Beard styles for a heart face

What a beard does for a heart face

The heart face is wide at the forehead and narrow at the chin. A beard grows on exactly the part of the face that is narrow, which makes it the most powerful balancing tool a man with this shape has. Grown fuller at the chin and along the jaw, it adds width and weight to the lower third and evens out the taper.

Shaped the wrong way, it makes the taper worse. A thin goatee or a long pointed chin beard narrows the chin to an even sharper point.

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

Styles that suit a heart face

• Full beard, fuller at the chin and jaw. Let it grow to a medium length and keep the shape squared or rounded at the bottom rather than tapered. This is the most effective style.
• Rounded or squared chin beard that broadens the chin. A goatee only works on a heart face if it is wide and squared off, not narrow and pointed.
• Medium boxed beard with a low cheek line. The straight lines add structure, and keeping the cheek line low prevents width at the cheekbones.
• Chin curtain or a full jaw-line beard that runs along the jaw from ear to ear and fills out the lower face without adding volume up the cheeks.

Cheek line and neck line

Set the cheek line low, well below the cheekbones. A high cheek line fills the upper face and adds width at cheek level, which a heart face does not need. Keep the line straight or gently curved from the sideburn down 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. Do not trim the underside close; that fullness is doing the balancing.

Length guide

Chin and jaw: medium length, a few centimetres, shaped square or rounded at the bottom. Cheeks: shorter, trimmed closer, with a low line. Sideburns: moderate; very tight sideburns leave the beard looking like it starts at the jaw with nothing connecting it, while wide sideburns add width at the temples.

Styles to avoid on a heart face

• Thin goatees and soul patches, which point the chin.
• Long, tapered chin beards and ducktails.
• Beards with a high cheek line and short chin.
• Stubble alone with no shaping, which adds no width at the chin.

Pairing with hair

The beard adds weight to the bottom of the face; the hair should not add width to the top. Pair a full chin-heavy beard with a side-parted or textured medium cut, a fringe brought forward, or a moderate taper. Avoid a high wide pompadour above a full beard, which puts weight at both ends and leaves the cheekbones pinched between.

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