What Kind of Beard Should I Have

One press picks a beard style, or a mustache, with what it looks like.

What Kind of Beard Should I Have

Show all 34
  1. Van DykeA mustache and a goatee with the cheeks shaved. Named after the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck.

Next step Draw a haircut to go with itDraw a hair color

How it works

Not sure what kind of beard you should grow? Press the button for one of 34 beard styles, from the goatee and the Van Dyke to mutton chops and the Garibaldi, each with what it looks like.

Read the full guide

What facial hair should I grow

Go by where your hair comes in. A mustache needs only the upper lip. A goatee needs the chin and not the cheeks. A chinstrap follows the edge of the jaw. A full beard takes growth on the cheeks, chin, sideburns and neck.

Goatee, Van Dyke or circle beard

Goatee is now the loose word for any style with hair on the chin and none on the cheeks. In a Van Dyke the chin hair and the mustache do not touch. In a circle beard they join round the mouth.

  • Asking only what mustache you should grow? The Mustaches row holds 14 of them.

Questions and answers

What type of beard should I grow?

Go by how long you will let it grow. A five o’clock shadow is a few hours of growth and designer stubble about three days. Of the full beards, a Verdi is short, a sea captain is medium length and a Ned Kelly is long.

What kind of facial hair should I have?

Decide first whether the upper lip stays bare. A chin curtain, a Shenandoah and an Old Dutch are beards worn with no mustache. A Van Dyke, a circle beard and a Garibaldi come with one. A mustache alone leaves the rest of the face shaved.

What kind of mustache should I grow?

From small to large: a pencil is a thin line above the lip, a chevron fills the space under the nose as far as the edges of the lip, a horseshoe runs down to the jawline and a walrus drops over the mouth.

What kind of moustache should I get?

Go by how much shaping you want to do. A natural mustache is shaped without any styling aid. The upturned ends of a handlebar are usually set with wax or gel, and the steep points of a Dalí need a styling aid.

Why are sideburns called sideburns?

The word is a 19th-century twist on burnsides, after the American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside. He joined thick sideburns to a mustache and shaved his chin, the style now called friendly mutton chops.

More tools

Browse People and Jobs

All 48 styles

Goatees and chin beards 9

  • Anchor beard A chin beard trimmed to the shape of an anchor.
  • Balbo A wider Van Dyke that wraps round the mouth, with the ends of the mustache flared out.
  • Circle beard A chin beard joined round the mouth to a mustache. Also called a doorknocker.
  • Goat patch Hair growing from the chin straight under the mouth. Also called a chin puff or chin strip.
  • Goatee Hair on the chin and none on the cheeks. The word first meant a tuft on the chin, like a goat’s.
  • Royale A narrow pointed beard from the chin, popular in France during the Second Empire.
  • Soul patch A small patch between the lower lip and the chin. Also called a mouche.
  • Van Dyke A mustache and a goatee with the cheeks shaved. Named after the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck.
  • Zappa A wide soul patch and a full mustache that runs a little past the corners of the mouth.

Partial beards and sideburns 15

  • Chin curtain A beard along the jaw and over the chin, with no mustache and no hair on the neck.
  • Chinstrap beard A narrow line along the jaw from one sideburn to the other, like the strap of a helmet.
  • Designer stubble A short growth of beard, roughly three days long, kept trimmed.
  • Five o’clock shadow Very short stubble, like the growth that shows at 5 pm after a morning shave.
  • Friendly mutton chops Mutton chops joined by a mustache, with the chin shaved.
  • Hollywoodian A goatee, a full mustache and a beard along the jaw, with the upper cheeks and sideburns shaved.
  • Hulihee Wide chops joined at the mustache, with the chin shaved. The style comes from Hawaii.
  • Monkey tail A beard that curls round the mouth like a tail, with a gap from the mustache on one side only.
  • Mutton chops Sideburns that grow wider toward the chin, shaped like a mutton chop.
  • Neckbeard Hair on the neck or under the jaw and none on the face. Popular in the 19th century.
  • Shenandoah A fuller chin curtain: only the mustache is shaved, and the hair on the neck grows out.
  • Sideburns Hair on the sides of the face, from the hairline down beside or past the ears.
  • Sidewhiskers Like mutton chops but more extreme: classic sidewhiskers hang well below the jawline.
  • Stashburns Sideburns that drop down the jaw and turn up across the mustache, leaving the chin bare.
  • Tiger stripe beard A beard with parallel lines shaved into it for a striped pattern. Also called a panini.

Full beards 10

  • Ducktail beard A beard whose middle hangs from the chin to a point. Its sideburns set it apart from a long goatee.
  • Dwarven beard A long beard with intricate styling such as braids, named for the dwarves of fantasy stories.
  • Forkbeard A pointed beard split in two at the chin. Also called a French fork.
  • Full beard Full growth on the cheeks, chin, sideburns, upper lip and neck.
  • Garibaldi A wide, full beard with a rounded bottom and a mustache that runs into it.
  • Ned Kelly beard A long, full beard with a mustache, named after a 19th-century Australian bushranger.
  • Old Dutch A large, long beard joined to the sideburns that flares out at the bottom, with no mustache.
  • Sea captain A rounded, bottom-heavy beard of medium length with short sides, often with a longer mustache.
  • Three-pronged beard A beard with three forks, braided at the lower end.
  • Verdi A short beard with a rounded bottom and a prominent mustache. Named after the composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Mustaches 14

  • Chevron mustache Fills the space between the nose and the upper lip and stops at the edges of the lip.
  • Dalí mustache Narrow, with long points curved steeply upward. Named after the painter Salvador Dalí.
  • English mustache Narrow, with long whiskers pulled to each side from the middle of the lip, the ends turned slightly up.
  • Handlebar mustache Long ends curved upward, like the handlebars of a bicycle. Usually shaped with wax or gel.
  • Horseshoe mustache A full mustache that runs down both sides of the mouth to the jawline, like an upside-down U.
  • Hungarian mustache Big and bushy, pulled to each side from the middle of the upper lip.
  • Imperial mustache Whiskers from the upper lip and the cheeks, curled upward.
  • Lampshade mustache Straight-sided like the pyramid but steeper, so it looks like a trapezoid.
  • Natural mustache Shaped without wax or any other styling aid.
  • Painter’s brush mustache Between the chevron and the pyramid: round along the top, straight along the bottom.
  • Pencil mustache A thin clipped line just above the lip, as if drawn with a pencil, with a gap under the nose.
  • Pyramid mustache Like the chevron but with straight sides, so it looks loosely like a triangle.
  • Walrus mustache Thick and bushy, dropping over the mouth like the whiskers of a walrus.
  • Zapata mustache Both ends droop toward the jawline. Named after the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.