Beard Style Finder

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect Balbo Beard Shape

The Balbo beard takes sophistication and practice to make it look good. Here are the steps to grow your own.

1. Grow Out The Facial Hair

The first step you want to take when growing a Balbo beard is to decide how you want it to look. Balbo beards have a mustache that is either disconnected or slightly connected to the rest of the beard. A soul patch is required, but the chin hair can be short or extend all the way up the jawline. Map out how you want your facial hair to look and begin growing it out. Beard serum will aid in growing your beard and thickening it up.

2. Trim And Style The Mustache

The next step you want to take is to work on your mustache. It is one of the defining features of a Balbo beard, so getting this right early will help shape the rest of the look. We recommend picking up a grooming kit with everything you need, such as scissors for cutting the hair, a comb for shaping the hair, and a razor for shaving unwanted hair around your mustache. 

Trim your hair with scissors and cut a line across your upper lip. Then trim around your mustache to get the shape you want. You can use the comb to cut just the right amount of hair you’d like. When you’re finished, brush your mustache hairs, so they all lay in a similar direction.

3. Trim And Style The Soul Patch

After you have your mustache the way you want, you need to work on the soul patch. This is a little patch of hair under your lower lip and is usually disconnected from the rest of the facial hair for a Balbo beard style. 

Use the scissors to trim down the soul patch hairs. Then use a beard trimmer or razor to cut around the soul patch hairs, leaving it an island on the middle of your upper chin. Your soul patch can be small, or it can be big and wide. This is why it’s important to think about how you want it to look before cutting.

4. Clean Up The Cheek and Neck Lines

Finally, you will want to clean up the lines around your cheek and neck. Most Balbo beards are cut into a goatee and have no hair on the jawline. Others prefer to keep a beard shape by letting the jawline hairs go up into the sideburns. Either way, use clippers or scissors to keep it uniform with the rest of the beard you’ve made so far. You can use a beard-shaping tool to get nice clean lines. Just place the tool on your cheek or neck and shave around the tool's edges.

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect Balbo beard.:

• Beard Boost Serum: Helps you grow a thicker beard faster with all-natural ingredients.
• The Expert Grooming Kit: This kit has everything you need to shape and style your Balbo beard, including a comb, brush, scissors, razor, and razor blades.
• The Edge Beard Shaping Tool: The beard-shaping tool makes it really easy to shave perfect lines around your cheek, jaw, and neck.

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect Soul Patch Beard Shape

The soul patch might be the easiest type of facial hair to maintain. Follow these super easy steps to get the look.

1. If you have a beard, shave most of it off.

If you already have some facial hair, you’ll want to shave off everything except a small patch between your lower lip and your chin. We recommend starting with a clean-shaven look like Howie Mandel’s. Use a safety razor and shave lube to achieve a smooth, clean shave.

2. Leave the right amount of hair.

If you have dark, coarse hair, you can get away with leaving just a small amount of hair. If your hair is fine or lightly colored, you’ll need a larger or longer patch to make it more obvious. If you choose to jazz it up a bit, you can leave a chin strap like Fred Durst. Other options include leaving a little bit of stubble between shaves or leaving a small amount of hair right on your chin, too. If you need help shaping the chin strap, use a shaping tool.

3. Moisturize your face.

A clean-shaven face will show dry skin more easily, so be sure to keep your skin moisturized. We recommend a moisturizer with SPF to protect from sun damage.

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect soul patch beard:

• Wild Willies Shave Lube: use with a safety razor to get a clean shave.
• The Edge Shaping Tool: to get a defined chin strap, if you choose.
• Wild Willies Smooth With SPF: to moisturize your face and protect from sun damage.

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect Tailored Beard

A well-done tailored beard can define your jawline and looks great on men with a square face shape. Follow these steps to grow and style a tailored beard.

1. Grow out your facial hair.

A tailored beard is in the short-to-medium category, so you’ll want to grow your hair out somewhere between 1-3 inches. This may take several months, but you can help speed up the process with right products. Add a growth supplement to your daily vitamin routine, and try using a beard serum that will strengthen your facial hair and promote strong, healthy growth.

2. Clean up the edges.

The secret to a great tailored beard is clean lines and edges. A shaping tool is your friend. Hold the curved part up against your cheek and use a safety razor to get a close, clean shave. You should also shave the area along your neckline to keep stubble away.

3. Keep it at a reasonable length.

Once you have some growth, you should maintain a reasonable length, keeping your beard no longer than 3 inches or so. You can use your trimmer along with the comb portion of the shaping tool to get a uniform, even trim throughout. If you prefer a bit of a longer beard, you may choose to get a closer shave around your cheeks and leave a bit more hair around your jaw and chin.

