Top Beard Styles for Handsome Gents in 2024

What are beard styles? Mere fashion statements? Personal endeavors? Perhaps they our personalities manifest in wispy, chin-hair format?

Whatever your take on the matter, our creator has blessed us with a choice of facial hair styles far beyond what we deserve. Since the dawn of time (but mainly since scissors were invented) we’ve been out-competing our fellow man to rock the most stylish beard. And here they are - a few of the top beard styles, arranged by length and all fully endorsed by Mission Beard.

I may have made up some of the names.

“Curiouser and curiouser!” said Alice, “How is it that a short beard expresses the sophistication of a man who must groom so regularly, yet also highlights his rugged charm and roguish ways?” All I can tell you is questions like this are best left unanswered - so let’s check out some short beard styles instead...

What’s the 21st Century’s answer to the Van Dyke? I give you: The Royale. This is a sweet beard - maybe my favorite short beard style at the moment, which isn’t to say that I’m handsome enough to pull it off.

The Royale consists of a short moustache, a rough patch of growth on the chin and a soul patch. What separates it from a circle beard is that the moustache is floating (not attached to the chin patch). Surely one of the top beard styles, it's perfect for guys who struggle to grow a full beard - so long as you’re prepared to maintain it.

Sit down and strap in bro

Ah, the humble chin strap - a beard’s way of grinning from ear to ear. The Cheshire Cat of beards if you will, neat, trimmed and paired with a flamboyant earring throughout most the nineties.

Although a lot of short beards are intended to look scruffy, the chin strap isn’t one of them. It requires you to constantly prune and trim your beard, keeping a close eye on the lines of hair which emphasize the shape of your jawline. The chin strap is a versatile beast. You can straighten the lines to square up your face, increase the strap thickness for more emphasis and decide whether your mustache should connect up or not.

Disclaimer: MissionBeard don't endorse headphone chewing at any time of day.

This is a fancy name for rocking a sweet stubble beard - and depending on how quickly that beard of yours grows, it can be any time you like. Of course the traditional five o’clock shadow refers to the stubble that builds within an afternoon of going clean shaven. Nowadays though it’s possible to maintain a controlled stubble indefinitely.

Here at Mission Beard, we believe The Five o'clock can refer to anything between a stubble and a short, untamed fuzz. After all, it marks the end of the working day - there are no rules. Got patchy facial hair? Doesn’t matter. Been working on it three weeks? So what?! Tidied up your neck-line, or leaving it stubbly down there? Either way - it’s still a Five o’clock in our book.

Now, whether it’s rugged or refined, the small beard is a precise art. You might liken it to a renaissance work - beautifully thought out, finely detailed, each single hair in place. Well buckle your seatbelt because medium length beards are post-impressionist, baby.

Once your beard starts taking flight there is a lot more to think about. Generally, your short beard style will be uniform length - not the case on a mid-length beard. Short beards can suit pretty much any hairstyle for men, yet this is not necessarily so with some medium styles. A mid-length beard amps up the opportunity to emphasize a range of face shapes.

Let’s dive in and check a few out...

This style - or should it be a category? - refers to mid-length beards which are carefully manicured to alter the shape of your face. Long enough that they can draw attention to different parts of the face instead of just accentuating its current shape - yet not so long that you can truly run your fingers through it.

So how does this witchcraft work, you wonder? At this length, careful use of a beard trimmer will allow you to shape your beard. For example, by keeping hair shorter on the cheeks and fuller on the chin, you can easily make a square jawline seem more pointed; if your face shape is naturally more oval, angled edges can give the impression of a sharper jawline. Pointy boys like Tom Hardy can even curve up their lower jaw.

Decided you want to shape up your beard and transform your face?  Read this article about how to use a beard trimmer and you’ll be good to go!

A classic - young & old

Technically the goatee refers to beards confined to the chin. They are of course named after the humble farmyard goat and deservedly so, as these little chaps are still rocking them better than pretty much anyone else. We don’t know why goats grow them, but a lot of the evidence supports my theory that they’re steadily evolving to look more like Brad Pitt.

Anyway - I digress. What most of us think of as a Goatee is in fact a Circle Beard, the difference being that this includes a moustache. Whilst a short Goatee is often well manicured in order to bring the chin forward, a longer one can begin to alter our perception of the whole lower jawline. Pointed Goatees can turn a square jaw into more of a V shape, whilst a squared off Goatee may do the opposite.

Is it a beard? Is it a moustache? All we know is it's called the Beardstache.

Again, this style isn’t necessarily confined to a certain length, but it is generally found as a medium-to-long beard. As you may have guessed, it involved emphasizing a sizeable moustache in front of your (usually shorter) beard. Whether this is a handlebar mustache or one of those which is twisted at the ends is up to you - but most are simply bushy, neat and point horizontally towards the bottom of your ears. It's one of the top beard styles around at the moment.

A full beard style requires constant care and attention - we’re talking beard oil, beard balm, wooden combs and more. Grow it right though and a long beard will be a friend to you all your life. Or at least until your partner loses the plot with your massive messiah complex. Whichever comes first. Here’s the top beard styles for serious growers.

Lumberjack casual baby

In researching this beard style I’ve come across a term which is new to me - that term is lumbersexual. This style of beard has given rise to a new sexual orientation and as such it should be respected and highly regarded.

The Lumberjack is (generally speaking) a long, untamed beard which is both unkempt and regal in its nature. Usually it is associated with wavy or curly hair, long enough to at least cover the whole Adam’s apple and rounded or squared off rather than pointed. Although they may look chaotic, a lot of thought can go into these beards. The positioning of the cheek-line, length of the sides and prominence of the mustache (to name but a few) can make all the difference.

Bossing it - enough said

Growing it out doesn’t necessarily have to result in a messy, bushy beard. Oh no! The long beard now comes with a touch of class - sophisticated new style which we like to call The Boss. It means business.

Lengthy yet defined, this style has shorter (and occasionally tapered) sideburns which are tightly manicured on the outer edge. It’s usually associated with precise, squared off angles, although the bottom can be rounded. What sets The Boss apart is that no one hair is out of place - regardless of the shape or length of this weighty style.

Of all the styles we’ve mentioned, this might be the hardest to upkeep. Constant free-hand beard trimming, careful washing, regular oiling and more mean make maintenance no small feat. A small price to pay for the top beard styles.

YOU!

(365 days later)

Sometimes, realising that two words have a lot of common letters leads to a beautiful discovery. So what happens when you grow your beard for a year? You end up with The Yeard. Minimal trimming, minimal styling… This is not for the faint of heart.

If beards were animals, this one would be the abominable snowman. It’s powerful. Little is known about it. It can’t be tamed. Oh - and we’re pretty sure it terrorized Jim Carrey for a lot of 2016.

There are countless different ways to style your beard - us folks at MissionBeard are here for the sole purpose of helping you achieve those styles. So let us know what you’d like to read about down their in the comments!

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