A beard, mustache, goatee or sideburns send a message about you. If they are unkempt, dirty and poorly shaped, your attempts at making yourself attractive or more professional-looking may backfire. Many of the same principles you apply to grooming the hair on top of your head will help guide you in maintaining your facial hair.
Clean First
When considering a trim or reshaping your beard, goatee, mustache or sideburns, wash and rinse your facial hair. Oil, food, tangles and other debris can keep you from seeing the true shape of your mustache or beard and will get in the way of your trimming. When trimming the edges or outline of your facial hair while shaving, you'll be against bare skin and hair and you'll want the hair wet. If you are trimming or shaping the rest of your facial hair, you will want your hair dry to get an accurate visual on how your hair will look when you're at work or in social situations.
Plan Ahead
Measure twice, cut once is as true when cutting facial hair as it is for performing carpentry. Before you begin trimming or cutting, use a comb to detangle any intertwined hairs and to straighten curled hair to see its true length. Comb all hair in the same direction, usually down, to determine the length for cutting edges. To remove fullness, work against the grain, advises HairBoutique.com. If you are using a trimmer, trim your hair one setting higher than you think you will need it. If you have underestimated the trimmer's setting or the beard length you want, you won't have cut too much hair. If you wish to remove more hair after this first trim, you'll know that the next setting on the trimmer is safe.
Use a Trimmer
While scissors allow you to control your cutting in small sections, a trimmer offers uniformity scissors may not. Trimmers are especially helpful for trimming sideburns, which put your hands at an awkward angle for scissor cutting. With sideburns, the previous advice about starting with a higher setting stands doubly true because of the awkward working and visual angles created during hair removal.
Keeping Clean
Keeping your beard clean reduces embarrassing debris that may lodge in your beard or mustache and prevents even more awkwardness during a kiss. Wash and dry your facial hair each night before you go to bed with lukewarm or cool water. Hot water can rob skin of essential lipids and lead to dry skin and flaking. Shampoo your facial hair in the shower whenever you shampoo the hair on top of your head, and use a conditioner.
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