You can and should pick a beard style based on your face shape, because a proportional balanced face is a great looking face…
But if you want to take it a step further, you can also match your beard style with your hairstyle – because both the hair and the beard – will inevitably influence the overall shape of your face.
It’s simple really:
- You can combine a short beard with a short hairstyle to avoid adding extra length to your face.
- You can combine a long hairstyle with bushy beard to distinguish wide cheekbones and accentuate narrow forehead or jawline.
- You can use a spiked up medium-length hairstyle with a longer beard style to greatly add length to a short face.
Etc.
In this article you will learn how to perfectly match different hair lengths and styles with different lengths and styles of facial hair – so that the end result is a balanced overall style that will turn heads and make you more confident than ever.
The Basics of Pairing a Beard Style with Hairstyle
As a general rule of thumb, a thick heavy haircut calls for a short beard, and a light short haircut typically works well with a heavier more defined beard style.
Matching a hairstyle with a beard is all about creating balance, just as picking the right beard style for your face shape is.
For example:
- If you have a short hair and your face is short in vertical height, then this scenario obviously calls for a longer beard which adds length to the face.
- If you have a medium-length hair with a tall face, then choosing a beard style with shorter length will help you avoid making the face too tall and unbalanced.
- If you have a round, short face, then a beard style with short sides and bit of length at the bottom, combined with a medium-length spiked up hair will nicely add length to it.
- If you have a diamond shaped face with narrow forehead and jaw, and wide cheekbones, you can combine long hair with a big bushy beard to accentuate the weak areas.
Catch my drift?
Below are some of the best examples for combining a beard style with hairstyle – for each of the main lengths (short, medium, long).
How to Match a Beard with Your Hair Length
Short Hair Styles
Short hairstyles like the buzz cut, crew cut, and many ivy league haircuts work exceptionally well with beards that are short on the sides, but have some more volume below the jawline and chin.
Especially the guys with short faces can benefit from the combinations of haircuts that have short sides with beard styles that have short faded sides as well, as this can make even the shortest face appear taller without adding any width to it.
Men with taller face shapes on the other hand can use a short haircut in combination with a short boxed beard or stubble to add some definition to their faces without adding too much vertical height.
Recently some of the hottest styles have been short crew cuts or faded haircuts combined with faded beards and short boxed beards.
Medium Hair Styles
Having a medium-length hair gives you a lot of options for choosing a beard style, as practically any style from the shortest stubble to a long beard can work well with medium length hair styles.
It’s best to aim for balance though. If your hair is dark, thick, and shaggy, try to stick to a shorter beard style, otherwise your hair and beard will take too much of the attention away from your face.
Ultimately though you should work within the limits of your natural face shape. If you have a short round face, then combining a longer beard with medium length hair that is styled upwards, helps in creating a visual impression of a taller face.
On the flip side, if your face is naturally tall, then having a medium-length hair style calls for a short beard (maybe even just stubble) to avoid exaggerating the height of the face too much.
Long Hair Styles
Not many guys can pull off a good look with long hair.
Why?
It’s because growing a long hair can easily make you look feminine, if it isn’t combined with either a super defined angular jawline – or a beard.
If you have a long hair and defined square jawline, you can usually get away with a short beard or a stubble, but if you have a long beard with a weaker chin and jawline, then you most definitely need to grow a big beard to make up for that.
Some beard styles that are going to work well with long hair include the Ducktail beard, boxed beards, natural full beards, and big bushy beards.
Best Beard Styles for Short Hair
Heavy Stubble with Bald Head
Jason Statham is the king of stubble beards. He always wears a stubble (either light stubble, medium stubble, or heavy stubble) in combination with his bald head.
Why, you ask?
Well, it’s not a random coincidence. He has a tall oblong shaped face and a great-looking chiseled jawline, so by growing a stubble beard he can prevent adding any extra length to his already tall face, and his defined jawline will still be visible underneath the stubble.
If he would have a short round face, then he would need a longer beard to balance his features out, but in his case the face is already long and it has straight sides, so even with bald hair he can get away with a short stubble beard.
