The 23 Best Beard Styles for 2024

When Beardrband was founded in 2012, many thought the sudden popularity in beards was nothing more than a passing trend; a fad for Brooklyn and Portland hipsters to collectively hang their fedora hats on.

Here we are eleven years later. What was once niche and indie is now mainstream, evidenced by the myriad of beard and facial hair styles that continue to rise in popularity. Over the past decade, we’ve seen fortune 500 corporations and police departments relax their facial hair policies, allowing more men to grow their beards.

Entering the third decade of the 21st century, we find ourselves in a new facial hair renaissance. It’s a time of rediscovery for forlorn beard and mustache styles. But maybe, more importantly, men are rediscovering the freedom to look and dress in ways that make them feel more confident.

Suffice to say—beards aren’t going anywhere in 2024.

So, whether you’re a first-time beard grower or a grizzled beard veteran, we’ve compiled our 23 favorite beard styles for 2024 to help you find a beard style that makes you feel awesome.

WHAT TYPE OF BEARDSMAN ARE YOU?

Before you figure out your beard style, do you know what type of beardsman you are? Take the quiz to find out if you're the rarest type.

SHORT BEARD STYLES

When it comes to beards, bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes a short beard style is the way to go. Some people might tell you that size matters, but we don’t buy into that. Grow the beard that makes you feel confident—even if it’s just stubble.

Here are our favorite short beard styles for 2024.

THE 5 O’CLOCK SHADOW

The 5 o’clock shadow, or stubble beard, is as short of a beard as you can get. It’s classic, timeless, and always well received. David Beckham, Adam Levine, Zac Effron, and many more have made the designer stubble a staple of men’s grooming, and we don’t predict it going away anytime soon.

Few men grow an actual “5 o’clock shadow” in a matter of a day, as the name implies. Depending on how dark your hair is, a solid 5 o’clock shadow beard will take around two to five days to grow. The darker your hair is, the quicker it becomes visible. Read this article to learn how to perfect the 5 o'clock shadow.

SCRUFFY BEARD

The scruffy beard is a slightly longer variation of the 5 o’clock shadow. It adds a bit of grit to your look. It doesn’t matter if your beard is patchy or if it comes in extremely thick, scruff is a style anyone can wear.

To get the scruffy beard, let your hair grow for two to four weeks. At around three weeks, you might need to trim your neckline if your scruff starts making its way down towards the Adam's apple. Otherwise, you run the risk of being mislabeled a neckbeard.

The scruffy beard is notoriously itchy. Grab a conditioning product like Utility Balm to keep the hair soft and the skin hydrated; this will help relieve the itch.

CORPORATE BEARD

The corporate beard is close-cropped—around two to three inches. For many men, their beard is still patchy and disconnected at this length, so it requires some dense beard-growing genetics to pull off the corporate beard.

As the name implies, the corporate beard is something that you should be able to wear in any work environment, so it’s essential to groom it regularly and keep it tidy. On average, there are 30,000 beard hairs on a man’s face, and unfortunately, not all of them grow at a uniform speed. Hell, they don’t even all grow in the same direction. You’re going to need to keep the stragglers in check.

Investing in a good beard trimmer is crucial for keeping the corporate beard tidy. You’re also going to need to master your neckline and cheek line trimming skills. Check out our tutorials on how to trim your neckline at home, and how to trim your cheek line.

SHORT ROUNDED BEARD

A variation of the corporate beard, a rounded beard is a perfect short beard option for men with round, square, or diamond-shaped faces, because it follows the natural curve of the face without adding too much additional bulk on the cheeks. For men with broader face shapes, too much length on the cheeks can have a chipmunk effect. To get the short rounded beard, let your beard grow for one to two months and keep everything at a uniform length.

SHORT BOXED BEARD

The short boxed beard is an angular variation of the corporate beard, but with a little more length around the chin—this helps create the sharper edges of the boxed beard and accentuates the jawline.

To get the short boxed beard, let your beard grow for two to three months. You’ll want to create a taper from the sideburns to the chin, so you’ll need a Beard Trimmer with various length guards. Use a number 4 guard on the chin area. Then taper to a number 3 guard on the cheeks and a number 2 guard on the sideburns.

A boxed beard is a good option for all face shapes, but it works exceptionally well for oval and oblong faces.

