As supporters of charitable donations and fundraising, we at Beardicure are proud to be taking part in No-Shave November. If you’re doing the same – or maybe participating in Movember instead, good on you.

For some, No-Shave November involves a period of continuous growing. During this time, some people decide to shave and others don’t. If there’s one thing for certain, though, it’s that the end of November is going to leave you with a serious need for a good trim. That isn’t always as easy as it may seem, however.

Although the safe bet is to book in an appointment at your local barbers and have them carve a glorious style into your face, why not try doing it yourself? With a little bit of effort, you’ll be boasting an impressively bushy, beautiful beard style in no time. You’ll also save yourself $20+ dollars on a professional appointment, which is always a good thing. Read on to find out what you need to know about how to shape a beard.

What Will You Need?

Although it can be done with scissors, leaving yourself with that as your only piece of beard-trimming kit is going to put a lot of pressure on you. One slip and, well, you’re going to be left in a pretty sticky situation.

For this reason, we recommend that you invest in a decent beard trimmer. It’ll come with a length guard, meaning you don’t have to worry about shaving too short. With this, you’ll be able to set a longer length and gradually work down until your beard is the size you want it to be. They don’t have to break the bank, either. A model such as the Philips Norelco is a great choice – just look how reasonably priced it is.

Philips Norelco Beard Trimmer

Shaping A Beard

After weeks – or maybe even months – of painstaking growing, the time has come to shape your beard into your dream style. This is a great point to be at, because it’s probably the most satisfying part of the growing process. Here’s what you need to know about shaping a beard:

1. Find Your Face Shape

Before you start trimming away, work out what kind of shape your face is. Why? Because it has a direct impact on which styles you’ll nail, and which styles you’ll fail. This is really worth doing, because there’s nothing worse than finishing beard grooming and realising you’ve totally made the wrong call.

If you’ve got a wider face, you won’t go wrong with a thicker, wider beard. If you’ve got a narrower face, however, a full beard might look a little overpowering.

2. Compare Your Beard and Head Hair

Depending on what beard style you’re looking to nail, you should bear your head hair in mind. If you’re aiming for a longer beard but have much shorter head hair, you could run the risk of looking a bit weird – kinda like a lego man with a facial hair strapon.

This is the same case vice-versa, however. Although some men can pull it off, longer hair and a shorter beard don’t always work well together. If you’re unsure of where to start, symmetry is always a good base point. Try to leave your beard hair at an equivalent length to your head hair and you won’t go too far wrong. If you’re concerned of messing the style up completely, start at a longer length and work yourself down.

3. Trimming

There are a couple of base rules when it comes to trimming your beard, but overall it’s a pretty easy process. The main aim of trimming is to remove any excess hair that makes your beard look bulky and unstyled, so find the length you want the longest part of your beard to be and set your trimmer to that.

After trimming the whole of your beard at the longer length, set your trimmer to a slightly shorter size to add in a gradient. Whether you want to do this or not is dependent on your particular chosen beard style, but it’s the way I like to do it. Trim around the upper cheek line and lower neckline of your beard at this shorter length and you’ll make it look less chunky and far better styled.

As mentioned above, if you haven’t got a beard trimmer to hand and are running low on time, you can always try the comb and scissors approach. You can achieve this by running a comb through your hair to the length you want trimmed, and slowly and gently working the scissors through it. Remember to be thorough and maintain the length throughout, however, or you could end up with a patchy style that’ll take weeks to even out.

4. Styling Your Sideburns

The part where your beard joins your head hair can be difficult to get right. The key to this is figuring out where the hair on your hair and your beard both begin and styling around this. The easiest way to make your sideburns look neat and tidy is by adding a taper. Gradually increase the length of your beard as you work down your sideburns and you’ll be left with a much smoother style.

5. Styling Your Neck

When you look in the mirror, the neckline of your beard isn’t your main focus. It is, however, really important that you get it right. Although some men like to go for the rugged, natural look, there’s nothing good about the neckbeard style. Over styling your neckline, however, can also be a mistake, so it’s important that you find the right middle ground.

Typically, your beard’s neckline should extend about 1-1.5 inches down from your ear and curve at the same distance around your jawline

6. Working Around the Lips

When it comes to beard styling, the lips are dangerous territory. Cut them too short and you’re going to be left with the beard equivalent of a bad bowl-cut. Leave them too long and you’ll never hear the end of it from the women in your life.

For most styles, the length of your mustache should be around the same as the length of your beard, if not a little longer and the hairs shouldn’t curl around your lip. You can tackle these with an affordable pair of rounded scissors – the same that you might use for trimming nasal hair. Comb your mustache down and pick off any stray, overhanging hairs. Be sure to maintain a relaxed facial expression, however, as if you don’t you could end up taking off much more hair than you planned on.