The corporate beard – also called the business beard – is a very short full beard, usually 1/2″ to 1″ in length, trimmed evenly all over, with a crisply edged neckline and cheekline and a mustache kept neatly off the upper lip.
It’s the go-to facial hair style for men who work in offices where beards are allowed but expected to stay short and well-maintained. Growing one takes about 1-2 months, and keeping it sharp takes a trimmer, scissors, and a few minutes every day or two.
That’s the short version. Below we’ll cover the pros and cons, which face shapes it suits, and the exact trimming routine.
Pros and Cons of the Corporate Beard
It’s a sad fact that in many office jobs and other places where the go-to style is formal or “business-casual”, facial hair is either banned or tightly controlled.
In some companies, this still means you simply have to be clean-shaven.
But plenty of 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.
As for the pros and benefits, the corporate beard 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, 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 high-profile executives and founders – Google co-founder Sergey Brin being one example – are known for wearing beards, which brings hope to the beard-o-sphere that one day the World will fully accept the hirsute-faced office worker.
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.
It arguably works best on face shapes with a pointy chin (such as triangle, heart, or diamond shapes) since the even coverage 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 beard area with a 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 neckline and cheekline.
- Use a razor to shave the neck and upper cheeks clean of 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 a 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
The corporate beard is what you wear when the dress code says “clean-shaven or close to it” and you’d still rather have a beard. Short, even, and sharply edged, it’s the most office-proof facial hair style there is.
It might not be the most exciting beard in the world, but it keeps you bearded from Monday to Friday – and there’s nothing stopping you from letting it run wilder on your own time. If you’re between jobs or interviews, our post on beards and job interviews is a good companion read.
