Face it: Facial hair trends

The year is off to a start. We’re deep enough into 2021 at this point that we can start talking about styles and trends. That includes clothing, car choices, favorite meals, and anything else you can imagine, but today, we want to focus on facial hair. It’s in an interesting place right now, and it’s a great time to try something new with body hair, facial hair, and even a haircut. There are classic looks that are still loved, and some new ideas are emerging that promise to fill the year with glorious beards and mustaches. We’ll take you through five leading facial hair trends of today to help you decide what you want to do with your handsome mug.

The Full Beard

Let’s get this out of the way first. The rona beard is a thing. Dealing with the pandemic has made some people haggard, and it shows in their facial hair and in how they dress. The rona beard is full-bodied and wild. It’s a mix between a celebration of some raw, primal thing that has reemerged and mourning for the losses and hits we’ve all suffered. The rona beard is in full swing right now, but hopefully, soon, we will be able to look back on it as a fad.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some more traditionally stylish beards. If you’re not trying to sport a wild man look, some full beard variants do the job. The first one we can discuss is the classic full beard. It’s groomed but still magnificent. It can be anywhere from an inch to about three inches. It’s bodied and rich, but you keep the lines straight, and you don’t let it go more than about an inch below the jawline (trimming it right on the jawline is fine too). It’s almost the crew cut of full beards.

If you want more to your beard, you have viable options. The power beard is a great place to start. If you’ve ever seen a picture of George R. R. Martin, you’ve seen his take on the power beard. It has some variety to it, but you can think of it as a tamed rona beard. You want to grow this thing to be full, and you will produce a full mustache with it (most commonly a handlebar). The power beard is usually four to six inches off of the chin. They can creep down the neck a little, but the neckline should always be shorter than the bottom of the chin beard. Everything below that line is stubble or smooth. You also need to make sure the cheeks have clean grooming and spend time brushing and caring for this beard, so it looks like the name suggests: powerful.

Variants on the power beard focus on the mustache and the overall shaping. You can grow a walrus mustache or keep it trimmed. Your mustache should always be full, but you can trim it off of the upper lip a little to keep it out of your mouth. As for shapes, there are three general ideas to consider. You can go with a box-shaped beard, a spade, or a rounded style. All are in play right now.

The 5 O’Clock Shadow

This is the most straightforward classic look a beard can have. The 5 o’clock shadow will always look good. It’s also known as a stubble beard, and it’s the shortest version of facial hair that we can justify calling a beard. The cool thing about the shadow is that it’s relatively low maintenance. You can shave every few days to refresh it. If you’re really dedicated, you can do a shadow trim instead of shaving. That will keep it at the scruff length perpetually without having to regrow the shadow between shaves.

This look is great and exudes manliness without forcing you to chew on your mustache when you eat.

Clean-Shaven

This has only been in style since ancient Rome, so maybe it has some staying power. The clean-shaven look is a great one. If you have any jawline, you might want to show it off. If you don’t want to deal with beard maintenance, you can keep your face smooth. A clean face is great for intimacy, and it allows for effortless skincare that keeps you from aging too hard.

There’s only one thing you need to know about staying clean-shaven. You need to have a good grooming routine. You want to shave as little as your face will allow. For some guys, that’s still twice a day. For others, it’s twice a week. The point is that shaving is hard on the face, so using an electric trimmer and minimizing shaving is the key to taking care of your face.

Skincare also matters. You need to moisturize after shaving and exfoliate regularly. These two practices will go a long way to keep shaving from making your face and neck red with razor bumps. The practices reduce itching and irritation, and they make you look more attractive. It’s all-important.

The Fade

The fade is a take on a tamed, groomed beard. There are countless names and variations, but the gist of this beard is that it is under three inches but more than stubble. The fade, in particular, blends the beard into the sideburns. That gives you an idea of length and grooming style.

The fade is all about the clean lines. You can shape and taper those lines as you see fit. Ultimately, you get a rich beard that conforms to a clean look. It can highlight your face and accentuate your features. The fade is the beard of a man who is charming, charismatic, and sexy. Whether or not you feel those things inside, a good fade will portray them for you.

The Beardstache

Again, there are different takes on this, and each has a dozen other names. You can boil the beardstache into one concept. It puts the focus on the mustache. You can have a beard with a beardstache. The beard can even be long, rich, and full. It can also be barely more than stubble. The variation is up to you. What matters is that it is shorter than the mustache. The aesthetic idea is to make the mustache a pop-out focal point.

There is an important tip regarding the beardstache. If you’re going to deliberately draw attention to your mustache, you have to take care of it. It should be groomed, clean, and styled. You don’t have to get married to any particular mustache idea, but you do need a full, bold stache for this look.

Your Five Leading Facial Hairstyles for 2021

Those are your five leading facial hairstyles for 2021. There is still a lot of year left, so we’ll see how things progress, but a couple of takeaways can summarize this and get you on your way. Big, long beards are more in style right now than they have been in some time. A lot of that likely stems from lockdown, so we’ll see if people overcorrect and shy away from bushy beards as life tries to return to some kind of normal. In the meantime, you have a license to have fun with your facial hair, so make the most of it.