How to groom a full beard
How to Tame a Wild Beard (6 Step Tutorial) | GQ
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hi i'm matty conrad and i look
ridiculous what's up gq
i'm back it's been about 10 weeks since
i have done anything to my beard i've
always believed there's a lot more to
having a beard than just not shaving
as evidenced by what you see here and
although there's a lot of hair on my
face it's not very flattering
today we're going to shape it in there
and make it a little bit leaner looking
[Music]
growing a beard out like this i'll be
honest with you
hasn't been fun uh normally i would be
shaping it and trimming it along the way
but i did this for you
so that we can show you the dramatic
impact that a little bit of shaping has
to a beard
a lot of guys will just get to this
stage where they haven't done
anything to their beard and you'll
notice after a certain point
there are a few things about life that
become a bit more difficult
i'm sorry i'm going to need some napkins
no i need like all of your napkins
the real problem happens when the hair
on your upper lip starts
closing over top of your mouth now
normally i don't like to see both lips
fully but at this point
my mustache is poking my bottom lip
hair's just been growing from everywhere
and i'm starting to lose my face shape
and the idea of a beard is that it is
sort of an augmented
jaw shape it gives you a much stronger
square more masculine look
but as things just grow outward it
starts to make you look a little more
pear-shaped
a little wider broader and rounder so
what we're going to do is start by
attacking the areas that we want to make
look leaner
and we're going to show you the areas
that you want to leave to let grow
longer to give you a stronger looking
jaw shape
step one is prep the best time to trim a
beard is when you've freshly gotten out
of the shower
you want your beard to be as natural as
possible but if you don't have time for
that
you can take a towel rinse it under hot
water and wrap it around your face for
about 60 seconds the heat and the
moisture is going to help reset the hair
and take out any of the little kink
lines that i'll get from wearing a mask
or just sleeping on it weird
oh that's hot oh
once we've done that we're going to take
a blow dryer and a pick detangle the
beard
and try and get it into the nicest shape
we can make it if you don't have a blow
dryer handy
the best thing you can do is take a wide
tooth comb or a pick just detangle the
beard and work it downwards into a nice
natural looking shape you don't want to
puff the beard out
all the time because it's going to
remove a lot more hair
all right now that we've gotten all the
tangles out and we've got the beard dry
it's time to start shaping step 2
shaping today we're going to be working
with an electric clipper
and an electric trimmer the difference
is is that the clipper removes the bulk
of the beard while the trimmer does the
outline
the trimmer and clipper that i use are
from babeliss pro
this is the gold fx trimmer and it is
hands down my favorite that i've ever
used
and this is the fx pro clipper it's a
really really good clipper for
taking down full girth beards of any
thickness
the area of the beard that we're trying
to grow is here at the chin
we're trying to augment the shape of the
jaw and give it the strongest shape
possible so we really want to leave this
hair as much as possible
but the hair that is growing out the
sides is getting puffier and puffier and
starting to obscure
my ears now we want to try and make that
as narrow as possible
the best way to do that when a beard is
this length is to start working with a
clipper
with guards most clipper sets will come
with guards that look like this
and they all have numbers on them and
each number designates how much longer
that hair is going to be left
if you use it right against the skin so
when you're trying to get your sides
caved down i usually suggest working
with a number two
or a number three guard the number three
guard is going to be just slightly
longer and i always believe in starting
a little bit longer because you can
always take more hair off
but once it's gone it's gone so i'm
gonna take my number three guard and i'm
gonna put it on my clipper
then i'm gonna turn the clipper on i'm
going to turn it upside down
and i'm going to work in a downward
motion with the clipper guard right
against my cheek
but instead of rolling in with the shape
of my jaw
i'm just going to push it straight down
i'm going to start from the top of my
ear
and i'm just going to comb straight down
pushing the guard against the side of my
face
[Music]
then i'm going to run my comb through
just to make sure that all of the hairs
have been cut evenly
sometimes when you do this it takes a
couple of passes because
little hairs will pop out that you
didn't see before
that's already looking so much better
once i've gone through the sides with my
number three guard going straight up and
down i'm gonna put a number two guard on
my clipper which is a little bit shorter
and i'm just gonna work from this area
up
so that i can blend it a little better
into my haircut
i'm still gonna take my clipper upside
down i'm gonna push down with it and i'm
gonna scoop outwards
away from my face
that's going to take this top line make
it just a little leaner and give the
beard just a bit of a taper
i'm going to do this side now
oh my god that feels so much better
already you don't even know
honestly this is the part of my beard
that has been driving me the most
