Goatee styles

Most photographs labelled goatee are not goatees

This is the single most useful thing on the page, so it goes first.

A goatee is hair on the chin with the cheeks bare. That is the whole definition. Strictly, a classic goatee has no moustache at all, just the chin.

What most people picture, and what most images labelled "goatee" actually show, is a circle beard: the moustache joined to a rounded chin beard in a continuous ring around the mouth. It is a different style with a different name, and asking a barber for a goatee when you want a circle beard is how men end up with a bare upper lip they did not expect.

The rest of the family is defined by two questions: is the moustache there, and is it joined on?

Learn that table and you can name any of them on sight, which is more than most barbers can.

Why the whole family exists

Every style above solves the same problem: it puts the beard where the growth is and leaves out where it is not.

Cheek density is the thing men have least control over. It is inherited, it does not improve after your early thirties, and it is the reason a full beard looks patchy on plenty of people who have perfectly good growth everywhere else. A goatee sidesteps that entirely by shaving the cheeks on purpose, so thin cheeks stop being a flaw and start being part of the design.

The second thing they share is that they add length to the face. Weight concentrated at the chin pulls the eye downward, which is why they suit round faces particularly well and why they are usually the wrong answer for a long face.

Which one to grow

If you want the simplest thing that works: a circle beard. It is the most balanced of the family, it suits most faces, and it is what people mean when they say goatee anyway.

If your moustache will not connect to your chin: a van Dyke or a balbo. Both turn that exact gap into the design rather than fighting it. This is the most underrated trick on the page, because a failed connection is the commonest reason a circle beard does not work.

If you want jaw definition: an anchor beard or an extended goatee. Both trace some of the jawline without covering the cheeks.

If you are testing whether you like facial hair at all: a soul patch. A week to grow, a minute a week to keep, and nothing to regret.

If you want it to disappear into a workplace: a classic goatee or a petite goatee, kept short and cleanly edged.

How long each one takes

The edges are the entire style

A goatee is mostly bare skin with a shape cut into it, which means the outline is doing all the work. This is the opposite of a full beard, where the mass carries the look and the edges tidy it.

Sharp edges read as chosen. Soft edges read as unshaven. There is very little middle ground, and it is why the same style looks deliberate on one man and neglected on another with identical growth.

Use a razor, not the trimmer's bare blade. A blade edge is close but not clean, and at this level of contrast the difference is visible.

Set the width before the length. Decide where the sides stop, at the corners of the mouth or a little wider, and keep that line. Trimming the sides a bit at a time to level them is how a goatee shrinks over a month into something narrower than you wanted.

Keep the neckline honest. Two finger-widths above the Adam's apple, curved to follow the jaw. Cheeks bare does not mean neck ignored.

Symmetry is set by the moustache, not the chin. If the two halves look off, check the moustache line first. It is nearly always the culprit.

Where it goes wrong

Asking for a goatee and meaning a circle beard. Covered above, and worth repeating.

Letting it creep wider. The commonest slow failure. Each trim takes a little more from the sides until it is a full beard with bare cheeks.

Growing the chin long without widening it. A narrow chin beard grown downward looks thinner the longer it gets. If you want length, widen it too.

Trimming it wet. The hair sits longer than its real length and springs back shorter.

Neglecting the skin. Bare cheeks next to a beard means two different skin conditions on one face. Moisturise both.

Questions we get asked

What is the difference between a goatee and a circle beard? The moustache. A classic goatee is chin hair only. A circle beard joins the moustache to the chin in a ring. Most images labelled goatee are circle beards.

What are the different types of goatee? The classic goatee, circle beard, van Dyke, balbo, anchor beard, royale, extended goatee, petite goatee and soul patch. They differ by whether the moustache is present, whether it joins the chin, and whether the chin is rounded, pointed or widened.

Should a goatee be long or short? Short suits most men and most workplaces, and it is far more forgiving of uneven growth. Length works if you widen it at the same time, otherwise it thins out as it grows.

Which goatee style is best? The circle beard for most people, because it balances the face and needs no cheek growth. If your moustache does not reach your chin, a van Dyke or balbo instead.

Is a goatee good for a round face? Yes, and it is one of the best options. Weight at the chin with bare cheeks lengthens a round face in both directions at once.

Can I grow a goatee with patchy cheeks? That is precisely what it is for. Cheek density becomes irrelevant the moment you shave them.

Do goatees suit older men? They suit most ages, and grey shows well against bare skin. The grey beard styles page covers what changes with the texture.

Where does the name come from? From the tuft on a goat's chin. The shape is ancient, but the modern run of popularity dates to the beatniks in the 1950s and a much bigger revival in the 1990s.