FADED BEARD

Essentially a skin fade for your face, the faded beard has been gaining steam for the past couple of years. The fading happens in two spots—the sideburn and on the face/cheek. Removing cheek bulk helps slim and elongate the silhouette of the face by keeping the thickness of your beard on the chin. It’s a crisp style that looks best when your beard is around three to six inches in length and is lined up with a barber’s precision.

We recommend letting a barber tackle your beard fade, but if you want to give it a shot at home, Ben Wilson shows you how in this video.

HOLLYWOODIAN

The Hollywoodian draws attention away from the cheeks and towards the jaw and chin. The cheek lines lower, helping create a more prominent jawline. Be careful not to trim the neckline too high, or you’ll start creeping into chinstrap territory—which isn’t where you want to be unless you’re an early 2000’s era rapper.

The Hollywoodian gets its name from Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale, who have both sported this similar low cheek line look. Some sources will tell you that a Hollywoodian beard doesn’t connect to the sideburns, but we think you should let it connect if you can. This style isn’t just reserved for actors either. Lebron James has also sported the Hollywood chinstrap on occasion.

The Hollywoodian is a good option for men who have trouble filling the cheek and sideburns on their beards, or who just want to add a little more length and dimension to their jawline.

VERDI

Named after 19th-century Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, this classic style gives off a distinguished appearance. The Verdi includes a handlebar mustache and a rounded three to four-inch beard. The handles of the mustache are waxed and hang over the top of the beard in a loose curl. Some men opt to keep the mustache smaller and separate from the beard.

To get the Verdi, you’ll need about four to eight months of beard growth, and possibly longer for the mustache to reach handlebar length. Keep a naturally rounded shape on the beard. We recommend investing in a good pair of Beard Trimming Scissors to maintain the beard and mustache, as well as a Round Brush to help with styling.

Check out this tutorial on how to style your beard using a Round Brush and blowdryer.

#CORONABEARDS

With the world shifting to remote work, more men began growing beards in 2020. #CoronaBeards began trending on social media throughout the spring and summer of that year but has continued to be a cool style even two years later. The corona beard is natural, gnarly, and low-maintenance. Just let it grow and don’t touch it. Don’t trim the necklines or cheek lines. Okay, maybe run a Beard Comb through it every once in a while to clear out any lost crumbs.

LONG BEARD STYLES

Once you start hitting the six-inch mark, you’re officially in long beard (also known as full beard) territory. These long beard styles take a year or more to grow. On average, hair grows at a rate of one-half inch per month, meaning it will take you a solid 365 days of growth before you’ve got enough hair hanging off your face to make these long beard styles your own.

Keep in mind that a long beard may not be your healthiest beard. The longer the hair gets, the more difficult it becomes to prevent breakage and split ends. Longer beards tend to become wispy, and yours may not look as thick and full as it does at, say, the four-inch mark. That said, you’ll never know until you try, and we think everyone should go long at least once in their lives.

Before deciding to let your beard grow for a year, check out these 11 Things to Consider Before Growing a Long Beard.

POWER BEARD

Okay, so the power beard isn’t technically a long beard by our six-inch rule, but it didn’t seem right to put it in the short beards category. As the name implies, power beards mean business. It’s a badass beard style that perfectly toes the line between rugged and contemporary.

Power beards, also known as natural beards, are between four and six inches in length. It’s at this length that your beard’s personality starts to show. Some will be straight, some will be wavy, and some will be curly. Learning advanced beard styling techniques is crucial. Fortunately, we wrote a blog teaching you how to shape your beard into magnificence.

POWER BEARD WITH WALRUS MUSTACHE

If you’ve got the mustache-growing genetics for it, pair your power beard with a bold walrus mustache. You can wear the mustache down and comb it into the beard, or wax it and curl it into a handlebar like you would with a Verdi beard.

How do you eat with a mustache like that? It’s not easy, that’s for sure, and you might want to avoid these absolute worst foods to eat with a beard—at least in public.

POWER BEARD WITH TRIMMED MUSTACHE

If you’re not a fan of always getting food in your mustache, the power beard with a neatly trimmed ‘stache is always an awesome option. Trim the mustache so the hair doesn’t cover the upper lip, and follow the natural curve of your mouth.

SPADE-SHAPED POWER BEARD

As your beard moves from power beard into the four to six-inch range, you can begin trimming the bottom of the beard into more defined shapes. We dig the shovel look of a spade-shaped beard, and we love that it creates a defined silhouette of a chiseled jawline—and who doesn’t want that?

