Ducktail beard

What makes a beard a ducktail

The taper. A full beard grown long and left alone spreads outward and squares off at the bottom. A ducktail beard style is deliberately narrowed, with the sides brought in and the length concentrated at the chin so the whole thing comes to a point.

That makes it the middle ground between a tidy short beard and a completely untamed one. There is real length, but the outline is controlled, which is why it reads as deliberate rather than as a beard that got away from someone.

The cheeks are usually left natural rather than shaved to a hard line, and the moustache is full and connected.

Ducktail beard styles

Classic ducktail beard. Full at the cheeks, tapered to a clear point three or four inches below the chin.

Short ducktail beard. The same taper at a much shorter length, an inch or two. Far quicker to grow and considerably easier to keep tidy, and the version most men actually wear.

Faded ducktail. The cheeks graded shorter toward the sideburn with the point left long. Sharper at the top, dramatic at the bottom.

Viking ducktail. Longer again, with the sides left fuller so the point is less pronounced. More volume, less definition.

Long ducktail beard. Six months or more, with the point reaching well down the chest. The most dramatic ducktail beard style and the one that needs the most daily combing.

Ducktail with a styled moustache. The beard tapered as usual with the moustache waxed separately, which gives the face two points of interest.

A pointed ducktail suits angular features, where the taper echoes the lines already there. A softer, rounder taper sits better on a face without much angle to it.

Which face shapes it suits

A ducktail beard adds length below the chin and narrows the outline, so it lengthens the face.

Round. The best fit. The point pulls the eye downward and counteracts width at the cheeks, which is exactly what a round face wants from a beard.

Oval. Works without adjustment.

Square. Good. The taper softens a hard jaw rather than emphasising it.

Long or oblong. The one to avoid, or at least to shorten. Adding a point to a long face stretches it further. A short ducktail beard is the compromise if you want the shape without the effect.

Heart. Helpful, since the weight at the bottom balances a wider forehead.

Beyond face shapes, a ducktail beard needs facial hair that grows reasonably straight and dense at the chin. The point is made of the longest hair you have, so thin growth there gives a wispy tip rather than a pointed ducktail.

Hair texture matters too. Curly beard hair resists forming a clean point and wants combing and a little oil to sit straight enough. It is perfectly possible, it just adds a step.

What you need

A ducktail beard is two jobs: length management and point shaping.

A beard trimmer with guards handles the sides and the taper. Guards across a wide range matter here, because a ducktail beard style is built from several lengths meeting each other.

Sharp scissors shape the point. A trimmer cannot do it: the tip needs cutting from both sides toward the centre, in small amounts, and a trimmer removes too much at once.

A wide-toothed comb pulls the beard hair straight before cutting and gets used daily afterwards. Beard oil goes into the skin as well as the hair.

Growing it

Four to six months for a classic, two to three for a short ducktail beard.

Grow everything without shaping for the first two months. You cannot taper a beard that has not filled in, and cutting the sides early takes away the length you will need later.

The neckline is the exception. Keep that cut throughout, because it is the one line that stops a growing beard looking neglected.

Around month two the beard reaches the stage where it is long enough to look untidy and too short to shape. That is normal and it passes. Do not begin styling before there is length to work with, because a ducktail beard style is subtractive: everything you cut is length you cannot put back.

How to style a ducktail beard

Comb the beard hair downward, dry, before you cut anything. Wet hair sits longer than it dries.

Trim the sides first. Take the cheeks and the sides of the jaw shorter with a guarded trimmer, working downward. This is what creates the taper: the sides come in, the bottom stays long.

Shape the point with scissors. The tip is scissor work, not trimmer work. Cut in small amounts from both sides toward the centre so the point forms symmetrically.

Leave the chin hair longest. Everything above it is graded shorter as it goes up.

Set the neckline. Two fingers above the Adam's apple, curving up toward the jaw.

Tidy the moustache off the lip line so it does not compete with the point below.

Check in profile. A ducktail is a three-dimensional shape and it reads differently from the side than from the front.

Keeping it

Every three to four days for the shape, plus daily care for the hair itself.

Trim the sides on schedule, because the taper flattens as the cheeks catch up with the chin. The point needs re-cutting weekly, since it is the part that shows wear first.

Beard oil daily, worked into the skin as well as the hair. At this length the skin underneath gets dry and itchy, and that is the itch people mistake for the beard itself.

Comb it downward every morning. A ducktail beard depends on the hair falling in one direction, and hair that has been slept on in three directions will not form a point.

What goes wrong

The taper flattens. The sides grow out and the beard squares off. Trim the cheeks on schedule rather than only cutting the point.

The point is cut with a trimmer. It comes out blunt. Scissors, from both sides, small amounts.

It gets shaped too early. Cutting the sides in month two removes length you need in month four.

The neckline is forgotten. A long beard with a neglected neck reads as unkempt whatever shape the bottom is.

Oil is skipped. The skin, not the beard, is what itches at this length.