Hipster beard
Long, Full and Deliberately Styled
A hipster beard is a full beard grown long and worn with a styled moustache, usually alongside a sharp haircut. It is less a specific shape than an approach: real length, tidy edges, and a moustache that has been thought about rather than simply grown.
At a glance
- Also known as
- Nothing else in common use
- What it is
- Long and full with a styled moustache.
- Length
- Long, three inches and up
- Growing time
- 4 to 6 months or more
- Trim how often
- Every 3 to 4 days
- Best face shapes
- Ovaal
- Moustache
- Yes
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Long on the chin, tidy at the neck. The bit nobody sees in the mirror is the bit that gives you away from the side.
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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.
| Ovaal | Ideal | Takes almost any length and shape without fighting the proportions. |
|---|---|---|
| Rond | Avoid | Adds width where there is already width. A chin-led style suits better. |
| Vierkant | Works | Round the corners off or it doubles up on a jaw that is already strong. |
| Langwerpig | 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. |
| Diamant | Ideal | Fills the narrow jaw and squares off the lower face. |
How to cut one, in four steps
- Grow it out4 to 6 months or more. 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 makes a beard a hipster beard
Three things tend to be true. It is long, three inches or more. The moustache is styled, often waxed or at least trained rather than left flat. And the edges are cut, so the beard reads as deliberate rather than as neglect.
That last point is what separates hipster beard styles from a Viking beard, which is grown out and left largely alone. Both are long. One is groomed.
The cheeks are usually kept natural or lightly tidied, the neckline is cut, and the whole thing is oiled and combed daily.
Hipster beard styles
Classic hipster beard. Long and full, moustache trained, edges tidied. The default, and the classic hipster look most people mean by the term.
Faded hipster beard. The cheeks graded shorter toward the sideburn so the beard blends into the haircut. Sharper at the top, full at the chin.
Square hipster beard. The bottom cut level rather than tapered, giving a blunt, architectural outline. Needs dense growth to look right.
Tapered hipster beard. The opposite: sides brought in and the length gathered at the chin, closer to a ducktail.
Lumberjack beard. The heavier, less styled cousin. A lumberjack beard is wide, full and untrimmed at the sides, with far less attention paid to the moustache.
Hipster beard with a handlebar. The moustache waxed into a curl while the beard is worn full underneath.
Who it suits
Long facial hair adds weight below the jaw, so it lengthens the face.
Oval. Takes any version.
Square. Very good. A strong jaw supports the length without being hidden by it.
Round. Works if tapered. Keep the sides close and let the length gather at the chin.
Long or oblong. The one to be careful with. Keep it shorter and let the sides carry more width.
Heart. Works well, since weight low balances a broader forehead.
The real requirement is dense cheek growth. Hipster beard styles depend on the facial hair connecting properly at the cheeks, and patchiness shows more as length increases rather than less. If your cheeks are thin, a short boxed beard gives a tidier result than a long one ever will.
Grey facial hair is worth a word. A grey beard at this length reads as deliberate when the edges are cut and unkempt when they are not, so the grooming matters more, not less.
What you need
A hipster beard is a long beard plus a styled moustache, so the kit covers both.
A wide-toothed comb, used daily. The single most important item once past two inches.
Baardolie for the skin and the beard hair, and balm past three inches for hold.
Beard wax, only if you are shaping the moustache into a curl. A little goes a long way and it stays out of the beard itself.
Scissors for the moustache and for stray hairs along the cheeks. A trimmer is too blunt an instrument for either.
A beard trimmer with guards, mostly for the neckline and for fading the cheeks if you want a faded hipster beard.
Growing it
Four to six months.
Grow without shaping for the first two months, cutting only the neckline. You cannot judge the shape until the length is there, and cutting early costs you weeks.
Months two and three are the difficult stretch, where the beard is long enough to look untidy and short enough to look unintentional. Keeping the neckline cut and the moustache off the lip is what gets you through.
Do not trim the length to even it up during this period. It resets everything to the length of your slowest area.
Shaping and styling
Comb it downward, dry, before cutting anything.
Set the length or leave it, depending on how full you want it.
Cheeks. Tidy the stray hairs, cut a line, or fade it into the sideburn. All three are legitimate hipster beard styles, and the faded beard version is the one that connects best to a short haircut.
Neckline. Two fingers above the Adam's apple. This one is not optional at any length.
The moustache is where the styling happens. Comb it out, trim it clear of the lip, and use a little wax if you want shape.
Check in profile. Length reads very differently from the side.
Looking after it
Beard oil daily, worked into the skin as much as the hair. At this length the skin underneath is where the itch lives.
Balm once past three inches, for hold.
Wash two or three times a week rather than daily. Long facial hair dries out quickly.
Comb daily. This does more for how a long beard looks than any product.
Trim the neckline every week or two, and the moustache whenever it reaches your lip. Beyond that a hipster style is mostly maintenance of the edges rather than the length.
What goes wrong
It is trimmed too early. The single commonest reason long beards never get long.
The neckline is neglected. A long beard with an untidy neck reads as unkempt from the side, whatever the front looks like.
The moustache is ignored. On a hipster beard the moustache is the styled element. Left flat, the beard is just a long beard.
Daily washing. Leaves the hair dry and brittle.
Length without shape. If the edges are never cut, you have a Viking beard, which is a fine thing but a different one.
Questions we get asked
How long does it take to grow a hipster beard?
Four to six months for real length. The shape only becomes decidable after about two months.
What is the difference between a hipster beard and a lumberjack beard?
Grooming. Both are long and full. A hipster beard has cut edges and a styled moustache; a lumberjack beard is wider and largely left alone.
What is the difference between a hipster beard and a Viking beard?
The same distinction. A Viking beard is deliberately untamed. A hipster beard is deliberately groomed.
Can you grow one with patchy cheeks?
It is difficult. The style depends on the beard connecting at the cheeks, and patchiness becomes more obvious as length increases.
Do you need beard oil?
Yes, daily once there is length, and into the skin rather than just the hair. The itch at month two is skin dryness.
Does a hipster beard suit a round face?
Yes if tapered, with the sides kept close and the length at the chin. Worn full and wide it adds width a round face does not need.
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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