Trimming your beard to a spade shape on your own is no easy feat. When possible, we recommend letting your barber handle this task.

YEARDS, TWEARDS, AND TERMINAL BEARDS

Yeard
The yeard is a beard that’s been left to grow for a full year. Beard hair grows at a half-inch per month, so you’ll be looking at a solid 6 inches by the time you reach day 365. You can do some light trimming along the way to help shape your yeard and keep it healthy. Pair the yeard with a buzz cut for a badass look, or shave your dome completely.

Tweard
The Tweard is the next step up lengthwise from the yeard. Let your beard continue to grow for at least two years without taking any length off of it. You’re looking at a solid 12-inch, or foot-long beard when the two years are up.

Terminal beards
Generally, a beard will never grow longer than it is at six years worth of full growth. And when your beard hairs stop growing, you’ve reached your terminal beard. For most men, beard hairs will reach terminal length around 36 inches. Again, every beard is unique—some will grow longer, some will be shorter. It all comes down to your genes.

Of course, there are always the outliers, like Hans Langseth, who holds The Guinness World Records entry for the longest male beard. His beard was 17.5 feet long when he died in 1927. You likely don’t stand a chance at topping that record unless you’re a descendent of old Long Beard Langseth.

BANDHOLZ BEARD

You may have noticed a facial hair style called the Bandholz on the CDC graphic titled facial hair styles and filtering facepiece respirators that circulated in 2020, and you may be wondering what a Bandholz beard is? While some think it’s just a funny name for a Brooklyn hipster beard, it is actually named after Beardbrand founder, Eric Bandholz.

Deep down, the Bandholz beard is just a yeard left to grow naturally without any trimming or shaping. Remember, everyone’s beard grows differently, so you can try to replicate the Bandholz beard, but it won’t ever be exact.

So, how do you get a beard style named after you anyway?

Like this...

In 2012, Eric attended the West Coast Beard & Mustache Championships. He was about eight months into his first yeard and was competing in his first beard competition. It was at this event that he first experienced the bearded lifestyle at its fullest.

Shortly after that event, Eric launched Beardbrand as a way to unite beardsmen and build a community. Beardbrand started with a blog, a YouTube channel, and a Tumblr to share knowledge and provide style inspiration. Eric also wanted to end the negative stereotypes about beardsmen being lazy or unkempt and help beardsmen feel more confident in wearing facial hair in the office, at home, and around their friends.

Since 2012, Beardbrand has helped shift the public perception of beards while growing into one of the world’s most recognized men’s grooming companies. In the process, Bandholz’s beard has become one of the most recognized beards on the internet and beyond.

Partial Beard Styles

As far as we’re concerned, if you’ve got hair on your face, it’s a beard. It doesn’t matter if it’s yeard, goatee, mustache, or soul patch. These are our favorite partial beard styles in 2024.

CHEVRON MUSTACHE

Mustaches are back in a big way, and they haven’t been this popular since Tom Selleck was going all Magnum P.I. on bad guys in the 80s. We’re seeing more and more men growing the chevron mustache, and for good reason. It’s a natural style that requires minimal grooming. It’s timeless.

The chevron mustache is the quintessential mustache style. It follows the shape of the upper lip, resulting in a natural mustache that has a slight upside-down V shape. We couldn’t find any evidence that this is where it gets its name, but if you took the Chevron Corporation logo and flipped it upside-down, that's the shape.

If you’ve never worn just a mustache, the chevron is a great place to start. Try pairing the chevron with a soul patch to add a little wild west flair to your style.

HUNGARIAN MUSTACHE

With mustaches being back at the forefront of pop culture (and our collective faces), one mustache style towers above the rest — the Hungarian Mustache. This burly, badass, swooping mustache style draws its name from early 20th-century European world leaders — think Franz Ferdinand — but it could be equally viewed as the official mustache of the American wild west. Either way, this is the mustache equivalent of the power beard. The style is bold and boisterous, masculine and rugged, and downright intimidating when paired with the right jawline and scowling eyes (yeah, we’re talking about you, Jeff Buoncristiano). If you’ve got the genes to grow it, a Hungarian mustache will command the respect of any room you saunter into.

