It seems like beards are everywhere lately. While some men just let their facial hair grow out and hope for the best, the lucky ones know that they can change their look by altering their beard style. I never know which beard shapes are in fashion, though. But, I’ve been interested in finding out, so here we are. Before you break out the shaving cream, consider these beard styles for black men.

Traditional Full Beard

The full beard is classic. If you can grow one, you probably want to try. Some men believe that a full beard is a sign of masculinity. Of course, it’s not, but having a full beard can make you quite proud.

So what does a full beard entail? It runs from sideburn to sideburn, along your jaw, across your chin and up the other side of your jaw. A full beard is accented by a mustache that runs into the beard.

You don’t have to do too much grooming to keep a full beard in shape. You can let it grow further down your neck than some other beard styles for black men. However, you might have to tidy up the line at the base of your beard. You might also need to trim stray hairs that meander up your cheek.

If your hair grows sparsely or you have patchy areas, this may not be the perfect beard style for you. Try one of the other styles from this article.

The Pretty Boy Goatee

The goatee is a popular beard style for black men. Although you might think that this is a basic style, you can adapt it to your haircut and face shape. It’s versatile. If you haven’t had luck growing a goatee in the past, you might want to attempt a different variation.

A goatee typically consists of a minimal area of hair on the chin. A pure goatee doesn’t include a mustache. Some people call it a soul patch. This type of goatee looks great on round face shapes.

A pretty boy goatee is appropriate for a diamond face shape. It balances out a narrow chin. To achieve this look, grow a goatee on the chin, and connect it with your mustache. You can grow a pretty boy goatee to be long and voluminous, curly and lush, or trimmed back.

You can change the appearance of a pretty boy goatee by shaving it into a Van Dyke. To do this, you should grow a mustache and a pure goatee. Don’t connect the two on the edges. Your soul patch should come to a point below your bottom lip and widen at the chin. When you grow the Van Dyke long, it is called an anchor.

Another type of goatee that works well on black men is the landing strip. To get this style, shave everything except for a rectangle of hair that extends from below your lower lip to your chin. Don’t let the beard extend along your chin from side to side. It should be relatively narrow.

The Balbo

The Balbo is also known as the anchor beard. It’s a type of goatee that’s relatively easy to grow and maintain. If you can grow a thick beard, you can develop a Balbo.

Let your goatee grow as thick as you’d like it to. You should pay attention to the line at the edge and bottom of the goatee. You can choose to shave off the patch below your bottom lip or leave it longer.

For a Balbo, you must also have a mustache. Most people grow a moderate mustache with this style. To make it a Balbo, shave off the hair that connects the bottom of the goatee with the mustache. You’ll need to shave this every day to keep the sleek contrast.

The 5 O’Clock Shadow

What if you never had to shave again? Some men dream about having the perfect 5 o’clock shadow.

Don’t be fooled, though—this beard style isn’t always low maintenance. You have to give it some attention if you don’t want to look unruly or lazy.

Also known as the three-day-old beard, it has this name because you should trim it every three days. Use high-quality, sharp mustache and beard scissors.

Brush the beard with a boar bristle brush, which can stimulate growth, exfoliate your skin, reduce the chances of getting ingrown hairs and tame the strands to grow in the same direction. Then, trim any stray or unruly strands.

An electric trimmer may work even better if your hair is short. Run it over your skin at the appropriate setting to match your length. Doing this will ensure an even length and a tidy beard.

You’ll also need to shave every day. That may sound counterintuitive if you’re trying to get that bad-boy look. However, you need to clean up the edges of your cheeks and neck so that you don’t look like you neglected your appearance.

The Barely Shaved Beard

Black men with thick hair or dense beards may feel as though they can never get a truly clean shave. You can take advantage of that characteristic, though. Instead of trying to achieve baby skin, trim your beard a hair longer than flush with your skin.

An electric trimmer is vital for this style. Use it at the same time every day, such as at bedtime. By mid-morning, you should have some attractive stubble.

If this style works well for you, you can try to use a razor to tackle the edges, giving your face an even more contoured appearance. This style brings structure to round faces or soft jawlines.

The Chin Curtain

The chin curtain is one of the narrowest beard styles. It involves growing a short hair that follows your jawline and wraps around your chin. Your hair should not meet your mustache.

