Before deciding what beard style you’d like, you need to grow out your beard.
The recommendation is to let your beard grow out for at least a month to see what you will be working with.
After a few weeks, you can tell what sort of beard you have by looking at the density of the hair.
Some guys will have thick, full beards like mine, while others will have more patchy ones. Age and genetics play a big role in the fullness of your beard, full beard growth is possible starting at around age 18, but for many men, that time may not arrive until they’re 30. So, if you’re not getting the beard growth you want, it may be because it’s not your time.
Patience is the key. Good things take time, good beards take time.
The thickness of your beard growth will be a big factor in determining what beard styles will look good on you.
Picking the right style for your face.
After you’ve grown your beard for a month, you can start looking at styles.
Find a style that will compliment the way your facial hair grows and the shape of your head.
If you try to grow a beard like what you see looks good on a celebrity but won’t compliment your face and facial hair, you risk looking silly. We all have done this, whether it be with a celebrity haircut or beard.
I tried the Jason Statham look but I didn’t look as good with a bald head and lacked the British accent.
You’ve got to work with what you got.
Criteria 1: Beard thickness.
Thick beard.
If your beard is thick, you’ve got a world of options.
You can sculpt your beard to be styled close to your face or grow out a majestic masterpiece.
Patchy beard
If your beard is patchy, keep it short.
If you have a patchy beard at this point in your life, you will be limited in beard styles. If you try to grow a long beard, it will make you look unkempt, rough and potentially homeless.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have any facial hair. Sticking to stubble or a closely cropped beard is the best option for a guy with patchy facial hair.
But keep things cropped along your natural facial hairline. Guys with patchy beards sometimes go for the chin strap. Gents, from one bearded man to another, please don’t do the chin strap. It was a thing in the 90s, it wasn’t good then and it’s definitely not good now.
So stick to stubble if your beard is patchy.
But…have no fear gents according to one study, women favour heavy stubble.
Particularly the 10 and 15-day stubble. Based on this research, women rated heavy stubble as the most attractive and indicative of maturity, dominance, and aggression in a man.
Criteria 2: Face shape
After the facial hair analysis, looking at your face shape is next.
The goal is to get your face as symmetrical as possible.
The more symmetrical, the more attractive.
This means you must consider how long your beard goes below your chin and how wide it grows from your face.
Some face shapes will look better with a beard that grows long beneath the chin but is kept cropped, Like a Jason Mamoa-type beard so it doesn’t grow out wide. Or you may have a face shape where your beard would look better shorter and closer to the chin but grown out a bit wider to give your face width, like Tom Hardy’s look with a full beard.
Now lads let’s get into the facial shapes :
Oval Face.
If you have an oval face, your beard options are limitless: Short beards, long beards, full beards, pirate beards and all the rest.
All styles look good on a man with an oval face.
Just make sure you are well-groomed and neat at all times.
Round Face.
If you have a round face, you want to pick a beard that will give your face some length.
A longer beard is perfect for guys with rounder faces.
Avoid really short beards or stubble.
It just highlights the fact that you don’t have a chin and we want the beard to accentuate your jawline or create one for you.
Rectangle Face.
With a rectangle face, you’ve got to be careful with the beard styles you chose because your face is longer than it is wide. We don’t want you to look like Jafar from Aladdin with that really long head.
You want to avoid a beard that makes your head look longer and skinnier, shorter beards work best for men with a rectangle shape face.
If you have a really thick full beard, feel at liberty to let your beard grow out (not just longer but wider) the thickness and volume will give you that needed width to your face and make it look a bit rounder.
Square Face
The square face is a classically traditional masculine face shape. E.g. Henry Cavil, Orlando Bloom and Jason Statham.
You want to avoid beard styles that make your face look wider.
Guys with square-shaped faces can’t go wrong with keeping their beards closely cropped to their faces. Think Henry Cavil: beautiful curls, stubble or a beard-stache. Both are closely cropped and neat.
Diamond Face.
Men with diamond-shaped faces have wide cheekbones but narrow jawlines.
A nice full beard can expand the narrow jawline on your face.
Combine that with a hairstyle that adds some width to your forehead, and you are going to look more like a Greek statue. Chizzled. Or like Robert Pattinson.
Triangle Face.
Triangular faces start with a wide jawline and narrow cheekbones and then narrow even more at the forehead.
For this face shape a shorter beard or stubble is better. Because it will make your face too wide if the beard is too full.
Timothée Chalamet for example, handsome man but his face will look too wide if he grows a long beard. So if he is to grow a beard it should not be longer than the 15 day stubble.
Conclusion.
A beard can elevate your look or it can make you look homeless. That’s why knowing what shape your face is and what beard goes best with it is an important step in finding your style.
I once let my beard grow long keeping my cheeks short, grew out my moustache and curled it. I’m not saying it looked bad but I could have done better.
Then I grew my sides out and the whole beard had a different look.
Hence the importance of knowing what shape our face is.
Go to your barber and show them pictures of what you want and they will give you advice and guidance.
For excellent service and great skill, I would recommend going to Gary Rom Man to help you with your beard growth journey.
