look proportionate to a big beard.

But a professional barber won’t just look at your cheeks and chin, they’ll take the whole picture into account. That’s where the hair on top of your head comes in. It needs to be of a length that will look right alongside your beard shape. Try to think in opposites – a long beard should sit underneath a short, neat haircut, whereas a more stubbly beard lets you get away with having a longer head of hair.

Trim it regularly

Your beard’s not going to stay stylish for long if you don’t keep it in check. Not only does regular trimming help your beard to maintain the shape you’re looking for, but it stops the ends of hairs from getting too wiry and scratchy.

Before you begin to shape your beard, you should remove any loose hairs with a good-quality beard brush and then get to work with your trimmer. Start on a much higher setting than you need and gradually work your way down until you’re at the length you’re comfortable with. This will ensure you get rid of any long, unruly hairs without making any mistakes that you can’t correct later.

You might find that you need to use different settings on some areas of your face in order to keep things a consistent length. The hairs under your jawline may have a faster hair growth rate than the hairs on your upper lip, for example, so there’s no one-size-fits-all-approach.

What is a beard line up and where should yours be?

Good beard shaping isn’t just about length and consistency, you need to set clear boundaries for your facial hair. Drawing these lines comes down to personal preference, but whatever thickness of beard you’re going for it’s crucial to keep them clearly defined along your cheek line and under your chin.

Decide how high you want your beard to sit on the sides of your face. Fully shave off any hairs that grow on the wrong side of this imaginary line, using a reliable razor like the Classic Double Edge Razor – with the standard shaving techniques that you’d use to shave any part of your face.

In the same way, draw a U-shaped line under your chin from one ear to the other, that reaches its lowest point just above your Adam’s apple to define your beard neckline. As a rule, this should be as far down your neck as your beard reaches, and any hairs below this point should be removed.

Get the sideburns right

It can be difficult to figure out where your beard ends and where the hair on the top of your head begins – leaving this disputed territory looking way too long compared to whichever of the two is shorter.

Try to get into the habit of tapering your sideburns using different lengths on your beard trimmer. Again, it’s best to start with a higher setting than you need and then work your way down to what looks right. Trimming in this way will allow a margin for errors and let you get used to using the right techniques. Before you know it, tapering will be part of your regular grooming routine and make it easier to shape your beard..

Keep your lips clear

Whatever your chosen style of beard, it shouldn’t impede your mouth. Once hairs start growing over your upper lip and into what lies beyond, not only does it look unsightly but it’s unhygienic too. Even with a heavy moustache it’s both important and perfectly possible to keep your upper lips clear of stray hairs.

Rather than trying to shave this area or use a trimmer to keep the hairs back, it can be useful to have a precise pair of beard scissors on hand to go at them individually. Typically, with a regular grooming routine in place you shouldn’t notice more than a few hairs out of place, so it’s easy to take a close look in the mirror every few days and make sure you’re all clear.

What is the best beard-shaping tool to use at home?

A multi-purpose grooming tool like the Shave & Style Trimmer allows you to shave, trim and edge hair – equipping you for any and all styles in the comfort of your own home. This beard trimmer includes 3-length click-on precision combs so you can choose exactly which length beard you want and can achieve an even, clean finish all over.