Beards
The full beard, goatee, Van Dyke, chinstrap, stubble and sideburns. 15 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
A beard is hair grown on the chin, cheeks and jaw. Styles range from stubble and the chinstrap to the goatee, the Van Dyke, the chin curtain and the full beard, with sideburns and mutton chops at the sides. How a beard grows is mostly inherited. Beards have marked faith, age, rank and fashion, and have gone in and out of style many times.
Styles
The full beard covers chin, jaw, cheeks and upper lip. The goatee is a chin beard; the Van Dyke adds a separate moustache, after the painter Anthony van Dyck. The chinstrap follows the jaw in a narrow line, and the chin curtain, or Shenandoah, is a full jaw beard without a moustache, linked with Abraham Lincoln and with married Amish men. Sideburns take their name from General Ambrose Burnside.
Faith, rules and fashion
Unshorn beards are part of Sikh faith, and many Muslim, Jewish and Orthodox Christian men grow beards by religious tradition. Armies have both required and banned facial hair. Beards were the norm for Victorian men, rare in the clean-shaven mid-twentieth century and widely worn again from the 2010s. Barbers shape them with a cheek line and neckline, and oils and balms soften them.
Famous beard face guides
BeardChin, cheeks and jaw together
GoateeA beard on the chin alone
Van Dyke beardPointed chin beard with a moustache
Chinstrap beardA narrow line along the jaw
ShenandoahA jaw beard without a moustache
SideburnsNamed after Ambrose Burnside
Designer stubbleShort, deliberate growthSoul patchA tuft below the lower lipFurther reading
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Pe'ot: Andrew Dyer, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Sideburns: Mathew Brady or Levin Handy, clipped by ABX, Public domain, source
- Chinstrap beard: B. D. Maxham, Public domain, source
- Goatee: Harris & Ewing, Public domain, source
- Shenandoah: Alexander Gardner, Public domain, source
- Van Dyke beard: Didier Descouens, Public domain, source
- Designer stubble: Unknown author, Public domain, source