When shaping a beard, it is best to make small adjustments and cuts. The reason for this is that the beard can always be trimmed shorter, however, it cannot be lengthened by any method but time. One tip that commonly prevents damage caused by shaping a beard is to have a picture of a similarly-styled beard to use as a reference point. Other tips for properly shaping a beard range from having someone else do the shaping to simply wearing a shorter style and using the same length trimming guard to trim the entire beard. With a beard being a personal reflection of a person's taste, likes and dislikes, one of the best tips is to simply take the time to come up with a style that best emulates the personality of the wearer.
While many men prefer to wear a beard instead of a clean-shaven face, few beard wearers enjoy sporting a poorly trimmed beard. Much time is usually spent in front of a mirror shaping a beard into a personal statement of the wearer's character. It is not uncommon for a beard wearer to allow the beard to remain untrimmed for long periods of time in order to achieve a desired style or length. When shaping a beard, it is always best to go slow and make small adjustments until the desired look is achieved. If a mistake is made while shaping a beard very short, the entire beard often requires removal to allow the hair to grow back in uniform thickness over the entire face.
Some beard wearers choose to take a picture of the desired beard shape to a professional hairstylist in order to make the beard look right. By allowing a professional stylist to begin shaping a beard, the beard is more likely to resemble the style the wearer wants right from the start. This method makes it not only easier for the beard wearer to make small adjustments to perfect the desired shape of the beard, it also prevents a mistake and having to regrow the beard.
Unless the wearer wishes to maintain a long beard for some aesthetic reason, another tip when shaping a beard is to wear a shorter style beard that requires only one trimmer attachment to maintain. The use of the single-beard trimming attachment fitted to the clipping end of a set of clippers enables the beard to be trimmed in a very quick fashion by simply running the trimmers over the entire beard. From the 5 o'clock shadow look to a medium or short beard, this method of shaping a beard requires little skill, patience or time to achieve.