Beard Grooming Tips, Advice, and Knowledge Base

You’ve found the one-stop-shop for all the info you’ll need when it comes to beard grooming tips and tricks.

We are huge proponents of learning how to maintain your beard because too many guys are walking around trying to rock their facial hair but letting themselves down by not keeping it properly groomed.

See, it’s like wearing a nice suit but never dry cleaning it. It gets a bit wrinkled and you just look like a slob, even though you may have an awesome wardrobe. Keep your beard trimmed, cleaned, and styled properly and it can make you look like a million bucks – if you don’t it can seriously detract from your looks. Here’s a quick rundown of our best tips for well maintained facial hair.

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Get a beard trimmer

RELATED: SEE OUR ARTICLE ON BEARD TRIMMERS

This can’t be stressed enough. It’s just not good enough to get it trimmed every couple/few weeks at the barbers, or however, you’re trimming it if you don’t have a set of clippers.

If you have a beard, this is the absolute minimum you need if you don’t want people to think you’re a lazy bum with a scraggly beard. For a more robust solution, you can even go so far as to put together a really nice beard grooming kit for yourself.

Considering you’ll probably be using your trimmer at least once a week, they’re actually a pretty good deal and you can find them for between $20 and $100, depending on the kind of quality and features you are looking for. Head over to our comprehensive guide to picking the best one for you.

Find the right style for your beard

RELATEDSEE OUR ARTICLE ON BEARD STYLES

This is extremely important, which is why we’ve created a full section on beard styles. Here is where so many guys go wrong. Without the proper knowledge, your beard, even if it’s maintained well, can make you look like a train wreck.

While there are better styles for certain face shapes, the best way to figure out your style is to test. You can test nearly every style in one go, really, if you take a little bit off here and there until you come up with a perfect shape.

Our recommendation is to grow out a full beard and then start trimming. See how the full beard looks. Then, clean up your cheek and neck lines and have another look. Take off a bit more and give it a thinner, more defined look, next. Go down to a goatee with long sideburns, then a goatee with short sideburns, for example. Finally, test out a ‘stache, because hey, why not? Some dudes are crushing it with a good mustache right now.

So, while you can certainly keep a few tips in mind, a quick test in your own bathroom will give you the best results by far.

Otherwise, just remember that your hair must complement your head and face shape. A long thin face can be made to look more full and masculine with a full beard, whereas a wider face with a weak chin, for example, can be made to look longer and more trim with more hair on the chin versus the sideburns and cheeks. This will also depend on the way your hair grows (thick, medium, or thin facial hair), but we’ll get to that if you read the section on styles, which we linked to above. But we repeat test, test, test!

When it comes to styling your longer beard, there’s a lot you can do, but all of that is made much easier with a quality balm. Not only does it style your beard, but it actually conditions it all day, too! If you have a single thing in your beard grooming toolbox, make sure it’s a good balm.

Pick the right beard length

This goes hand in hand with the style but is important enough to talk about by itself. This is actually something I discovered for myself by testing. Even if I keep the same beard style, the length drastically impacts how my beard looks. Too short and it’s not quite there, and looks pretty weak. Too long and it makes my jaw look too puffy and wide.

You’ll need to do the same thing. Try out your style in differing lengths. One of the greatest things about facial hair is that it’s an easy ‘accessory’ to alter and if you don’t like it, it’ll grow back in a few days in most cases. Get it right with some testing at the beginning, and then go from there.

Quick tip about length and style: look through pictures of dudes with beards and compile some who have a similar face shape as you. Yeah, you might be looking through a load of celebrities but it will be worth it when you tweak your stubble to get it just right.

Have a manageable routine

Taking care of a beard correctly can take a few minutes of your day, so make sure that whatever style and routine you choose for maintaining your scruff doesn’t get in the way of other things, or you won’t keep it up.

If you don’t keep it up, you’ll end up looking less than groomed and actually do yourself a disservice by having a beard. Try it out a few times as you’re testing beard styles over a few weeks and make sure you can keep up the system you put in place, because yes, it can take up more time than shaving with a razor every morning.

Clean your beard regularly

You shampoo your hair, right? Then you better be doing your beard, too!

Regular shampoo and even a conditioner if you want to give your chin sweater the VIP treatment will do wonders to keep you looking top notch. Just remember to give it a really thorough rinse, because if there is even a bit left over and it dries on your face, it can flake during the rest of the day.

There are some great products out there specifically made for your whiskers, so we recommend having a look at our top recommendations and trying some out for yourself.

The best thing you can do to keep it clean and healthy all day every day is using a leave-in conditioner (otherwise known as a beard balm). Check out our top recommended choice: Virtu Beard Balm by Liberty Premium Grooming Co.

Keep that neckline (and cheek line) natural

One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to be ‘cool’ and shaving a terrible neckline. One of the best (worst) examples of this is Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers. By shaving his neck line too high, he makes himself look heavier and chunkier than he is and it generally creates a terrible and drastic cut between beard and rest of head.

There are a ton of examples like this and many an inexperienced beard wearer will make this mistake at least once. Don’t fall into the trap – instead, if you’re looking for a full beard that’s trimmed a bit for cleanliness, start at or just above your Adam’s apple and make a nice natural line up just behind your jaw bone. Basically, just follow the line that’s already there, but trim it up half an inch to an inch to make it a bit tidier.

The same thing goes with your cheek line. Just take enough off to make sure there are no stragglers getting too high up on your face, but keep the line following your natural growth (usually) and ensure that wherever the line is, the beard is full all the way through.

Styling your longer beard

RELATEDSEE OUR ARTICLE ON BEARD BALM

If you are able to pull off a long beard, there are countless styling possibilities. We’re pleased to see many of these styles coming back over the last couple of years, and we love that there are companies popping up offering amazing products to get you the perfect look.

One of the things we recommend is picking up a good beard and mustache wax or balm. There is an option for just about everyone, so have a read of our article on waxes and choose the one you like best. You’ll also probably want to pick up a comb to go along with this to ensure you’re getting an even amount of product throughout the hairs, but we’ll cover this if you press the link for our wax page.