4. Hydrate your beard to keep it soft and tame.

A tailored beard is a well-kept beard, which means you don’t want brittle, scruffy hair. Use a beard shampoo when you wash your face. A shampoo specifically for your beard will cleanse your hair and skin without stripping away natural oils.

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect tailored beard:

• Wild Willies Beard Oil- Cool Mint: to soften hair and promote healthy growth.
• The Edge Shaping Tool: to maintain clean lines around your cheeks.
• PROGRO Beard Shampoo: to cleanse and moisturize your face and hair.

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect Braided Beard Style

As you can see, there are a number of ways to rock a braided beard. We’re going to show you how to grow and maintain a long braided beard like you see with the hipster style.

1. Grow a super long beard.

If you want to try a braided beard, we’re going to assume you already have a decent start on a long beard. Now, keep growing it. Like, for a long time. To get this look right, you’ll need a good 12 inches or so of hair below your chin. With a beard this long, it’s important to keep your hair healthy to prevent dryness and breakage. Your daily skincare routine should include a beard shampoo, a conditioner, and a beard oil to hydrate and soften your facial hair.

2. Trim up the sides.

You want the sides of your beard to be long, but not quite as long as the part directly below your chin. After your sides have grown out 5 or 6 inches, you can start trimming them up as needed so your facial hair angles downward toward your chin. You can use trimming scissors to keep the side length in check.

3. Braid your hair. 

Once you get enough length below your chin, you can braid the hair. Start by using a beard brush to brush your hair downward and remove any tangles. Then, section it off into three equal sections, and then begin weaving them together, placing one section on top of the other until you reach the end.

4. Add some bling.

If you really want to be extra, you can add a bead to the end, like you see in some of the photos above. Then, tie it off with a rubber band. 

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect braided beard:

• PROGRO Beard Shampoo & PROGRO Beard Soft Conditioner: to cleanse and soften facial hair.
• Wild Willies Beard Oil: to hydrate your beard.
• Beard Brush: to style and remove tangles.

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect French Fork Beard Shape

We’re going to give you the steps for growing a simple, traditional French fork beard with a medium to long-length beard.

1. Focus on the length.

The first step to getting a French fork beard is having enough length that you can actually split it at the bottom and keep the two sides separate. You’ll want to go for a medium to long length beard, with at least 6 inches of hair below your chin. To promote healthy growth, try a beard growth kit that contains growth supplements and a beard boost serum.

2. Don’t trim it.

Unlike other beard styles where you may trim the sides and keep the bottom longer, a French fork beard is long all throughout. Put the trimmer away for a while, and use trimming scissors only to clean up your mustache and keep the hair off your lip.

3. Style it to separate the bottom into two pieces.

The styling process is what makes this beard stand out. Once your hair is long enough, divide it right in the middle of your chin. This is where the “fork” will start. We recommend using a heat styling tool like a beard straightener to gently pull the hair downward and out a little bit, away from the center of your face. A heat styling tool will hold the style better than a beard brush.

Then, run some beard butter through each side, still gently guiding the hair downward and out a bit away from your face. The heat combined with the beard butter should keep the two sections far enough apart to distinguish this style. 

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect French fork beard:

• Wild Willies Growth Kit: to promote healthy growth
• Beard Straightener: to style your hair downward and apart.
• Wild Willies Beard Butter: to make sure the style holds throughout the day.

How to Grow and Maintain the Perfect Ducktail Beard Shape

The ducktail beard shape can be fun to grow and looks great on the right facial type. Here are the steps to grow one out.

1. Grow Out A Full Beard

To begin growing out a ducktail beard, you will need a full beard; at least enough hair on your chin for the right effect. You can keep your jawline and mustache shorter if you’d like, but you will want enough length on your chin and neck hairs to bring them to a point. Use beard serum as you grow out your beard so that you can get it nice and thick.

2. Trim And Style The Facial Hair

Once you have a beard of two to four inches in length, you can trim and style it the way you want. Use a beard trimmer or scissors to even out the lengths of your facial hair, so it’s uniform. You can use beard butter to help shape your beard while keeping it soft. Make sure you let your chin hair grow out for the next step.

3. Bring Your Chin Hair To A Point

Finally, you want to go for the classic ducktail beard style by pulling your beard hairs into a point at your chin. A beard brush and a beard straightener will work wonders here. Use a beard brush daily to tame the hairs to the front of your chin. Use the beard straightener after a hot shower to flatten down those hairs and shape the ducktail beard style. 

Here are some of our favorite product recommendations to help you get the perfect ducktail beard:

• Beard Boost Serum: Promotes a healthy, thick beard with all-natural ingredients.
• Beard Butter - Original: It helps style your beard and keeps it hydrated so that it doesn’t turn hard and brittle.
• Beard Straightener - V2.0: The perfect tool in your arsenal to straighten out your beard hair and tame it into the ducktail beard point.