Beard Styles | 15 Trending Options for Your Face

Looking for beard styles? You’re in the right place. While there are several trending styles, we think it’s worth considering some of the less popular ones. After all, you want to make a statement, right? Read on to learn more.

Looking for Trendy Beard Styles?

Let’s face it — there are an overwhelming amount of facial hair options. Just look at the chart above. But this year, the beard is in — for good reason.

Beards are the ultimate symbol of masculinity. Worn stubble-short or to lengths of wizardly proportions, the beard you choose can completely change your look. Lucky for you, a variety of beard styles and all types of facial hair are very in vogue right now.

Take that, shaving industry! 

A beard can be your best and most flattering accessory. What else can you wear that expertly hides a round face or weak chin while making you look as tough and rugged as a Viking?

Choosing the right beard styles for your face shape will help you emphasize your best features while downplaying – or downright hiding – your worst.

If you’re sick of shaving and want to banish baby face forever (or at least for a little while), you’ve come to the right place. Check out these popular beard styles and see which one you’re up for trying. Is it just us, or are you looking more stylish and chiseled already? 

15 Beard Styles for Different Face Shapes

Whether you have a round, square, oval, or heart-shaped face, there are beard styles that will flatter and suit your face shape. See which beard might be the perfect fit in the examples below! Learn more about choosing a beard that suits your face shape in the next section. 

1. Medium Garibaldi Beard

Full, dramatic, and oh-so-masculine, the Garibaldi beard is an obvious choice for guys with superior facial hair-growing skills. Featuring a full moustache attached to a rounded, trimmed beard with some length, it’s a classic look based on 19th-century Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi’s look. 

2. Short Balbo Beard

Italo Balbo, a famed Italian pilot and commander, is the namesake for this unique and handsome beard style. The moustache is not connected to the beard. The beard is trimmed so it doesn’t extend all the way up the cheeks. The soul patch is left intact to add some flavor to this masculine style. 

3. Trimmed Anchor Beard

The anchor beard covers less real estate on your face, so it’s perfect for square, oval, and oblong faces. It’s also a great choice if you just want to hide a double or weak chin. It features a disconnected moustache, soul patch, and trimmed beard that covers only the jawline. 

4. Modified Imperial Beard

A true imperial beard features a handlebar-style imperial curled moustache and a soul patch/goatee. This modified version has those features, but with the addition of long stubble in the shape of a full beard.

It creates this really interesting visual contrast between the moustache, soul patch, and long stubble areas. It won’t transform your jawline, but it’s great for square, round, or oval faces because it draws the eye to the center of the face. 

5. Styled Verdi Beard

Only for the hippest of hipsters, the precisely-groomed Verdi beard is a great option. Show off your waxed and styled handlebar moustache, which is disconnected from the short and low Verdi-style beard that features a soul patch.

We love this bold look and it’s perfect for oval, square, and heart-shaped faces. The lack of coverage up on the cheeks near the ears can make round faces look wider. 

6. Goatee and Moustache Combo

You can’t go wrong with a classic goatee, especially if you hate fooling with a full beard. This centrally-focused beard style features hair on the chin that doesn’t extend past the mouth. A thin moustache kept short is a perfect addition to the goatee and won’t hide a square face’s strong jawline. 

7. Medium Circle Beard

Circle beards feature a moustache that is connected to a goatee so the facial hair forms a fuzzy circle around the mouth. This look can slim round or square faces, but hearts and oblong face shapes should avoid it. 

8. Extended Goatee With Short Stubble

Wearing popular beard styles can be adjusted to fit your unique style and needs by changing the length. If you like the shape of an extended goatee and moustache combo, try the shape out with short stubble! This effortlessly cool look makes a few days’ worth of growth look designer because it’s well trimmed. 

9. Grand Bandholz Beard

This is a long beard only the most patient (or testosterone-driven) men can produce. It won’t happen overnight, but if you grow out your whiskers and moustache and leave them nice and shaggy (no meticulous grooming here), it could be your look one day soon. 

10. Garibaldi With Fade

Your beard and hairstyle need to be in sync – they don’t have to match, but it’s important that they look good together. This mid drop fade with a line-up looks perfect next to a full Garibaldi beard (featuring a connected, thin moustache and rounded bottom).

Read Next: Fade Haircuts

11. Extended Goatee With Moustache

This beard style is very similar to a circle beard, but with one important exception: The goatee portion extends beyond the corners of the mouth. This gives you more beard coverage along the chin and jawline, which is a Godsend for round and heart-shaped faces that may not want to leave the full chin and jaw exposed. 

12. Full Ducktail Beard

Ducktail beard styles are a wonderful option if you can grow long facial hair. Ducktail beards are pointed in the center and resemble a duck’s pointed tail feathers. They feature a connected moustache and soul patch.

You’ll need regular trims to keep the center pointed, and it’s a great look for guys with round, square, and oval faces. Hearts and oblongs should avoid this style because it can visually lengthen the face. 

13. Full Dutch Beard

The Dutch beard or Amish beard is full, long, and moustache-less. That’s what makes this type of beard stand out!

This style is most at home in Amish communities. But it’s also becoming popular among hipsters who cop bold styles others aren’t wearing yet. Dare to rock it with any face shape, and rest easy knowing you won’t have to deal with every sip you take ending up all over your moustache! 

14. Classic Friendly Mutton Chops

Steal the spotlight with old-school friendly mutton chops (mutton chops featuring a moustache) that will bring a smile to every person you meet. This beard style features a shaved goatee and soul patch.

