8 Common Beard Fails That Every Guy Needs To Avoid

How To Avoid 8 Common Beard Fails That Cause Problems For Guys

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  • If you want to grow a beard, you need to know how to do it correctly
  • Here are some major problems a lot of guys end up running into—and the best way to avoid them
  • Check out more grooming tips here

Everybody has a beard these days. From your best bro to your English prof to your aged old grandma with those stray chin hairs, everyone is on board with the scruff.

With that said, with a great beard comes great responsibility. You have to rock it the right way or else you ruin beards for everyone—and that means you better be sure you know what you’re doing.

If you make one mistake, you’re suddenly That Dude with a sketchy beard, and that’s a hard thing to live down. And it’s easier than you think to let that happen, especially if you fall victim to one of these common yet hideous beard fails.

Trimming Too High

This is a common, yet regrettable mistake for men with beards. Dudes don’t want to fall victim to the neckbeard, so they trim their neckline super-high and end up looking like George Lucas. You don’t want this. It looks like crap and makes you look like you have a turkey gullet for a neck. Just follow the jawline and you should be fine.

Trimming Too Low

On the other hand, you definitely don’t want to leave that line too low, or else you do end up looking like a neckbeard. I get it, you want to manage the scruff on your cheeks, but chopping too much off and compensating by letting your neck run wild is exactly how the Amish got started. But look here, man, at least an Amish dude has some native dignity. You, on the other hand, will just be dismissed as a sad neckbeard, and that’s no way to live. No way at all.

Not Trimming At All

Look man, if you’re going for the biker-wizard aesthetic, then by all means, let that grow. Go with God.

However, most dudes don’t have the patience for that, and that means that they have to trim. You don’t want a neck full of scraggly hairs and what looks like weeds growing on your cheeks. You don’t look like a dude with a cool beard, you just look like a lazy piece of shit who probably hasn’t showered in a week.

Either commit to the wizard look or put some effort into maintenance.

Pube Face

Even if you can grow a decent beard, you have to make sure that it comes in right. You want a beard that, well, looks like it’s made of beard hair. What you don’t want is some curly, scraggly monstrosity that looks like someone held you down and pasted pubes all over your face as a prank.

Some dudes just can’t avoid this, and it’s unfortunate, but sometimes this can happen if you let your beard grow without trimming it at least once. The hair comes in and starts to curl, and, well, suddenly your nose looks like the world’s saddest phallus in the middle of a face full of pubes.

Once you trim it, though, it should come in a little neater and, hopefully, you can avoid what the Romans called publius facialis—especially with the help of some Avoid pube face with some beard balm and oil.

You’re Just Not Ready

I know you’re eager to prove to the world that you are actually Grizzly Adams and not the 15-year-old boy you were mistaken for on Tinder last week, but you better be sure you can pull it off, otherwise you’re in for a world of sadness.

Chances are you’ll be able to grow something somewhere in the general region of your face, but you don’t want to be the dude with the scraggly perv stache with a Joe Dirt dusting of facial hair surrounding it—and you really, really don’t want to be the dude with the dreaded neckbeard.

There is simply no way to get a good look if you can’t grow that shit all over. I’m sorry, bro, you’ll go through puberty one day.

Irregular Necklines

No matter where you decide to make your stand against hair creep, make sure that it’s even all the way around. This can be tough to pull off if you’re not an experienced beardsman, so you have to really pay attention to what you’re doing or else you end up looking like an idiot.

You want a clean, symmetrical look, not something that looks like it was done to you by Picasso on acid. No matter what style you go for, make sure that it looks even, or else you will just confuse and disgust people.

Not Keeping It Clean

Look, you need to take care of that thing. Again, with great power comes great responsibility. You wouldn’t just let the hair on your head grow without shampooing it, would you? No, so you should take care of your beard accordingly.

I’m not saying you should shampoo it daily. In fact, you shouldn’t because it will just give your beard a too-fluffy kind of look. But you do need to keep it clean. Just think about how many little food particles probably get stuck in there throughout the day. Hell, just think about what other, uh, let’s call them odors get trapped in there after a night of le romance.

No one wants to get down with a dude whose face smells like a combination of Doritos and literal ass.

Trying To Be Cool

You need to do your own thing. If that means growing a wild-man beard, so be it. If it means keeping your face as smooth as a baby’s bum, then good for you. But do what you want to do.

Don’t grow something just because you think that it’s what everyone else is doing. Do you think these dudes with the unkempt face-fros are gonna look back in 20 years and think “Damn, that’s a good look?” No. They’re going to cringe the same way your dad cringes at his feathered hair and bell bottoms.

You think dudes today are looking at pictures from the early 90s and thinking “I gotta get me that Color Me Badd look?” Nope. And you need to keep that in mind when cultivating your own look. Do what feels right. Just make sure you do it in a way that doesn’t disrespect the beard.