How to Shape a Beard

Trimming your beard could be a tricky proposition if you have never groomed a beard before or failed miserably the first time, but need to do it now. This is especially true if you have the mountain man, grisly look. Setting aside a fair amount of time to trim your beard makes the grooming process easier. Follow these steps to trim your beard.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Fine toothed comb
• Scissors
• Trimmer

1. Start with at least a four-week growth of beard. It should be no shorter than 3/4 inches. You want to trim the beard to a 1/2 an inch, so you need that much room to shape the beard properly.
2. Define the neck line along the bottom of the beard, which is starting at your ears and going around your neck. A point of reference helps keep your focus on how far down the neck you want to go. Scraggly hairs need to be considered when drawing the neck line. You want an even look, so with the trimmer, shave everything clean below the neck line.
3. Leave the cheek line natural unless the beard tends to grow up into the eyes, which is rare but can happen. If this happens, simply trim the hairs with scissors first. Stand back and see if the razor or trimmer is needed. If it is just scraggly hairs growing up into the eye area the scissors will do the trick. If not, then very slowly trim under the eye area while keeping the natural look. Keep it slow; don't rush it.
4. Shape the beard with a trimmer set at 3 to insure 1/2 inch growth remains. Use the trimmer accompanied with a fine tooth comb if needed, working slowly around the beard.
5. Attend to the side burns by drawing a line straight down each side burn. Shave clean everything outside the side burns. This area takes very little shaving. Just an indication of a line will do.

Tips & Warnings

• After shaping your beard for the first time, reshape it every two to three days to keep your beard looking sharp.
• Touch up your beard with scissors for the very hard-to-get-to hairs or for very precise trimming.
• Spend your money on a beard shaping kit with a decent trimmer, and make sure you know how to use it.