So only the moustache and sides remain. It’s a unique and historic style that demands confidence (and regular trims) to wear. This is a good choice for square, oval, and oblong face shapes. 

15. Full Short Beard

A basic full beard is a great choice for guys with any face shape, but keeping it short makes it a perfect fit for square or oblong (long oval) faces. Here, the beard grows in along the cheeks and chin and is connected to a nicely trimmed moustache. 

How to Choose Beard Styles for Your Face Shape

Now that you’ve seen a range of beard styles for different face shapes, let’s circle back and look at why face shape is important when choosing your beard style.

We’ll cover the 4 basic face shapes and which beard styles look best on each. Here’s how to choose beard styles that work specifically with your face! 

Determine Your Face Shape

The first order of business is finding out what your face shape is. Do you have a round, square, oval, or heart face shape? 

• Round: About as wide as it is long, a round face looks full and has a rounded jawline and chin. 
• Square: About as wide as it is long, a square face looks angular and can have a boxy appearance. It features a sharp jawline and squared-off chin. 
• Oval: Longer than it is wide, an oval face is symmetrical and resembles an elongated circle. The jawline and chin are slightly rounded. 
• Heart: Widest at the forehead, a heart-shaped face has a pointy or narrow chin with a small jawline. 

It can be helpful to look in the mirror and plot points around the edges of your face (at the top and sides of the forehead, outer edges of the cheeks, jawline, and chin) with a dry erase marker.

Step back and take a look at the points you’ve drawn out. Do they form a loose circle, square, oval, or heart (upside-down triangle)?

Find Beard Styles That Suit Your Face Shape

Once you’ve determined your face shape, you’re ready to choose beard styles that suit you! Here are the general “rules” for beards on each face shape. No matter what your face shape is, you’ve got lots of good-looking options. 

• Beards for Round Faces: Round faces need slimming beards that won’t exaggerate a rounded jawline or weak chin. Opt for full beards that cover the sides, cheeks, and chin. If you’re into partial beards, make sure to keep the attention focused on the center of the face (goatee, goatee + moustache, circle beard) and keep the chin covered for a more chiseled look. 
• Beards for Square Faces: Square-faced men don’t need beards because they’ve already got that angular, chiseled aesthetic. But a wide range of beard styles look great on square faces, including epic styles like the Garibaldi, Bandholz, and Verdi. A circle beard or goatee will soften a square face up. Even 2-day stubble looks great on square-faced guys because your strong jawline does all the work! 
• Beards for Oval Faces: Most beards will work on oval faces because they’re so symmetrical and balanced. However, you should avoid visually lengthening long oval faces (oblong) with ducktail beards or long goatees. Look for styles that feature more length or growth along the sides and cheeks to keep oval faces balanced. 
• Beards for Heart Faces: Bottom-heavy beards work best for heart-shaped faces with a weak or narrow chin. Skip chin-centric styles, like goatees and soul patches, in favor of styles with more width at the bottom. This will help visually widen and chisel your chin and jawline. Bold, long beards perfectly balance heart-shaped faces. 

Whatever your face shape is, embrace it fully by choosing a beard type that perfectly suits it. It’s all about creating balance and symmetry – or the illusion of it – when tailoring a beard to your face. If you lack width in the chin, add some by growing more hair there. 

If your face is wide and you want it to look slimmer, opt for central beard styles that draw the eye toward the middle. For soft, rounded jawlines that you want to sharpen, choose short and precisely-shaped styles to mimic a strong, chiseled jawline. 

Consider the Consequences

Okay, maybe “consequences” is a little dramatic. But before you choose any beard style, you need to think about what it will entail. Here are the disadvantages of wearing a beard that you might not have considered yet. 

• It’s getting hot in here. If you’re not used to rocking facial fuzz, you might not realize just how hot beards can be. Growing a layer of insulating fur on your face is awesome in the fall and winter months, but can be a killer in the heat of the summer sun. 
• The itch is real. When you’re growing out a beard, the itching will begin as the hair breaks through the skin. But it doesn’t stop there. Most men (especially those with curly hair) report that their beard regularly feels itchy and uncomfortable. You’ll get used to it, but the itch is worth noting. 
• It takes work to look polished. If you don’t particularly love the hobo look, your beard is going to take some work to look good. Well-groomed beards require regular trims and daily styling and maintenance to look their best. This might mean you’ll spend an additional 10-15 minutes just styling and brushing your beard in the morning. Sleeping on a longer beard means you’ll wake up with it jutting out in every direction! 
• Maintenance is a pain. Those luxurious and epic beards that are perfectly groomed and shiny are not easy to create. They require a lot of maintenance and care to look kempt and tidy. You’ll need to apply a good-quality beard oil, invest in a good comb or brush, and concentrate on washing and conditioning your beard to maintain it. 
• Prepare to invest in your beard. Speaking of all those things you’ll have to do to maintain your new beard, most of it is going to cost you. From a bottle of beard oil to specialty boar bristle brushes, trimming scissors, and wax (for molded and precise beard styles), you better prepare to invest a little money into your beard care and maintenance if you want it to look good. 

What’s Your Favorite Beard Style?

We hope you’ve found some beard styles you like in our guide! Now you know what’s out there and have lots of options to consider for your next facial hairdo. 

Will you go quick and casual with short stubble, invest time and energy into growing a fuller style like the Garibaldi, or try something quirky and fun like mutton chops or a Dutch beard?

As long as you choose a beard type that suits your face shape, one thing is guaranteed: You’re going to feel like a new man with your new beard. 

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