Beard Styles for Your Face Shape

A beard can balance your face or throw it off. The same beard that suits a square jaw can make a round face look wider. Here is what works for each shape.

Round face: add length, keep the sides short

Round faces have soft cheekbones and a curved jaw. You want to look longer and more angular.

• Style: a tapered ducktail or goatee with short stubble.
• Keep the sides short (a #1 or #2 guard) or fade them into your haircut.
• Let one to two inches build at the chin and shape the bottom into a point or square.

Square face: soften the corners

Square faces have a wide forehead and a sharp jaw. You don’t need to add anything.

• Style: heavy stubble or a rounded classic beard.
• Round off the corners of the jaw rather than cutting them square.
• Keep the length short to medium and even.

Oval face: almost anything works

Oval faces are balanced, so most styles fit.

• Style: a short boxed beard, a full beard, or stubble.
• Keep the cheek lines and neckline crisp.
• Don’t let the chin grow very long, or it will stretch the face.

Oblong face: add width, not length

Oblong faces are longer than they are wide.

• Style: a full beard with fuller sides, or heavy stubble.
• Keep the chin short.
• Let the cheeks and sideburns grow in thicker. A full mustache also breaks up the length.

Diamond or triangle face: fill in the jaw

These faces have a narrow chin and prominent cheekbones.

• Style: a full square beard or an extended goatee.
• Let the lower jaw and chin grow thicker.
• Keep the cheek lines neat and the sideburns from getting bushy.

Three rules for any beard

1. Keep the neckline two fingers above your Adam’s apple, curving up toward each ear.
2. Follow your natural cheek line. Don’t drop it to the jawbone unless you want a chinstrap look.
3. Use beard oil and brush daily. Dry beard hair sticks out and ruins the shape.

Not sure which shape you have? Ask your barber. Haircut & Beard is $50, and a beard on its own is $30.