Verdi beard
a rounded beard with the moustache styled separately
A Verdi is a full beard of moderate length with a rounded bottom, worn with a moustache that is groomed and styled on its own rather than grown into the beard. Usually waxed, often turned up at the ends.
It is named after Giuseppe Verdi, the Italian composer, and it is one of the few beards where the moustache does more work than the beard.
At a glance
- Also known as
- Nothing else in common use
- What it is
- Rounded full beard with a separately styled moustache.
- Length
- Medium, one to three inches
- Growing time
- 6 to 10 weeks
- Trim how often
- Every 1 to 2 days
- Best face shapes
- Oval
- Moustache
- Yes
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The moustache is styled separately, so the skin between it and the beard has to stay properly bare.
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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 | Ideal | Takes almost any length and shape without fighting the proportions. |
|---|---|---|
| Round | Avoid | Adds width where there is already width. A chin-led style suits better. |
| Square | Works | Round the corners off or it doubles up on a jaw that is already strong. |
| Long | Ideal | Width at the cheeks shortens the face. Keep the chin short, not pointed. |
| Heart | Works | Weight low balances a wide forehead, so long as the cheeks stay tidy. |
| Diamond | Ideal | Fills the narrow jaw and squares off the lower face. |
How to cut one, in four steps
- Grow it out6 to 10 weeks. Cutting into a beard that has not filled in leaves holes you then have to grow out again.
- Set the lengthStart on a longer guard than you think you need and work down. You cannot put it back.
- Set the necklineTwo fingers above the Adam's apple, curving up to behind the jaw. Higher than that and you lose the jawline.
- Tidy the cheeksFollow your natural cheek line rather than inventing a straight one. Take off anything above it.
Full detail, tools and the common mistakes are in the guide below.
What separates it from a Garibaldi
Almost nothing below the lip. The beard shape is the same idea: full, rounded at the bottom, natural at the cheeks.
The difference is entirely the moustache. A Garibaldi grows its moustache into the beard as one mass. A Verdi keeps the moustache visually separate, trimmed clear of the lip, waxed and shaped, so the eye reads two elements rather than one.
The beard is also usually shorter than a Garibaldi, one to three inches rather than six to eight, which keeps the proportions balanced against a styled moustache.
Who it suits
Oval faces carry it most easily, because the rounded beard and the horizontal moustache do not have to correct anything.
Square jaws suit it well, since the rounded bottom softens corners rather than repeating them.
What it genuinely needs is a moustache worth styling. This is the whole point of the style, so sparse growth on the upper lip rules it out. If your beard is strong and your moustache is not, a Garibaldi or a plain full beard gives you the same beard without the requirement.
Growing it
Six to ten weeks for the beard at working length.
The moustache is the longer wait. To turn the ends up you need enough length to train, which is usually three to four months from clean-shaven, and the corners of the mouth fill in last.
Grow both together and shape neither for the first six weeks.
Cutting it
The beard first. Set one length with a guard, one to three inches depending on how much presence you want. Round the bottom by working from the sides inward, not across.
Then separate the moustache. Trim it clear of the top lip so there is a visible gap between moustache and beard at the corners of the mouth. This separation is what makes it a Verdi rather than a Garibaldi, and it needs to be deliberate.
Then style it. A small amount of wax worked in from the centre outward, and the ends turned up or out. This is a daily job, not a weekly one.
Leave the cheeks natural. Carving a line fights the softness of the shape.
Keeping it
The beard is easy: trim the shape every two or three weeks, oil it daily once past an inch.
The moustache is the commitment. Comb and wax it every morning. An unwaxed Verdi moustache drops into the beard and you have grown a Garibaldi by accident.
Keep the separation clean. It blurs within a few days if you let the moustache grow down.
Where it goes wrong
Letting the moustache merge. The single failure that defines the style, and it happens quietly over a fortnight.
Trimming the beard flat at the bottom. It wants a curve.
Growing it with a thin moustache. There is nowhere to hide.
Over-waxing. A Verdi moustache should look groomed, not lacquered. A handlebar is a different commitment.
Other full beards
Same shape, different length or moustache.
If this one is too much work
Same idea, less of your morning.
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