Beard Style: The Ultimate Guide to the Hottest Beard Styles

Fashion is always changing. What's "in" this season will be "out" in just a few months. But beards, well, beards are always in style. No matter the season or the decade, the manliest man always has a beard on his face. Nonetheless, finding the right beard for your face is not always an easy task.

No worries, though; we're here to help. Take a look at the ZOUSZ Guide to the Hottest Beard Styles and find the perfect style for your face. As Drake would say, "You can thank us later."

The classic “five o’clock” stubble is an ultra-short beard that many say can grow within a single day. As the name suggests, if you shave in the morning, by five o'clock, there's a shadow of growth on your chin, neck, and upper lip.

But you don't have to wait until the evening to grow this type of beard. You can use an electric trimmer to shave the hair near to the face without removing it all like you would with a traditional razer. 

This allows you to carry the refined ruggedness of a five o'clock shadow any time of the day.

If you're looking for a short beard style that's a little longer than a five-o'clock shadow but still easy to maintain, the short box beard is a cropped, spruced, well-defined, classic style. It's called a "boxed beard" because the lines of the beard are sharp and neatly frame the jawline within a bearded box.

A short box beard style is an ideal style for anyone who wants to extend beyond stubble but doesn’t fancy a fuller beard. However, there are also medium- and long-boxed options. One reason for this beard's continuing popularity over the years is that it is a universal beard style. This means that it can fit onto any face shape, be it oval, square, or round, and still look absolutely terrific.

A short boxed beard style is typically evenly trimmed to 12 an inch in length. You can use a Grade 3 electric clipper accessory to trim your short box beard to these dimensions. The key to a box beard is establishing a well-defined neckline. To make sure that the hair around your neckline is properly trimmed, shave the hair along an invisible line that passes between your earlobes and across your Adam's apple.

Once you've trimmed up your neck, make sure to cut the beard on your face to the proper length. Then just trim up the edges to get that classic boxed look. Additionally, some nice stubble on the neck can really complement a short box beard.

The chin strap beard style emerged in the late 18th century and has famously been donned on the faces of Abraham Lincoln, Lewis Hamilton, and Stormzy.

This beard style is currently enjoying an enormous resurgence that is likely to stretch well into the future. There has never been a better time to try out a short chin-strap beard.

To sport a beardstache you have to get it just right. If you do, this is a style that oozes masculinity and can even have a dash of flamboyance about it.

The beardstache is technically a beard-moustache hybrid that takes things to the next level. There are many beard styles that go well with a nice moustache, but the beardstache uses the beard to help emphasize the moustache. A traditional beardstache includes a thick and bushy moustache that naturally twirls upward at the ends.

However, if your moustache is a little thinner, there are alternatives. A beardstache with a thin moustache also includes a moustache that is grown out on the ends but does not naturally twirl upward. To get that perfect, luxurious twirl, you can use our Black Oud Beard Oil.

The Balbo beard style seems to be a never that's always in style. This is probably because of its extreme versatility.

There are three defining features of the Balboa beard style:

1. A moustache that is separated from the beard
2. A goatee or small patch of hair beneath the lower lip
3. A beard along the chin line, which may be connected to the goatee.

As long as your beard meets these three criteria, it is technically a Balboa beard. That means that Balboa beards can come in short, medium, or long lengths. Additionally, you can also add sideburns or combine your Balboa with a beardstache.

The Balboa beard style also works on just about any face size and is great for those with a patchy beard or thinning areas along the face. Unlike full facial or neck beards, you only need hair above and below the lip as well as along the chin line. Everything else is optional.

Another stylish medium-length style is the Van Dyke beard. It's named after the 17th-century Flemish artist Antony Van Dyck, who rose to prominence as a portrait painter of European nobility. Ever since, it has risen and fallen in popularity, but it's making a big comeback.

Because of its long association with art and royalty, the Van Dyke beard exudes sophistication and adds a creative flair to your look.There are many ways to style the Van Dyke beard, but its truest incarnation, reminiscent of the artist himself, includes a moustache with the ends curled upwards, a soul patch, and a thin, pointy chin beard. 

Typically, the cheeks are kept clean-shaven, and a gap is maintained between the moustache and beard below. However, this beard can be altered to fill in the gap between the beard and the moustache. 

Additionally, you can add sideburns to add a more grizzled edge to the sophisticated Van Dyke.