crazy is the part that makes my face
look really round and pear-shaped
so even just taking these sides down
feels amazing
because already my face looks leaner and
stronger looking
and that's what we're all going for step
three
is the base once we've got the sides
nice and lean
now we want to start shaping the shelf
the shelf is the bottom part of the
beard
that goes from the chin to the adam's
apple we want to make sure this looks
nice and clean and you can see
from not shaving mine doesn't so what
we're going to do is try and maintain as
much length as we possibly can
in this area so i'm going to comb all of
that down to get out all of the tangles
that are underneath my chin
then we're gonna take a clipper without
a guard we're gonna invert that clipper
tilt our chin back and we're just gonna
clean all of the little hairs
that are hanging down that don't look
uniform
[Music]
[Applause]
now you can see from my nice white
t-shirt that is now covered in hair
there's a fair amount of hair that
needed to come off in that area but it
was
all sitting behind my chin the reason we
tilt our head back
is so that when we have our head at a
natural resting position
there's a slight downward slope to the
beard and the longest point is right at
the chin
just like on your face that's why it
gives such a strong jaw shape
so i'm just going to comb through here
and take one more pass and make sure
everything
is nice and clean
one of the things you want to think
about when you're trimming the baseline
of your beard is that you don't want to
see any hair growing from your neck
in behind the natural length of the
beard
so as the beard gets longer the line
that we create comes lower and lower and
lower you
generally want to try and keep that line
either straight across
or slightly angled down into
the atom's apple from the corner of the
jaw i think it's starting to look much
better
now that we've tackled the interior it's
time for step four
the outline for this stage we're going
to use a trimmer and a trimmer is
designed to press really nice
straight lines directly against the skin
when you use it like this and press it
right
into the hair you're going to punch a
straight line if you want to shave the
hair down closer
you're going to use it flat and work
right against the skin
so we're going to start with our
baseline the baseline is the bottom line
of the beard that goes all the way
around
and generally creates the shape of the
beard we're going to start behind the
ear and we're going to work our way
straight down to the corner of the jaw
trying to make a nice clean straight
line
then i'm just going to take the hair and
comb it back very slightly to make sure
all the hair is nice and cleaned up
around that back edge
now we're going to tackle the baseline
again comb all the hair down
and create a nice square line right
across
the neck
once that's done turn the clipper to a
softer position and remove
all of the hair up to that line
bye bye neckbeard bye bye and then we're
going to take the opposite side
and clean that area down nice and square
[Music]
already it's starting to look like a
beard
next part of the outline is the top line
now this one can be a little bit
different depending on the shape of your
face
if you have a very round full face you
want to try and keep this line as square
and straight as possible but if you have
a narrow face shape
you probably want to try and give it
just a little bit of roundness
the way that we do that is tricky
because this is straight
so how do we make it round here's what
we do we take our finger and we pinch
our skin upwards and then we create a
straight line from the corner of our
sideburn
down to the corner of our mouth
when we release that line it has a
really nice soft gentle curve
the trick to getting it even is to make
sure that you're aiming that line
towards the corner of your mouth
there's the outline for our beard but
there's still one
very important step that we have left to
do step five
the mustache now the mustache is a very
important part of the beard
i believe that the mustache pretty much
dictates the entire vibe of the beard
and everybody's mustache is just a
little different some people have a very
thick mustache like mine
and for some people it's very sparse and
fine the type of mustache that you have
is going to determine where you want to
put your lip line
growing a mustache this long makes it
really hard for you to do simple things
like eat
so you want to make sure that we keep
things looking functional and stylish
depending on the style of beard that you
want to go for now if i
take my lip line up too high and i can
see both of my lips
that's not sexy so i always like to make
sure that my lip line
is slightly lower and peaked in the
center usually over the center of my top
lip
if you have a finer mustache you're
going to want to take that line higher
and clean it directly over top of your
top lip the best way to create a peak in
the center of your mustache
is to comb all of the hair straight down
take a trimmer
start in the center with the trimmer on
its side
we're going to start at the center of
the lip and we're going to roll outwards
from the center we're not going to push
the clipper across
we're just going to roll it outwards so
it creates a descending line towards the
outside of the mouth
then we're going to turn it the sideways
and do the same on the opposite side
oh my god that feels so good ah
i'm free i'm free now the mustache has
essentially two parts to it it has the
peak
and it has the points i always find that