Short Crisp Haircut with Short Ducktail Beard
Idris Elba is known from sporting various different beard styles, but what he is most well-known of is the short full Ducktail beard style that he combines with a short frizzy haircut.
As with most celebrities, the style is intentional and it’s perfectly balanced for his oval shaped face.
The short hair contours to his natural head shape, while the pointy chin of the Ducktail beard carefully accentuates the jawline and chin.
By keeping the sides of the beard and the sides of the hair short, he adds no extra width to his already prominent cheekbones.
Buzz Cut with Short Scraggly Beard
Tom Hardy is often seen with a scraggly beard like this one which has short sides, short cheeks, and bit more length on the mustache and the chin.
This beard style combined with a short buzz cut will perfectly balance out his heart shaped face which has a narrow rounded chin and wide forehead. The combination of short hair with a longer beard makes his face look more oval-shaped, which is considered “the ideal shape”.
If he would grow his hair out longer on the sides and trim the beard down into a stubble, he would only exaggerate his wide forehead which would make his narrow chin seem even narrower.
Regular Short Haircut with a High Boxed Beard
The ultimate “macho” style can be created with a combination of regular short haircut and a short “high-box” beard.
This hair and beard combo works best if you already have a somewhat balanced face shape, such as the oval, square, or diamond face, as it doesn’t add too much height or width to any part of the face.
Great example is the beard of Jon Hamm above.
Classic Caesar Cut with a Short Ducktail Beard
Charlie Hunnam plays the role of a rogue outlaw biker Jax Teller in the hit series “Sons of Anarchy”.
His short Ducktail beard with a pointy chin combined with the Caesar cut hairstyle adds a little bit of length to his square face shape – and somehow greatly contributes to his boyish rebel style that helps make the character.
Big Beard with a Crew Cut
Growing a big bushy beard can easily make your face unnaturally wide, so that it resembles a bowling ball.
But if you shape the sides of your beard short and combine it with a crew cut hairstyle that also has short sides, you can make it work, even against all the odds.
This type of long beard works well with short and long hairstyles, but you need to be careful with medium-length haircuts that are spiked upwards, as that would add too much length upwards and downwards, making your face unnaturally long.
Short Boxed Beard with Short Wavy Haircut
The short boxed beard is kind of an ideal beard style as it combines so well with practically any hairstyle.
Here we have the example of Chris Pine, who has a short square shaped face.
The combination of a short spiked up hair and the boxed beard will add some length to his face (but not too much) and the short beard style won’t hide his chiseled jawline too much.
All-in-all, it’s a great example of how to pair a hairstyle with a beard style, as the end result is a proportionate oblong shape.
Short Goatee with Ivy League Haircut
Short ivy league hairstyles typically work well with short beards or stubble.
In this example we have a short goatee (sometimes called as the petite goatee) combined with a short ivy league cut. This works well, especially with a shorter square shaped face as seen in the model above.
The haircut adds some length to the face, and the beard style doesn’t hide the angled jawline too much.
Goatee + Stubble with a Regular Short Haircut
Here’s another goatee example, this time with some light stubble on the cheeks as well and a regular short hair cut.
It works amazingly well here with Chris Hemsworth’s square shaped face, as the hairstyle adds a bit of length to the short face, and the beard style doesn’t hide the features of his lower face.
Of course – you know – it also helps that he is Chris Hemsworth, who could roll around with practically any beard or hairstyle and have women throw themselves on him.
Best Beard Styles for Medium Hair
BeardStache with Curly Ivy League Hairstyle
In this example, the actor Henry Cavill has a BeardStache (chevron mustache + stubble beard) and a medium-length curly ivy league haircut.
As you can see, he has a square face shape with angular defined jawline, which he understandably doesn’t want to hide (hence the stubble).
The medium-length haircut does add some height to the face, which is great as well, since the square face shape is known for being comparatively shorter to many other face shapes.
Verdi Beard with Medium-Length Haircut
The Verdi beard style is known for its ultra-styled mustache that comes along with a medium-length full face beard.
If you combine it with a medium-length hairstyle, you can easily create a balanced overall look.
