The Way of the
Whisker
Trimmed, bushy, or three-day stubble: No matter how you wear them, beards have been growing more popular over the last decade, and it doesn’t look like men will be cutting back on the trend anytime soon. Beard growing and maintenance has come a long way since your grandfather was sporting his woolly winter whiskers. Today, facial hair is avant-garde. Some may even say beard styles can be a work of art. While old-school barbers and salons are still around, they might not cut it when it comes to sculpting the new trends in beards.
This is the season of razors sitting idle on sinks and chins disappearing in silky and wiry, trimmed and untamed, curly and cascading decoration.
just throw a clipper guard on and do that any longer.” One search on the internet will show you just how many different beard styles there are. Deciding which one to sport is enough to make a guy want to shave it all off. And yet more and more men are choosing to grow facial hair, especially during No-Shave November. So, what’s behind the trend? McDaniel can’t say for sure, but she has a theory.
Crystal McDaniel worked in salons for 20 years before she opened Tonsorial, “part old-school barbershop, part hip destination salon,” at The Boxyard in downtown Tulsa.
“Different people feel a lot more confident with having hair on their face,” says McDaniel. “It’s almost like armor or a shield of protection.” If someone has had acne as a kid or other skin blemishes, a beard can mask the imperfections of their skin.
“At the salons, we would run clippers over beards and call it a beard trim. But now there’s a style to it,” says McDaniel. “There are guys who like [a style] where it comes to a point or where it’s squared off. You can’t
You might think that growing a beard requires little more than, you know, growing it. But that’s not the case. Like the hair on top of your head, beards require maintenance: washing, trimming, conditioning, and yes, even brushing.
42 PREVIEW 918 NOVEMBER 2019
By Gina Conroy
Whether you’ve been growing your beard for a while, or just starting, there are some things you should know to help keep those wiry whiskers working for you all month long and beyond.
CONSIDER FACE STRUCTURE Faces come in all shapes and sizes. And so should beards. When choosing the style of your beard, first consider your facial structure: round, square, oval, or rectangle. Different types of beards complement different faces. “If the face is very round and you let your beard grow at the same rate, the cheeks will emphasize the round shape,” says McDaniel. “Taking the length down on the cheeks and leaving length at the chin creates a more flattering shape.” For a rectangular face, McDaniel says it’s sometimes better to shorten the beard in the chin area to take away that extra length. “To have that chiseled jawline, we fade and taper