To make this beard style look perfect, you have to be meticulous about trimming the edges. It’s a sharp look if you can pull it off.

Also, don’t let your beard get too long. This style looks great on people who have dense, thick hair but don’t want long facial hair.

You can keep your mustache with this style. Some men choose to shave it off completely to emphasize the jawline, though.

The Short Beard

You don’t have to have long, lush facial hair to grow an attractive beard. Many black men choose to keep their beards trimmed close to their skin to avoid long, wiry hairs.

If you choose this style, you can connect the beard to your mustache, but you don’t have to. You can allow your beard to grow in its natural shape without doing much carving or trimming at the edges.

The key to making the short beard work for you is to grow it out beyond the three-day-old beard stage. When you begin to grow your facial hair, it can look sloppy and patchy.

Allow your hair to grow in and give you as much coverage as possible. Then, you can trim it back as often as you need to help it stay sleek. Don’t be discouraged as you’re growing this type of beard. It should become more symmetrical with time.

Some people think that it doesn’t make sense to grow a short beard on dark skin. However, this style can contour your face. It also works well when you have white or salt-and-pepper hair.

The Sculpted Beard

Do you want to show off your style and separate yourself from all of the other guys with beards? You might want to do a little extra handiwork to sculpt your facial hair according to the contours of your face.

You’ll need a personal trimmer or sharp razor to achieve this look. Create clean lines along the edges of your goatee, your neckline, your jaw, and your mustache.

The denser your beard is, the sharper the lines are going to be. This style is recommended for black men with thick hair and relatively short beards. As your beard gets longer, the lines at the edges will lose their crispness.

Mutton Chops

If you’re not into the carved look, you can let your eccentricity shine with mutton chops. Men who can grow long, bushy facial hair shouldn’t have any problem developing mutton chops.

To get this look, allow your beard to grow down from your sideburns. Shave the front of your chin. However, you should keep the bushy hair along the bottom of the chin like a strap.

The trick to making this style look good is to allow the hair along the sides of the face to grow thick and full. Curly mutton chops look excellent and make a statement. Once you have established the basic shape, keep the hair along the edges of the mutton chops trimmed.

You might wonder what to do with your mustache and the hair on the front of the chin. Some people choose to grow this out but keep it cut shorter than the hair at the sides of the face. Others shave these areas every day.

Maintaining a mustache can make mutton chops look less dramatic. The hair above your upper lip balances out the areas at the sides of your face and can give mutton chops a less dramatic effect.

The Circle Beard

If you already have a goatee, you can extend it into a circle beard rather easily. The goatee will still be the focal point. However, you’ll add some shape and contouring around the jawline with a short beard. The circle beard works well with any face shape.

To achieve this style, let the hair grow from your sideburns along your jaw. Trim the goatee with a rounded edge. Allow the goatee’s hair to extend past the length of the rest of the beard.

Also, make sure that you don’t carve any harsh lines along the cheeks. The edges should be gently rounded.

The Bald Beard

Just because you’re balding on your dome, you don’t necessarily have to sacrifice your full face of hair. If your beard is still growing well, take advantage of it.

Let it grow from ear to ear. One of the biggest challenges to growing this style is creating a good-looking fade where it meets your ears.

If you shave your head and have some stubble, you can trim your sideburns and beard edges to match the length of your hair. For people with shiny heads, however, the fade can be more difficult to achieve.

Allow your beard to grow thick to your earlobe. From the lobe to the center height of the ear, the thickness should gradually fade. Trim your hair even shorter from the center to the top of the ear.

Some men use this fade method even when they’re not completely bald. For example, a popular hipster look involves growing your hair long on top of the head and fading it down toward your ears. You can reverse this fade from the sideburns down your beard to balance out the look.

The Ducktail Beard

Would James Harden have the same identity without his ducktail beard? The ducktail beard is easy to identify because it comes to a point like a duck’s tail. It’s a full-bearded style that needs to grow relatively long to create the signature shape.

However, you can grow the sides out as long as you choose. The key to this beard is developing a long enough section at the chin that it tapers in and curls forward.

When it comes to full beards, this is a style that looks professional and well-groomed even when it’s long. You probably need to use a significant amount of beard oil or balm to maintain the shape. You may also want to get regular trims at the barbershop to make sure that the beard continues to grow in the way that you want it to.