i like to leave my points just a little
bit longer that's the outside of the
mustache because it has a tendency to
blend a little bit better into the beard
and gives it a little bit of a biker
vibe
and i've always kind of liked that so i
usually leave my points to get just a
little bit longer
at this stage but i like to keep the
peak very nice and clean
so that i can put things in my mouth
without it all tasting like a mustache
that doesn't mean that the mustache
isn't kind of bulky on its own
so to remove bulk from the mustache we
want to bring it forward just a little
bit
comb it out and then i'm going to take a
clipper and a guard and i'm just going
to run over the top of it
using my number three guard just to take
off some of the little
things that are poking forward make you
feel kind of like davey jones in that
movie
you know that's not cool so what i'm
going to do is i'm going to take this
little trimmer i'm just going to run it
down the front of the mustache
and that should be just enough to get
rid of all those little guys that want
to spray forward
the last thing we want to do with our
trimmer is we want to make sure that we
don't have any hairs that are growing
straight up so we're going to outline
the top of the mustache and this little
corner here
just using our trimmer
that is looking much better really
important to understand that we didn't
need to cut
all of the hair we only needed to cut
the problem areas
all of this area in the front i left
completely alone
the only things we needed to clean up
were the lip line the top line
the baseline and take the sides down
just a little bit
you can see though the massive impact
that that has it's not going to be the
same kind of shape if you just take a
trimmer and a guard
and apply it all over everything that's
not going to make your beard look better
for those of you that have exceptionally
thick beard growth
it's probably a good idea for you to
invest in some sort of a foil
or a razor i like to use a foil because
it gets just as close as a razor and i
have a little bit more control
on the shaping so i'm going to take my
foil and i'm going to run it all over
the neck area just to get rid of the
last little bit of stubble
there it is clean as a whistle step 6
protecting the beard and the skin
anytime you shave the hair down really
close to or even slightly beneath the
skin
you want to make sure you're protecting
your skin and taking care of it
i like to use an aftershave balm to make
sure that my skin
is nice and clean and sanitized so i
don't get any infections or irritation
that feels better now it's time to
protect the beard hair itself
there's three primary products that you
want to think about when it comes to
taking care of your beard
and the first one is a moisturizing wash
a dedicated beard wash is designed to
work with the hair that is on your face
that is usually a little more coarse
than the hair on your head
and keep it nice and soft and clean i
know a lot of you guys are out there
probably using a bar of soap but what
that usually leads to
is drier hair and drier skin beneath the
hair
which means itchy flaky beard not sexy
the next product that you want to use is
a beard oil now beard oils are meant to
penetrate the hair
and the skin to keep them nice and soft
and supple
this is going to help you avoid any itch
or flaking
using essential oils as a base for
fragrance is
always advisable rather than a parfum if
you're using something that has a
chemical fragrance to it it stays long
and strong and it's right underneath
your nose
these things can sometimes lead to
irritation and headaches the last one
you want to think about is a beard balm
now a beard bomb is going to be anything
from a thicker cream to a very soft
wax and usually those things add a
little bit of style ability to the beard
they really help you hold down some of
the flyaways and keep
all of those little hairs in check which
makes your beard look
smoother the best way to do that is
apply just a little bit to the beard
and then brush it in using your flat
brush the flat brush is the best way to
style and groom a beard to make it look
nice
and smooth without putting tension on
the beard hairs by using a comb
the only time you want to use a comb in
your beard is when it's wet and you're
trying to detangle it
you want to use a beard balm every time
you style your beard
if your beard looks greasy or shiny
you're using too much
if you're still trying to get your
magnificent man sweater under control
i suggest using just a blow dryer and a
brush
a blow dryer and a brush is best used
when the beard is wet
the heat from the blow dryer will help
smooth out some of the hairs that are
poking up
and the brush will apply just enough
tension that will hold it down in place
making it look
smoother all right guys that's how you
can take care of your beard over the
next two months
because i'm going to keep growing this
thing until we get something that looks
a little fuller
and more like a lumberjack so if you're
growing your beard along with me at this
point all you need to make sure you're
doing
is keep your baseline nice and clean
shave that hair on the neck and the top
area and let everything grow if you find
that the sides are getting a little
puffy
go through the steps of this video again
but leave the base
make sure you let this area grow longer
and fuller
and before you know it you and i are
going to be wearing flannel and chopping
down trees together
so until next time good luck and good
grooming
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