What beard suits my face shape?
Barbers usually style a beard to balance the face: fullness where the face is narrow, and restraint where it is wide. That is a convention passed between barbers and not a rule or a measurement, so treat the advice below as a starting point.
Pick your face shape above and the styles, length and edges usually paired with it appear. Nothing you choose is saved or sent.
How do I know my face shape?
If you are not sure, measure. Our face shape calculator takes four tape-measure numbers and names your closest shape in about three minutes. Judging by eye is unreliable: a study of 313 school children found that classifying face type by observation agreed only poorly with classifying it from measurements.
Once you have a shape, the calculator links straight here with it filled in.
Beard styles for each face shape
- Oval. Almost anything works: stubble, a short boxed beard or a fuller beard. Keep to your natural proportions, rather than adding length or width. A clean neckline and a natural cheek line are enough.
- Round. A short to medium beard with more length at the chin than at the sides. Keep the sides close and let the length sit under the chin, which adds the look of length. A defined cheek line and a sharper edge help. Avoid a wide, rounded outline.
- Square. Stubble or a short beard that follows the jaw, or a fuller beard with soft edges. Keep the length even, so it does not add width at the jaw. Round the corners of the beard to soften the jaw. Avoid sharp, boxy edges.
- Oblong. A fuller beard that is kept shorter at the chin, to add width without adding length. Let the sides grow fuller than the chin. A soft, rounded neckline. Avoid a long, pointed chin beard.
- Heart. A fuller beard, or a chin-weighted one, to add width where the jaw is narrow. Keep the cheeks short and add fullness at the jaw and chin. A rounded outline balances a wider forehead. Avoid heavy cheek volume.
- Diamond. A beard that fills the jaw and chin, to balance wide cheekbones. Keep the cheeks tidy and add fullness along the jaw. A soft outline that follows the jaw. Avoid anything that adds width at the cheekbones.
Beyond face shape
Face shape is only one input, and often not the biggest one.
- How your beard grows. Thin patches, a strong cowlick or growth that stops short of your cheeks will change what is possible more than your face shape does.
- How thick and how fast it grows. A style that needs weekly shaping is a commitment.
- What you like. A beard you enjoy keeping looks better than one chosen from a chart.
A barber can look at how your beard actually grows, which no chart can.
Why these are conventions and not rules
We do not know of a study showing that a particular beard “suits” a face shape, and what suits someone is partly taste. The pairings here come from common barbering advice about balance. We say so because a style guide should not pretend to be a measurement.
Keeping a beard neat
A tidy neckline and cheek line do more for how a beard looks than its length. If you are growing one out, give it a few weeks before you decide on a shape, because early growth is patchier than it ends up.
Take it further in the HairLens app
The HairLens app matches a routine and products to your hair type and what it reads from your photos, including the products you already own.