Boxed Beard with a Slick Back Haircut
Jake Gyllenhaal’s beard styles are well-known for being some of the hottest ones in Hollywood.
His example here with a short boxed beard and a slicked back medium haircut is a perfect showcase of a combination that just works, especially if you have an already ideal oval-shaped face like Gyllenhaal does.
What would it take for you to rock this hair and beard combo? Well, a thick beard, thick hair, and oval-shaped face are all good places to start from.
You won’t end up looking as good as Jake Gyllenhaal, but you probably won’t end up looking bad either.
Patchy Boxed Beard with Ivy League Haircut
Want to create a visual impression of a tall and slim face?
Then combine a medium-length ivy league haircut and a short boxed beard. This adds no width to your face at all, but greatly enhances the height, which has a slimming effect.
It’s among the best hair and beard combinations for men with round shaped faces, and if you’re looking for a beard style that has a thinning effect on the face, then this one might be the best choice.
Boxed Beard with a Parted Haircut
A medium-length parted hair style such as the one above will add some roundness and width to the top part of your face.
Because of that, it’s a good idea to balance it out with some hard and sharp edges around the jawline.
For this; a boxed beard is the perfect fit.
Best Beard Styles for Long Hair
Short Boxed Beard with Long Hair
Like said in the beginning, long hair can easily make a man look feminine, UNLESS, it’s paired with a great angular jawline, or with a great beard.
Here you can see a combination of long hair with a beard style that is called “the short boxed beard”. It works out greatly, as it accentuates the already angular features of the guys jawline.
Would this type of hairstyle work on a guy with round and soft facial features? No it would be a disaster most likely.
Big Bushy Beard with Long Hair
Jared Leto is known for his crazy beard styles and haircuts, and while some of them are questionable at best, the example above where he rocks a big naturally grown bushy beard with a long hair is just spot on.
Patchy Ducktail Beard with Shoulder-Length Hair
If you go by the rules of matching a beard style to hairstyle, then the combination of long hair, diamond shaped face, and a scraggly patchy pointy Ducktail beard style should be a disaster.
But, for some reason, Jason Momoa combines all these into a style that looks great. It’s kind of an unique style that might only work if you are Jason Momoa, but if you have similar features, you might be able to pull it off.
Yeard with Long Hair (Caveman Look)
If you want to look like an ultra-masculine caveman, grow a long hair with an unruly bushy beard (maybe even a yeard).
This style can work well – if you’re a surf instructor for example. But it can also be a complete disaster – if you’re a an accountant, for example.
Heavy Stubble with Long Hair
Combining a long hair with a stubble beard style can be tricky, but if you have a defined jawline then it’s not a problem at all.
Designer Stubble with Long Hair
The medium-length designer stubble beard (1-3mm length) is known as one of the most attractive facial hair styles (according to research).
If you have a nice looking jawline, you can combine the designer stubble with a long hair style for an amazing look.
If you don’t have a nice jawline though, the end result may make you look creepy instead (and that’s when a longer beard style, or just longer hairstyle, might be a better decision).
Man Bun with a Short Boxed Beard
Man buns had their moment in the spotlight, but the style is definitely trending down right now.
Still, if you want to grow out a long hair and style it into a man bun, then the obvious thing you should be doing is to combine it with a beard.
Since the man bun will pull your hair back and increase the height of your forehead, you will want to balance that out with a short beard style – something like the short boxed beard for example.
Conclusion
Actors and other celebrities tend to always sport beard styles and haircuts that somehow look good on them, and the secret is that they have their own stylists who know how to match a beard with the hairstyle and the natural face shape.
At the same time, the average Joe might just cut their hair the way they have always had it cut, and shape his beard into whatever length guards his beard trimmer has.
After reading this article, hopefully you have learned exactly how to pick the right combination of beard and hair styles, so that you can enhance your overall looks.
Maybe it’s a short buzz cut with a big beard, or a long hair with a stubble beard. The choice is yours, as long as you’re mindful of the rules and ratios of the beard length, hair length, and the face shape.