What is essential when growing a Van Dyke is the soul patch, the upward twist to the moustache, and the pointy beard. To really pull off the Van Dyke, use Black Oud Beard Oil to shape the lines of your beard into a fine point and mold the edges of your moustache at just the right angle for your unique look.

Long beards go in and out of style every few years, but the long beard is definitely making a comeback. Not all long beards are created equally, however.

Finding the right long beard requires first knowing what type of beard is in style and how to grow it. Then you just have to maintain and groom the beard appropriately as it grows in. It should be noted that growing a long beard takes a lot more time, effort, and maintenance than a short or medium-length alternative. But if you're up for the challenge, take a look at some of the hottest long beard styles.

Before jumping in and trying to grow a long beard, there are a few things to consider. First, you need to know the proper length of a long beard. If you've been growing a medium-length beard for a while, how much longer does it need to be before it reaches the coveted status of "long beard?

"Second, you'll need to know how to grow a long beard. No, it's not as simple as just letting your chin hairs fly free. There's a lot of extra grooming and maintenance involved to keep your long beard in tip-top shape during every stage of its growth.

That’s really pretty lengthy when you think about it. At ZOUSZ, we define a long-beard style as anything three inches or longer. This is certainly longer than most medium-length beards, and by the time you've reached three inches, you'll have to begin maintaining your beard as if it were a long beard. However, we're willing to compromise and say that a long beard begins to develop at three inches, and a full-length long beard emerges at five or six inches.

While you’re at it, don’t neglect your mustache. For any long beard style, the mustache is an essential element. It’s best not to trim it until you’re ready to shape the entire beard. That way, you can fully craft the entire creation into the facial ornamentation you crave. When you do reach peak length, start trimming and shaping slowly. 

You can always go back over it—in fact, several small sweepings are recommended—after the initial snipping. Now that you know the basic process for growing a beard, let's get into our selection of the hottest long beard styles:

However, you don't just give the beard free reign. Otherwise, you'll just have a widely unappealing mass of hair on your face that look more like a dirty mop than an actual beard.

Thus, to pull off the au naturale beard, you have to trim the beard as it grows out to make sure you have a smooth appearance across the surface. Make sure all to cut any stray hairs that manage to push past the surface and comb the beard to that all the hairs face the same direction, typically downward.

Additionally, will need to adopt a rigorous routine of washing, moisturising and conditioning with beard balm and beard oil.

A Viking beard style can be epic, perhaps even a little intimidating. But that's the point.

The Viking beard style is the epitome of virile masculinity. It encapsulates everything wild about the race that once rampaged across Northern Europe. Like us, the Vikings went through facial fashion fads and fades. 

Goatees and lone moustaches had their place in Norse society from time to time, but it is the flowing warrior beard for which the Vikings are revered and which remains timeless. The modern incarnation of the Viking beard is long, full, and worn in a natural fashion. It can be combed or left largely to its own devices. 

There really is only one rule: let the beard grow long and wild. However, there are several methods of taming the Viking beard and bringing it clearly into the 21st century. A few of these styles include:

The “Bare Viking” beard style originates at the sideburns, which are kept relatively short. Above them, the hair extends through a fade up to a long top. Downward from the sideburns, the length extends incrementally before flourishing into the moustache and chin areas, which are kept long.

A “Square Viking” beard style extends as a big block down and out from the cheeks with a relatively squared-off chin area. This style will fill out the narrowest of faces.

A “Full Viking" beard style works exceptionally well with a full moustache where the upper lip hairs are extended outwards to sit atop the rest of the beard. 

Another styling method includes braiding the bead, just like the Vikings once did. Now, this can be a difficult decision and will require quite a bit of extra upkeep. However, a braided Viking beard is definitely a hot commodity.

Unlike the Viking beard style, the Harden beard style hasn't been around for thousands of years. In fact, it really made the beard scene about ten years ago when James Harden sported the beard as he led the US team to victory at the 2012 Olympics.

To grow the Harden beard style, you need a lot of facial hair. While Harden himself has sported different-length beards throughout his career, a minimum length for the Harden beard is five inches, though it can be much longer.

As you're growing the beard, make sure to trim and comb the hairs toward your face at a slight downward angle from your chain while ensuring that your cheeks, moustache, and upper lip remain fully covered in hair. Once you've achieved the proper length, trim up the sides and shape the beard properly to pull off the nice box shape coveted by beard lovers everywhere. Lastly, make sure that the forest of facial hair is cut down to a flat and uniform level.