In fact, growing a long beard is not an excuse to avoid seeing the barber. As your facial hair grows, it can develop split ends, which make it look scraggly. The split ends can break off, making it seem as though your beard just doesn’t grow past a certain point. If you’re adamant about having a ducktail beard, you may see faster growth if you trim it regularly.

You may also need to train your beard to retain its style. Comb it every day in the direction of preferred growth. You might need to comb your facial hair several times a day. Eventually, it will grow the way that you want it to with minimal coaxing.

Finally, you should know that the ducktail beard isn’t ideal for every face shape. It works well for round, diamond, rectangular, or inverted triangle faces. The length and taper at the bottom bring balance to wide faces.

The Hipster Beard

If you really want to let it all hang loose and have a laid-back personality, you could just let your beard grow long. The hipster beard is characterized by volume and wild shape. You don’t have to do much trimming to develop and maintain this type of beard.

Hipster beards usually look best on people with curly hair. Adding this much length to your face might not be an attractive look for someone with a long head. However, square faces and those with wide jawlines can benefit from a full beard.

The hipster beard also looks excellent when it’s complemented with a sleek hairstyle. This is an excellent pairing for braids or bald heads. You should probably let your mustache grow out so that it blends into the beard well. However, you’ll probably want to do some trimming around the mouth so that you don’t wear your meals in your beard.

The Short Boxed Beard

Many men can’t grow a full beard. If you want something that’s different than a goatee or 5 o’clock shadow, you might want to try a short boxed beard.

This style is a short version of a full beard. To establish it, let your beard grow. You have to get past the phase where it looks patchy and allow it to fill in. During this time, keeping up your skincare regimen can keep the follicles healthy to promote the best growth.

Trim it regularly to avoid getting scraggly pieces. However, you don’t have to create too much definition around the edges. This beard style looks great with some stubble down the neck and on the cheeks.

The Crusader Beard

The crusader beard falls between the full beard and the short beard. It gives you full coverage along the jaw, cheeks, and chin. However, you can keep it short and tight if you have trouble gaining length.

To achieve this look, allow your facial hair to grow for at least two weeks. Use a trimmer to create a line that gets wider from the sideburns down under the cheekbones. Allow the hair to connect with your mustache. You can keep the hair that flanks your chin and mouth slightly longer than the rest of the beard.

However, you might want to trim the soul patch to prevent it from getting scraggly. Create a rectangle that extends down from your bottom lip to the hair that runs across your chin. Don’t trim your neckline too close to your chin, either. This beard looks best when it is full below the chin also.

The Hollywood Beard

The Hollywood beard is a classic and classy look for people who want well-defined facial hair. It’s short, tight, and well-defined.

This type of beard looks best when you create a straight line from the hairline to the corner of your mouth. You should also trim your mustache to match the length of the rest of your beard.

Crop the inner edges of the chin strap so that your soul patch is also prominent. There should be a line that runs vertically from the corner of your mouth, down to the chin, and across the bottom of the chin.

The Pencil Beard

For even more precision, grow a pencil beard. This style is minimalist, but it’s not delicate. In fact, it can make you look tough.

The pencil beard is a narrow line that extends downward from the sideburns. It wraps around your jaw and chin. Your mustache should also be thin. You can connect it to the hair on your chin with fine lines that lengthen downward.

You can combine the pencil beard with the chin strap by letting the hair on your chin grow a little thicker. In this case, you don’t always have to connect the mustache to the hair below your mouth.

The Musketeer Beard

The musketeer beard provides definition to your upper lip and chin. It’s a perfect style for people with balanced features and rectangular faces. This beard style is minimalist, though. Because of this, you need to maintain it regularly.

To achieve this beard, allow the hair on your chin to grow in a rectangle that spans the bottom of your face. It should not extend up your jawline.

Shave the cheeks, chin, jawline, and neck. Keep those areas cleanly shaven. Your mustache should be a medium thickness and be trimmed at the corners.

Summary

Black men can grow just about any type of beard. You can get creative with the style to suit your lifestyle, hair type, and routine. Although many beard styles for black men have been trendy over the years, it’s up to you to make the look your own. When you can rock it with confidence, whatever beard style you choose will be the one that turns heads.