How do you maintain beards?

Sounds like a silly question, but I’ve never grown my facial hair out so don’t really know. I assume that facial growth keeps going until you cut it off, so what do you need to do to keep it at a length that isn’t all father Christmas? Do you use scissors or something? Or does beard growth slow down after a certain point to make it less difficult than I’m imagining?

Grateful if someone can enlighten me.

I use a beard trimmer, but ocassionally shave the whole thing off.

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=234951011

I just got an electric trimmer (this Phillips one) as a gift with a vacuum to suck up the trimmings, so they don’t totally destroy the sink every couple days. It’s works really well, I love it (and I took the hint that maybe I’m not all that thorough rinsing the sink after a trim :wink: ).

Beard trimmer. Different clip guards for different lengths, at least until your cats knock one off of the counter and hide it somewhere… I sometimes use scissors, but mostly angle the trimmers to get the longest parts cut. Sometimes I use a shorter guard and just go uniform all around.

Beards, like head hair, tend to have a maximum length based upon strands falling or getting tugged out, getting clipped due to damage from the environment, etc.

Yep, beard trimmer, find a length you like, run it over every week or so. The shorter the beard, the more often you have to go over it.

I’ve left my beard alone for about three weeks, and it gets to looking scraggly since not every hair grows at the same rate. Just give it a pass with a number 1 or 2 razor, and it looks fine again.

Want! The worst part about trimming my beard is all the ‘debris’ around the sink afterward. I’m adding that trimmer to my wish list.

I started my beard the day I left the Navy in 1992.

My wife / son / 2 dogs have never seen me without a beard.

As far as I know it doesn’t slow down.

Keeping it neat is mostly done by eye (I don’t use the various depth attachments), and consists of tidying up the 'stache, that little patch between the lower lip and the top if the chin, and along the outside perimeter - typically every week or so. I just brush it down and

I’ll usually grow it out until my wife says I’m starting to look scary, then I trim it back to maybe 1/2 inch all around with a trimmer.

My profile has a pic at about the 1 inch mark (still non scary - at least to my wife).

I’ve grown it long enough to touch my forehead with the chin hairs, but that was a long time ago!

Yep, I take out the hair clippers with the #2 guard every week or so. If I’m going out on vacation I might use the clippers with no guard and just let it grow for a few weeks until I get back.

I use a Wall hair trimmer:

I start without a guard and clean up the neck line and the lightly covered areas on my upper cheeks (the areas I will eventually shave with a razor)

I then put on one of the shortest guards (1/4”) and cut from my jaw bone up to the top of my ears (the sideburn area)

Double the guard size (1/2”) and work down my jaw a short ways (between sideburn area and goatee area)

Use the 3/4” guard for my chin and moustache (goatee area)

Last, I clean up my upper lip

While working from one guard size/area to the next I blend the hair length by slightly pulling the clippers away from my face. You don’t want visible lines of different hair lengths.

My clippers have an adjustable guard. I think I trim my beard on setting 3. I trim my head with the guard taken off.

Good god, you’re lucky the sink drains at all. Put the plug in, trim your beard, use a Kleenex to sweep the big pieces into a wastebasket, and vacuum up the little pieces.

Be nice to her in general, always remember her birthday of course, and let her choose the movies. Always be willing to be her date as well if…

Oh sorry, wrong kind of bear.

Yeah, beard trimmer. Decide how long you want it to grow and then find the trimmer level for that and go over it about once every couple of days, and have a touch-up when you go in for your hair cuts.

I only have a goatee. I use clippers, the same kind that you would use on your head. I’m pretty sure that this is the model that I have. (I’m not sure if there’s a significant difference between them and the “beard trimmers” that everybody else has mentioned.) No fancy vacuum cleaners attached, so I lay a paper towel down in the sink to collect most of it, then carefully fold up the towel and wipe up the parts that tend to fly all over the sink and counter.
ETA: Since it’s just the goatee and soul patch, I use the same guard, but I often make the soul patch a little shorter by adjusting the lever that changes it about 1/2 a guard level. If the soul patch gets long enough to do so, I will unconsciously rake it into my mouth with the top front teeth and chew on it; and this cannot look sophisticated.

I’ve been using scissors and a safety razor for the last 30 years or so. I’ve gotten pretty good at getting an even trim, and it doesn’t take very long to do. But I’m not looking for the high and tight look, either.

Damn it! Beaten to the punch … .

Moving to IMHO from GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

Beard trimmer and scissors. After the initial shaping, look in the mirror, slowly tilt your head up and down, and slowly turn side to side. Use scissor to snip off anything sticking out. Luckily I can just let mine grow out most of the time now. I usually do an initial trim before showering, and then go back again afterwards with the scissors. And I pack the scissors wherever I go if it matters. No telling when or where one whisker will suddenly pop out in the wrong direction.

Depends on how short the beard is and how often it’s trimmed. Keep it short and regularly trimmed, and the trimmings are so short they can’t tangle together, much less clog the sink.

I think everyone’s beard has a maximum length but it is not the same for different people. When my beard gets maybe an inch and a half thick it will not grow any more at least not significantly and all I need to do is trim the excessive hairs with scissors. Anyway I wear a goatee and mustache now so shave the part of my face I want bare daily and trim the mustache and goatee a couple of times a week.

You wont regret it! It’s got a digital readout that shows the mm for the guard settings, so it makes it a lot easier to see and remember which mm setting works best if you keep sideburns, a stashe, stubble or some other combo.

Honestly, I was shocked to see only like five or ten stray hairs in the sink after the carpet of stubble that I usually see.

this does not align with my tenacious efforts to minimize the amount of energy I put into cleaning up after myself. :wink: