How to Tame a Wild Beard (6 Step Tutorial) | GQ

hi i'm matty conrad and i look ridiculous what's up gq i'm back it's been about 10 weeks since i have done anything to my beard i've always believed there's a lot more to having a beard than just not shaving as evidenced by what you see here and although there's a lot of hair on my face it's not very flattering today we're going to shape it in there and make it a little bit leaner looking [Music] growing a beard out like this i'll be honest with you hasn't been fun uh normally i would be shaping it and trimming it along the way but i did this for you so that we can show you the dramatic impact that a little bit of shaping has to a beard a lot of guys will just get to this stage where they haven't done anything to their beard and you'll notice after a certain point there are a few things about life that become a bit more difficult i'm sorry i'm going to need some napkins no i need like all of your napkins the real problem happens when the hair on your upper lip starts closing over top of your mouth now normally i don't like to see both lips fully but at this point my mustache is poking my bottom lip hair's just been growing from everywhere and i'm starting to lose my face shape and the idea of a beard is that it is sort of an augmented jaw shape it gives you a much stronger square more masculine look but as things just grow outward it starts to make you look a little more pear-shaped a little wider broader and rounder so what we're going to do is start by attacking the areas that we want to make look leaner and we're going to show you the areas that you want to leave to let grow longer to give you a stronger looking jaw shape step one is prep the best time to trim a beard is when you've freshly gotten out of the shower you want your beard to be as natural as possible but if you don't have time for that you can take a towel rinse it under hot water and wrap it around your face for about 60 seconds the heat and the moisture is going to help reset the hair and take out any of the little kink lines that i'll get from wearing a mask or just sleeping on it weird oh that's hot oh once we've done that we're going to take a blow dryer and a pick detangle the beard and try and get it into the nicest shape we can make it if you don't have a blow dryer handy the best thing you can do is take a wide tooth comb or a pick just detangle the beard and work it downwards into a nice natural looking shape you don't want to puff the beard out all the time because it's going to remove a lot more hair all right now that we've gotten all the tangles out and we've got the beard dry it's time to start shaping step 2 shaping today we're going to be working with an electric clipper and an electric trimmer the difference is is that the clipper removes the bulk of the beard while the trimmer does the outline the trimmer and clipper that i use are from babeliss pro this is the gold fx trimmer and it is hands down my favorite that i've ever used and this is the fx pro clipper it's a really really good clipper for taking down full girth beards of any thickness the area of the beard that we're trying to grow is here at the chin we're trying to augment the shape of the jaw and give it the strongest shape possible so we really want to leave this hair as much as possible but the hair that is growing out the sides is getting puffier and puffier and starting to obscure my ears now we want to try and make that as narrow as possible the best way to do that when a beard is this length is to start working with a clipper with guards most clipper sets will come with guards that look like this and they all have numbers on them and each number designates how much longer that hair is going to be left if you use it right against the skin so when you're trying to get your sides caved down i usually suggest working with a number two or a number three guard the number three guard is going to be just slightly longer and i always believe in starting a little bit longer because you can always take more hair off but once it's gone it's gone so i'm gonna take my number three guard and i'm gonna put it on my clipper then i'm gonna turn the clipper on i'm going to turn it upside down and i'm going to work in a downward motion with the clipper guard right against my cheek but instead of rolling in with the shape of my jaw i'm just going to push it straight down i'm going to start from the top of my ear and i'm just going to comb straight down pushing the guard against the side of my face [Music] then i'm going to run my comb through just to make sure that all of the hairs have been cut evenly sometimes when you do this it takes a couple of passes because little hairs will pop out that you didn't see before that's already looking so much better once i've gone through the sides with my number three guard going straight up and down i'm gonna put a number two guard on my clipper which is a little bit shorter and i'm just gonna work from this area up so that i can blend it a little better into my haircut i'm still gonna take my clipper upside down i'm gonna push down with it and i'm gonna scoop outwards away from my face that's going to take this top line make it just a little leaner and give the beard just a bit of a taper i'm going to do this side now oh my god that feels so much better already you don't even know honestly this is the part of my beard that has been driving me the most crazy is the part that makes my face look really round and pear-shaped so even just taking these sides down feels amazing because already my face looks leaner and stronger looking and that's what we're all going for step three is the base once we've got the sides nice and lean now we want to start shaping the shelf the shelf is the bottom part of the beard that goes from the chin to the adam's apple we want to make sure this looks nice and clean and you can see from not shaving mine doesn't so what we're going to do is try and maintain as much length as we possibly can in this area so i'm going to comb all of that down to get out all of the tangles that are underneath my chin then we're gonna take a clipper without a guard we're gonna invert that clipper tilt our chin back and we're just gonna clean all of the little hairs that are hanging down that don't look uniform [Music] [Applause] now you can see from my nice white t-shirt that is now covered in hair there's a fair amount of hair that needed to come off in that area but it was all sitting behind my chin the reason we tilt our head back is so that when we have our head at a natural resting position there's a slight downward slope to the beard and the longest point is right at the chin just like on your face that's why it gives such a strong jaw shape so i'm just going to comb through here and take one more pass and make sure everything is nice and clean one of the things you want to think about when you're trimming the baseline of your beard is that you don't want to see any hair growing from your neck in behind the natural length of the beard so as the beard gets longer the line that we create comes lower and lower and lower you generally want to try and keep that line either straight across or slightly angled down into the atom's apple from the corner of the jaw i think it's starting to look much better now that we've tackled the interior it's time for step four the outline for this stage we're going to use a trimmer and a trimmer is designed to press really nice straight lines directly against the skin when you use it like this and press it right into the hair you're going to punch a straight line if you want to shave the hair down closer you're going to use it flat and work right against the skin so we're going to start with our baseline the baseline is the bottom line of the beard that goes all the way around and generally creates the shape of the beard we're going to start behind the ear and we're going to work our way straight down to the corner of the jaw trying to make a nice clean straight line then i'm just going to take the hair and comb it back very slightly to make sure all the hair is nice and cleaned up around that back edge now we're going to tackle the baseline again comb all the hair down and create a nice square line right across the neck once that's done turn the clipper to a softer position and remove all of the hair up to that line bye bye neckbeard bye bye and then we're going to take the opposite side and clean that area down nice and square [Music] already it's starting to look like a beard next part of the outline is the top line now this one can be a little bit different depending on the shape of your face if you have a very round full face you want to try and keep this line as square and straight as possible but if you have a narrow face shape you probably want to try and give it just a little bit of roundness the way that we do that is tricky because this is straight so how do we make it round here's what we do we take our finger and we pinch our skin upwards and then we create a straight line from the corner of our sideburn down to the corner of our mouth when we release that line it has a really nice soft gentle curve the trick to getting it even is to make sure that you're aiming that line towards the corner of your mouth there's the outline for our beard but there's still one very important step that we have left to do step five the mustache now the mustache is a very important part of the beard i believe that the mustache pretty much dictates the entire vibe of the beard and everybody's mustache is just a little different some people have a very thick mustache like mine and for some people it's very sparse and fine the type of mustache that you have is going to determine where you want to put your lip line growing a mustache this long makes it really hard for you to do simple things like eat so you want to make sure that we keep things looking functional and stylish depending on the style of beard that you want to go for now if i take my lip line up too high and i can see both of my lips that's not sexy so i always like to make sure that my lip line is slightly lower and peaked in the center usually over the center of my top lip if you have a finer mustache you're going to want to take that line higher and clean it directly over top of your top lip the best way to create a peak in the center of your mustache is to comb all of the hair straight down take a trimmer start in the center with the trimmer on its side we're going to start at the center of the lip and we're going to roll outwards from the center we're not going to push the clipper across we're just going to roll it outwards so it creates a descending line towards the outside of the mouth then we're going to turn it the sideways and do the same on the opposite side oh my god that feels so good ah i'm free i'm free now the mustache has essentially two parts to it it has the peak and it has the points i always find that i like to leave my points just a little bit longer that's the outside of the mustache because it has a tendency to blend a little bit better into the beard and gives it a little bit of a biker vibe and i've always kind of liked that so i usually leave my points to get just a little bit longer at this stage but i like to keep the peak very nice and clean so that i can put things in my mouth without it all tasting like a mustache that doesn't mean that the mustache isn't kind of bulky on its own so to remove bulk from the mustache we want to bring it forward just a little bit comb it out and then i'm going to take a clipper and a guard and i'm just going to run over the top of it using my number three guard just to take off some of the little things that are poking forward make you feel kind of like davey jones in that movie you know that's not cool so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take this little trimmer i'm just going to run it down the front of the mustache and that should be just enough to get rid of all those little guys that want to spray forward the last thing we want to do with our trimmer is we want to make sure that we don't have any hairs that are growing straight up so we're going to outline the top of the mustache and this little corner here just using our trimmer that is looking much better really important to understand that we didn't need to cut all of the hair we only needed to cut the problem areas all of this area in the front i left completely alone the only things we needed to clean up were the lip line the top line the baseline and take the sides down just a little bit you can see though the massive impact that that has it's not going to be the same kind of shape if you just take a trimmer and a guard and apply it all over everything that's not going to make your beard look better for those of you that have exceptionally thick beard growth it's probably a good idea for you to invest in some sort of a foil or a razor i like to use a foil because it gets just as close as a razor and i have a little bit more control on the shaping so i'm going to take my foil and i'm going to run it all over the neck area just to get rid of the last little bit of stubble there it is clean as a whistle step 6 protecting the beard and the skin anytime you shave the hair down really close to or even slightly beneath the skin you want to make sure you're protecting your skin and taking care of it i like to use an aftershave balm to make sure that my skin is nice and clean and sanitized so i don't get any infections or irritation that feels better now it's time to protect the beard hair itself there's three primary products that you want to think about when it comes to taking care of your beard and the first one is a moisturizing wash a dedicated beard wash is designed to work with the hair that is on your face that is usually a little more coarse than the hair on your head and keep it nice and soft and clean i know a lot of you guys are out there probably using a bar of soap but what that usually leads to is drier hair and drier skin beneath the hair which means itchy flaky beard not sexy the next product that you want to use is a beard oil now beard oils are meant to penetrate the hair and the skin to keep them nice and soft and supple this is going to help you avoid any itch or flaking using essential oils as a base for fragrance is always advisable rather than a parfum if you're using something that has a chemical fragrance to it it stays long and strong and it's right underneath your nose these things can sometimes lead to irritation and headaches the last one you want to think about is a beard balm now a beard bomb is going to be anything from a thicker cream to a very soft wax and usually those things add a little bit of style ability to the beard they really help you hold down some of the flyaways and keep all of those little hairs in check which makes your beard look smoother the best way to do that is apply just a little bit to the beard and then brush it in using your flat brush the flat brush is the best way to style and groom a beard to make it look nice and smooth without putting tension on the beard hairs by using a comb the only time you want to use a comb in your beard is when it's wet and you're trying to detangle it you want to use a beard balm every time you style your beard if your beard looks greasy or shiny you're using too much if you're still trying to get your magnificent man sweater under control i suggest using just a blow dryer and a brush a blow dryer and a brush is best used when the beard is wet the heat from the blow dryer will help smooth out some of the hairs that are poking up and the brush will apply just enough tension that will hold it down in place making it look smoother all right guys that's how you can take care of your beard over the next two months because i'm going to keep growing this thing until we get something that looks a little fuller and more like a lumberjack so if you're growing your beard along with me at this point all you need to make sure you're doing is keep your baseline nice and clean shave that hair on the neck and the top area and let everything grow if you find that the sides are getting a little puffy go through the steps of this video again but leave the base make sure you let this area grow longer and fuller and before you know it you and i are going to be wearing flannel and chopping down trees together so until next time good luck and good grooming

Channel: GQ

Views: 986,315

Rating: 4.9495306 out of 5

Keywords: beard, beard grooming, beard how to, beard maintenance, beard style, beard styles, beard styling, beard tips, beard trimmer, beard trimming, beard trimming styles, beard trimming techniques, beard trimming tips, beard tutorial, beards, gq, gq magazine, grow beard, how to groom a beard, how to grow beard, how to shave beard, how to trim beard, matty conrad, shave beard, shaving beard, shaving tutorial, styling beard, trim beard, trimming beard, trimming your beard

Id: ydfyM48MtsY

Length: 16min 40sec (1000 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021