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Summary: Trimming a Van Dyke goatee with clippers requires using a number-two guard and moving in an upward direction. Use clippers to trim a goatee with tips from a professional hair stylist in this free men's grooming video.
Kevin Charles is the owner of Kevin Charles Hair Artistry, a beauty salon located in St. Petersburg, Fla. He has been cutting and styling hair almost his entire life. Charles has grown...read more
"Another tool that can be used to shape the interior of the Van Dyke or the goatee, is the trimmer. The trimmer can be used with several different guards, this particular brand has a selection of four. One through four, with number one being the closest, giving you the most smooth finish, all the way up to a four, which on his length would really remove very little. So, we're going to go somewhere in the middle and we're going to start out with a two. I'm just attaching the clipper guard, working in front of. You're going to go back, tilt the head back to make sure we can get up underneath the chin line and in an upward and out motion, we're going to lay the clipper right against his skin and then curve just slightly out as we come up. One thing to keep in mind is that the facial hair, especially, grows in all different directions so after we've completed the initial trim down in one direction, we want to go back over it in the opposite direction to make sure that we've caught anything that might be growing in a different direction. Once we've removed the hair from underneath the chin then we can lower the head to get a better perspective on what's happening above the chin line. Again, applying the clippers directly to the skin and working up and in a slightly curved out stroke, you can remove the excess."
eHow Article: Van Dyke Goatee: Trimming With Clippers