The corporate beard style is often worn by men who work in an office environment that has a strict beard-policy.
Some call it “the business beard”, primarily since a lot of businessmen feel the need to maintain their beard in a strict corporate fashion, most likely to look classy and presentable to their peers.
This type of short and well-maintained facial hair style can also be seen on some high-level CEOs, even though one study noted that only 2% of the World’s 100 richest men had facial hair.
Ready to learn more about the corporate beard, how to grow it out, how to maintain it, and to see some examples of people who wear it?
Great, keep on reading below. ↓
Pros and Cons of the Corporate Beard
It’s a sad fact that many office jobs and other places where the go-to style is formal or “business-casual”, the facial hair is either banned or tightly controlled.
In many companies, this means that you simply have to be clean-shaven (yes, I agree, that’s absolutely crazy in 2023).
But some workplaces do allow their employees to wear beards, as long as they are kept short and clean.
And this is where the corporate beard steps in.
The corporate beard, aka business beard, is a very short full face beard (usually 1/2″ to 1″ in length) that is evenly trimmed and the edges well-maintained.
The mustache area is neatly trimmed with no flyaway hairs or any hairs overlapping the upper lip.
As for the pros and benefits, the corporate beard style works well with a suit and tie, or with a looser business-casual attire. It’s perfect for any job that allows well-maintained short beards.
For the cons or negatives, this type of beard looks a bit boring. It’s contained and mild, without really saying anything about the person rocking it, other than “I guess this is all they let me grow here”.
Nowadays, even some CEOs and company presidents like Google’s Sergei Brin are known for rocking it, which brings hope to the beard-o-sphere that perhaps one day, the World will fully accept the hirsute-faced office workers.
What Face Shape Best Fits the Style
Just like the full beard, a corporate beard suits most face shapes (if you want to learn more about choosing the right beard style for your face shape take a look here).
Since the corporate beard style is short and evenly trimmed down, it doesn’t add emphasis to any particular point of the face, making it a great overall choice for any face type.
Most experts would agree that it’s best suited for face shapes that have a pointy chin (such as triangle, heart, or diamond shape) since it takes some attention away from the area.
All-in-all, there isn’t really a face shape it wouldn’t work with. Because of that, we left out the “poor match” option below completely.
Best matches:
Acceptable matches:
If you need to keep your beard short and in mint-condition for work and business, the corporate style is the way to go. And it doesn’t matter what your face shape is, as the style suits all face shapes without any poor matches.
Guide to Growing and Trimming the Corporate Beard
So how exactly do you grow and maintain the corporate beard so that it pleases your boss and doesn’t get you fired?
Well, you start from understanding that the average beard grows about 0.5 inches per month…
And since the typical corporate beard is 0.5″ to 1″ in length, it will take you 1-2 months to grow out this type of beard.
After your beard has grown long enough to warrant “corporate” status, you can start trimming and maintaining it.
To do this you will definitely need a good beard trimmer, which you can set to your desired length and keep it there for daily or bi-daily trimming.
Then you will need some beard scissors, primarily to snip away all the wild hairs and clean the mustache area.
And lastly, I would highly recommend that you invest in a good beard shaping tool to help you with perfectly edging the neckline and cheekline (very important to get the clean and crisp look required by the corporate style).
Here’s how to trim the corporate beard:
- Go through your whole area with a beard trimmer set to 0.5-1″.
- Using beard scissors, cut off any wild hairs and trim the upper lip.
- With the help of a beard shaping tool, edge out the neck and cheekline.
- Use a razor to shave the neck and upper cheeks from any odd hairs.
There isn’t a very strict set of rules as to what is the perfect corporate beard. The key idea is that it should be short and clean, with sharp edges and clean mustache.
Celebrities with a Corporate Beard
Many famous people are known for rocking the subtle corporate beard.
Some of the more notable ones include the actors Ryan Reynolds, Jon Hamm, Ben Affleck, and Chris Hemsworth, and the model Chris Millington who rocks a very sharp corporate-style beard whenever he isn’t trimming it down to a BeardStache.
Conclusion
It’s mind-blowing that still in 2019 when almost everything is being accepted and understood, beards in the office are still a tabu.
The short, mild, and contained corporate beard is a great example of this.
With just 0.5″ to 1″ in length and very boring “clean” shape to it, this style really doesn’t say anything about its wearer.
But hey, maybe that is the goal. As a corporate worker, you need to make no number out of yourself, as in the end, you are just a number to the company.