BEARDSTACHE

The Beardstache is simply the combination of a full mustache and a bit of stubble—anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. We’re big fans of the beardstache and think that it’s one of the coolest ways to wear a mustache. The stubble gives your jawline and cheek lines a little more definition, and the contrast between the full mustache and the stubble looks badass.

Chevron, lampshade, walrus, horseshoe, English, handlebar, Hungarian mustache styles all work great with the beardstache. Not sure what any of these 'stache styles are? Check out the definitive guide to mustache styles.

PENCIL MUSTACHE

The pencil mustache isn’t for everyone, and there are two keys to making it look good—having dark brown or black hair, and not having fair skin. Unfortunately, if you aren’t born with that genetic makeup, there isn’t much you can do short of dying your mustache and hitting the tanning beds (which we don’t recommend).

Keep the pencil mustache thicker—think sharpie instead of a pencil. Keep the hair short and off the upper lip while following the natural curve of the mouth.

PATCHY BEARD

Let’s face facts—some dudes just grow patchy beards, and no amount of “miracle beard growth pills” are going to do anything to change that. Fortunately, a patchy beard doesn’t mean you need to live a baby-faced life full of shaving cream and razor burn.

A short, patchy beard is one of the coolest beard styles out there. The key is to accentuate the parts of your beard that grow while keeping the patchy sections short. So, if you can grow a thick mustache and goatee, grow those parts of your beard and keep the cheeks at a stubble. Johnny Depp, James Franco, and Beardbrand’s own Sylvester Louis all make the patchy beard look damn cool, and you can too.

MUTTON CHOPS

Before you laugh, mutton chops are long overdue for a comeback. And if you want to stand out from the crowd, they might just be your best bet.

Hugh Jackman made them look badass in his role as Wolverine, but more recently, we’ve seen soccer stars like Andy Carrol sporting the mutton chops—and when European footballers start rocking a style, there’s always the potential for it to catch on.

Before you dismiss mutton chops completely, check out our blog on why now might be the best time to grow them.

Best Beard Styles For Your Face Shape

Typically, the goal of choosing any hairstyle or beard style centers around creating a more oval appearance of your face. Your face shape can help you decide which styles will work best for you. Of course, these are just suggestions, and you should always grow what you want.

As a recap, there are six face shapes: oval, oblong/rectangle, round, square, diamond, and triangle.

Oval Face Shape
Round at both the top and bottom but also slightly long and without too much jawline definition, an oval face is one that can handle pretty much anything you throw at it—or throw on it. You know those guys that can do anything with their hair or beard, and it always looks good? Yeah, those are the oval face guys.

Oblong/Rectangle
If you’ve got that classic egg shape, keep your beard shorter than your head hair. On the flip side, if your jaw is more narrow than your forehead, keep your beard longer than your hair. It’s all about creating balance.

Square Face Shape
Beard styles that typically look best with square faces are those that feature more hair on the chin and a bit less on the sides and neck. If you fall into this category, make sure to monitor your neckline to keep it looking tidy. Your focus is to keep hair from becoming too full on the cheeks and sideburns, which can create a look that’s blocky and squared-off.

Round Face Shape
A round face features a softer jawline which extends to a hairline that’s more rounded than on other face shapes. You also have a jawline that’s less pointed than on men with different face shapes. Choose styles that are shorter on the sides and longer on the bottom, and always keep your sideburns and cheeks in check.

Diamond Face Shape
Cheekbones represent the prominent feature on a diamond-shaped face. The goal of growing and shaping a beard with this face shape should be to keep some hair on the chin to offset the cheekbones. Keep the hair on your chin from getting too pointy, or it will make your face shape more prominent than you may prefer.

Triangular Face Shape
The triangular face is narrow at the top and very wide along the jaw. It’s best to take attention away from the prominent chin. A beardstache is a great option here, or really, anything that can draw some attention away from the jawline.

Want to talk about beard styles, or need some grooming and style advice? Shoot us a message at support@beardbrand.com, or Text "STYLE" to 512-879-3297 for a free personalized consultation. We’ll be happy to help you out.

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TL;DR

Beards are as popular as ever in 2024. We highlight 23 of our favorite beard styles in 2024, from stubble to chevron mustaches to Bandholz beard. As always, Keep on Growing.

Want to talk about beard styles, or need some grooming and style advice? Shoot us a message at support@beardbrand.com, or Text "STYLE" to 512-879-3297 for a free personalized consultation. We’ll be happy to help you out.