Extended goatee
the goatee that reaches along the jaw
An extended goatee is a goatee widened outward along the jawline, with the cheeks still bare. It sits between a plain chin beard and full coverage, and it is the answer for men who want more structure than a goatee gives without growing a beard on cheeks that will not cooperate.
It also goes by the tailback.
At a glance
- Also known as
- tailback
- What it is
- A goatee widened along the jaw.
- Length
- Short, under an inch
- Growing time
- 3 to 4 weeks
- Trim how often
- Every 1 to 2 days
- Best face shapes
- Round
- Moustache
- Yes
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The line along the jaw is the whole style, and a blunt blade will not hold a line that fine.
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The variations
The same shape, worn differently. What changes is length, density and how much you take off at the edges.
Will it suit your face?
Where a style puts weight, and where it takes it away, is what decides whether it suits you. The table below is the short version.
| Oval | Works | Nothing to correct, so it comes down to preference. |
|---|---|---|
| Round | Ideal | Length at the chin pulls the face longer and the bare cheeks stop it widening. |
| Square | Works | Softens a heavy jaw by drawing the eye to a narrower point at the chin. |
| Long | Avoid | Adds length to a face that is already long. Go wider at the cheeks instead. |
| Heart | Ideal | Weight at the chin balances a broad forehead and a narrow jaw. |
| Diamond | Works | Fills out a pointed chin, though keep it short or it exaggerates the point. |
How to cut one, in four steps
- Grow it out3 to 4 weeks. You cannot see where your growth is dense until it is in, and shaping early is why most first attempts fail.
- Set the lengthTrim the chin and moustache with a guarded trimmer on dry hair, so it sits at its true length.
- Shave the cheeksDownward, with the grain, short passes and light pressure. Pressing harder gives razor burn, not a closer shave.
- Cut the outlineLast, with a precision trimmer. Work from the outside inward on each side, checking both sides between passes.
Full detail, tools and the common mistakes are in the guide below.
What separates it from the rest of the family
A classic goatee is chin hair. A circle beard joins the moustache to it in a ring. An extended goatee takes either of those and runs the beard back along the jawbone toward the ear, usually stopping partway rather than reaching it.
The cheeks stay clean. That is what keeps it in the goatee family rather than making it a short beard. The moment you fill the cheeks in you have a corporate beard.
How far back you take it is the whole decision. Stop at the corner of the jaw and it reads as a slightly wide goatee. Run it to below the ear and it reads as a beard with the cheeks shaved, which is closer to a chin strap with a goatee attached.
Who it suits
Round faces get the most from it. Weight at the chin lengthens the face, and the jaw extension adds a horizontal line that suggests a jaw corner where the face does not have one. That combination is unusual and genuinely useful.
Patchy cheeks are the other reason to grow one. The style needs growth on the chin and along the jaw, which is where nearly everyone is densest, and it needs nothing at all from the upper cheek, which is where nearly everyone is thinnest.
A weak or soft jawline benefits, because the extension draws a line along the bone.
It is less suited to a long face, where the chin weight adds length you do not want, though keeping the extension wide and the chin short mitigates that.
Growing it
Three to four weeks. You need enough along the jaw to see whether your growth there will support the line, which is the part most likely to disappoint.
Leave it alone entirely for a fortnight. The jaw and under-chin growth arrives last, and shaping before it does is how men discover their extension has a gap in it.
Cutting it
Set the length first, with a guard, on dry combed hair. Somewhere between six and twelve millimetres suits most people. The chin can carry a little more than the jaw if you want more weight at the front.
Decide where the extension stops before you start cutting. Pick a point and hold it. The commonest slow failure with this style is trimming a little more off each side every week until the extension has crept back to nothing and you are wearing a plain goatee.
Cut the cheek line low and straight. From the corner of the moustache back toward the ear, above the jaw extension. This is the edge that does most of the work, and it wants to be a decision rather than wherever your growth happens to stop.
Both sides in one pass. Faces are not symmetrical and jaw growth rarely is either. Cut one side, cut the other, then look, rather than alternating small corrections.
Neckline as usual: two finger-widths above the Adam's apple, curved to follow the jaw.
Keeping it
Edges every two or three days. There is a lot of bare skin next to a defined shape here, so regrowth shows quickly and a blurred edge undoes the style faster than length ever will.
Length once a week.
Oil is optional at this length. Moisturiser on the shaved cheeks matters more, since you have bare skin and beard on the same face.
Where it goes wrong
Letting the extension creep back. Slow, invisible week to week, and the reason many extended goatees quietly become goatees.
Taking the extension too high up the jaw. It stops being an extended goatee and becomes a badly-shaped short beard.
Uneven jaw growth. If one side is genuinely thinner, match the thinner side rather than chasing the fuller one.
Trimming it wet, which costs you more length than you intended.
Other goatees
Same shape, different length or moustache.
If this one is too much work
Same idea, less of your morning.
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