Best Facial Hair Styles For Men
Get an Envy-Inducing Beard With This Comprehensive Beard Style Guide
The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.
Much as a great pair of sunglasses or sneakers can really pull an outfit together, a beard can do wonders for your look. It can strengthen your jawline, direct focus to your strongest facial assets, and maybe even make you look a little bit more like your favorite of the Four Chrises. Plus it’s nice to not have to shave every single day (unless you’ve got a beard that requires regular maintenance).
RELATED: How to Speed Up Facial Hair Growth
Figuring out how to make a beard work for you can be tricky, though. Rarely is it as simple as just letting your facial hair grow out indefinitely. A good beard should be calculated and maintained enough to make sure you don’t end up with a forest on your face. The way your facial hair grows out naturally isn’t always going to be what looks best on you. Sometimes some further shaving is necessary to get it to where it needs to be. There are also a myriad of cool beard styles from which you can work.
While there’s no hard and fast rule in determining what the beard that suits you best will be, the shape of your face is generally a good starting point. From there you can determine a beard style that should accentuate your best features. It’s less a rule than a guideline, but it’s a good place to start.
How to Pick the Best Beard Style for Your Face Shape
No two men can wear a beard the same way; each style flatters differently, depending on the grower’s face shape. Here’s a quick guide to knowing which styles will look best on you.
First, determine your face shape. Look in the mirror. Is your face longer than it is wide? And how does your forehead connect to your cheekbones? Furthermore, how do your cheekbones graduate into your jawline and chin? Chances are, you fit one of the following face shapes: square, oval, round or heart shaped. It’s fairly easy to figure out which one you’ve got, and even easier to know which standard beards will look best.
Second, try to make your face look as oval as possible. This is the most aesthetically pleasing shape, and will prevent you from elongating an already narrow face, or widening a characteristically shorter face.
Best Facial Hair Style for Square Face Types
A square face tends to mean a strong, defined jawline.You definitely don’t want a beard to hide that. What you do want is a beard that plays it up while maybe rounding out the harsh lines of your face.
To accomplish this, you’ll want to grow a beard out that is slightly longer around the chin than it is on your jaw and cheeks. Trim your cheeks and jaw using a low guard on your clippers, one that leaves something a little more than stubble but a little less than a full growth.
As you move down towards your chin, swap the low guard for something a little higher that won’t take as much hair off. Make sure the transition isn’t too defined as it’ll leave you looking like you’re aiming for a goatee that’s gotten too grown-out.
Best Facial Hair Style for Oval Face Types
Oval faces feature slightly softer edges than square faces and have a bit more variety in terms of jawline in that it can be relatively even with the hairline or come to more of a point. They also feature sides longer than the hairline or jawline.
Beards on oval-shaped faces generally shouldn’t contain sharp angles, but outside of that you’re in something of a sweet spot if this is your look since ovular faces can rock a variety of beards.
If you’ve ever wondered if you could pull off a goatee, you’re in luck — it’s a great look on oval faces. Not the same-length stubble variety your friend’s dad might have rocked, rather one with some variety in length and texture and a well-styled mustache.
Another option is to grow it out long, as long as you keep the bottom trimmed a bit shorter so that it’s even with the sides. The world of facial hair is your oyster, so you might as well take advantage of it.
Best Facial Hair Style for Round Face Types
A round face will be relatively free of angles and feature a lot of natural curvature along the hairline, sides and jawline. Because of the softer features and lack of defined angles, a beard is a great chance to harden some of them out and form a more defined jaw.
Your best bet here is to grow your facial hair out a good bit — shaving and trimming should only be done to maintain form and length while not cutting down on the latter too much.
Keep the sides a good bit shorter than the bottom, which should be on the longer side and maybe even work towards a slight point. Facial hair of this style will create some length in your face as well as help in shaping your jawline.
Best Facial Hair Style for Heart Shaped Face Type
A wider hairline and cheekbones that descend into a narrow jaw make for a triangular or heart-shaped face. With a face shape like this, your options are going to be a bit more limited when it comes to beards, though there are a few go-tos you can rely on.
The first? Stubble. With such a defined jaw, some mediated growth can really bring out the best in your face’s angles and highlight them. A style like this might require daily attention to keep it from going from rakish to sloppy, but the result will be worth it.
Another option is to grow everything out long, but trim the sides so that they work towards a fine point at your chin. This will require similar steady maintenance as too many hairs out of place will ruin the slope of the beard, but it can still work.
You may want to steer clear of goatees and those trimmed-on-the-sides/longer-on-the-chin looks, though. Those are going to so heavily emphasize the point of your jaw that you risk looking like a cartoon supervillain.
No matter the face fuzz you end up rocking, rock it with style man. We wish you good luck, and good hair.
You Might Also Dig:
- Shaving Facial Hair Beards