Beard styles for a diamond face

What a beard does for a diamond face

The diamond face is wide at the cheekbones and narrow at the chin. A beard grows on exactly the narrow part, which makes it the most powerful balancing tool a man with this shape has.

Grown full along the jaw and squared or rounded at the chin, it adds width and weight to the lower third and brings it level with the cheekbones.

Shaped the wrong way, it makes the diamond sharper. A thin goatee or a pointed chin beard narrows the chin to a finer point under cheekbones that are already the widest thing on the face.

The rule is fill the chin and jaw, keep the cheek line low, avoid points.

Styles that suit a diamond face

• Full beard, even along the jaw. Let it grow to a medium length and keep the bottom squared or rounded rather than tapered. This is the most effective style.
• Squared chin beard that broadens the chin. A goatee only works on a diamond face if it is wide and square, not narrow and pointed.
• Medium boxed beard with a low cheek line. The straight lines add structure to the jaw, and the low line keeps the beard from reaching the cheekbones.
• Chin curtain along the jaw from ear to ear, which widens the lower face without adding anything up the cheeks.

Cheek line and neck line

Set the cheek line low, well below the cheekbones. A high cheek line runs the beard up into the widest part of the face and makes the cheekbones look wider. Keep the line straight or gently curved from the sideburn toward the corner of the mouth.

Set the neck line about a finger-width above the Adam's apple and let the beard under the jaw carry some fullness. That fullness at the corners of the jaw is doing most of the balancing.

Length guide

• Chin and jaw: medium length, a few centimetres, shaped square or rounded at the bottom and kept full at the corners of the jaw.
• Cheeks: shorter, trimmed closer, with a low line.
• Sideburns: moderate and a little full, because width at the temples helps a narrow forehead; very tight sideburns leave the top of the face bare.

Styles to avoid on a diamond face

• Thin goatees and soul patches, which point the chin.
• Long, tapered chin beards and ducktails.
• Beards with a high cheek line that reach the cheekbones.
• Heavy stubble with no shaping, which adds no width at the jaw.

Pairing with hair

The beard adds weight to the bottom of the face; the hair should add a little to the top. Pair a full, square beard with a textured fringe, a side part with length at the front, or a soft quiff that widens at the forehead.

Avoid a high skin fade above a full beard, which strips the sides at the temples and leaves the cheekbones as the widest point between two narrow ends. The men's haircut page has the cuts.

The face shape test reports the jaw-to-cheekbone ratio and the chin angle; the lower the ratio and the sharper the angle, the more fullness at the jaw will do.