3 Easy Steps For Trimming The Perfect Beard

Beards have been the foremost image of masculinity since the beginning of mankind. With the bearded look coming back into style in recent decades, it’s important that any man who is searching for that masculine image be able to trim their beard well for a sleek and modern appearance. Today, we’ll be talking about the 3 easy steps for a perfect beard trim!

Tools you will need:

Trimmers/Clippers (With Adjustable Guards)
(Optional) Small Styling Scissors
Beard Comb/Brush

Once you have all your tools ready to go, here are the steps you’ll have to take to trim your beard perfectly!

Trim The Neckline
Establish Your Cheekline
Adjust Your Mustache
(Optional) Trim/Choose Your Overall Beard Length.

Although these points are in no particular order, they are all extremely important to getting that chiseled and clean bearded look that is so popular in modern fashion. Before we dive into the meat and potatoes of the article, unlock this video on how to establish a good neckline that will create the basis of a good beard trim!

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Trimming The Neckline

A clean neckline is arguably the most noticeable improvement you can make to your beard. Having a scraggly neckline can make even the fullest and boldest beards look unkempt and dirty. To clarify, the neckline is exactly what it sounds like, the line of hair between your bare skin and where the beard starts as it goes around your neck and under your chin. Having a well defined neckline means determining where you want the beard to start, and clean-shaving or trimming all the hair on your neck below that line.

A neckline that starts too far down the neck will cause your chin to lose pronunciation and sharpness due to the contrast between bare skin and beard hair. However, a neckline that begins to far up the neck will cause other issues, such as creating the appearance of a double-chin, even when there is none.

There are a few good ways to determine where your beard’s neckline should be. The most generic way to determine where your neckline should start is to place two fingers directly above your Adam’s apple, at the top of your two fingers is where your neckline should start. This should give you a good indication of where to begin trimming.

The other way to determine your beard’s neckline is to stand up straight with your head facing forward in a natural position. Take one finger and slide it directly under your chin all the way back until the finger hits your neck. When you’re done, tilt your head up and trim the neckline above the line your finger creates.

Once you’ve established this neckline, simply trim/shave all the hair below that line for a clean and orderly looking beard.

Establishing Your Cheekline

Your cheekline is the area on your face where the beard hair ends, and your skin and cheeks begin on either side of your mustache. Cleaning up your cheekline will not only give some order to your beards’ overall appearance, but it will also help define and pronounce the shape of your jaw.

Some people have issues defining a cheekline simply because most patchy areas in your beard will be around your cheeks. It’s hard to define a hair line where no hair exists, so if you suffer from this problem it might be best to try and use a beard-filler pen like Volt Instant Beard Color before shaping the cheekline.

To determine where your cheekline should be, try using a pencil or ruler to trace a line from the top of your ear to the corner of your mouth. If your beard is full enough, this line is the one you will want to follow. However, if your beard is NOT full enough to reach this point of the cheekline, then lower the line until you reach the point at which most of the hair on your cheek can be a part of the line. This will allow your cheekline to appear fuller because there will be a more consistent shape and contrast between beard hair and skin.

Now that you’ve established your cheekline, you have two options for trimming it: Straight across, or sloped downwards.

A straight cheekline is best for fuller beards that have the hair density to pull it off, and it will add sharpness to your beard and cheek’s overall appearance. Rounded beard lines are best for patchy or thin beards, this is because rounding the cheekline downwards causes the appearance of a fuller beard, since beard hair becomes denser further down towards the chin.

Overall, choose the best option for you when establishing a cheekline based on the fullness in your beard.

Adjusting Your Mustache

Adjusting your mustache is actually the easiest part of the process. Having a clean and uniform length to your mustache (as well as some direction for the mustache hair) is going to make a huge difference in how clean and organized the rest of the beard looks. Think of it this way, your mustache is the frame for your entire mouth as it integrates into your beard, and this makes it one of the most noticeable parts of your face, so make sure you do it right!

There is a reason why I call it “adjusting” your mustache and not trimming or cutting your mustache. Adjusting your mustache doesn’t necessarily mean you have to cut it, it can be as simple as adding some mustache wax or beard balm and shaping the mustache hairs out of the way of your mouth for a clean look. Essentially you can cut, trim, style, or shape your mustache for a cleaner look without mutual exclusivity.

The biggest trick for determining what you should do to your mustache is to take a look at the overall length of your beard. Longer beards will be complimented by longer mustaches, and shorter beards are better fit with shorter mustaches. For shorter beards, you’ll probably want to trim your mustache so that none of the hair goes past your mouth, for longer beards, you’ll likely want to shape your mustache with product so that you can keep the hair out of your mouth without losing the fullness of the mustache that complements the longer beard.

(Optional) Trimming/Choosing Beard Length

There is a reason why this point is optional. Generally, shaping up your beard by trimming/styling the neckline, cheekline, and mustache will make your beard look far cleaner than it otherwise would. If you happen to still be growing your beard out, then you may not want to trim the actual beard hair itself.

Cleaning up the lines I mentioned earlier will make any beard appear cleaner and more organized, whether you actually want to shorten the beard or fade the beard by trimming with your adjustable clippers is up to you!