- The real trick is making sure
that both those lines are level.
Mine aren't.
[trimmer buzzing]
Hi guys, my name's Matty Conrad
and I'm gonna show you the four easy steps
to take care of your beard at home.
[relaxed music]
Now I know a lot of us are feeling
a little overgrown these days
because we haven't been able
to go and see our barber
to take care of our beards.
And grooming your beard can
be a really tricky procedure.
Well I'm gonna show you
just a few easy ways
that you can take care of it at home
that'll get you over the hump.
Step one is wash your beard.
Now this is a really important step
because beards gather a lot of bacteria,
collect food and all
sorts of other things.
It's really important,
especially right now,
to keep your beard clean.
So choose a beard cleanser
that you can use every single day.
Something that's gentle and something
that is gonna moisturize the skin
beneath the beard to prevent flakiness.
Now for those of you that are
quarantining with a partner,
my biggest suggestion is, take a towel
and lay it down over top of your sink.
This will help you avoid
all those little hairs
that gather and just
make your partner crazy.
Step two is detangling.
For this I like to use a wide tooth pick,
because it puts a lot less
tension on the beard hair.
As you run it through
the beard, you wanna keep
going through until you
feel no more tension
and no more pulling of the beard.
Once you've done that all the way through,
you've gotten rid of all the tangles.
And you're ready to move on to step three.
[bright music]
Step three is the interior.
That's the bulk and
the shape of the beard.
For this, we wanna take
our adjustable clipper
and set it halfway open,
which means you're gonna move
the lever halfway between
all the way forward
and all the way back.
Turn it on and take the
clipper upside down,
creating a nice straight
line working downwards.
Always working downwards with the beard
will help you preserve length.
If you work upwards,
it's gonna grab the hair
and you're gonna take chunks.
Working downwards will make it smoother.
Start from the top near the sideburn
and create a wall straight down the side,
just looking for the hairs
that are sticking out and flying away.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
You wanna think of this
area kind of like a wall
and make this nice and flat and smooth.
Once you've taken your first pass,
take a brush, and brush the hair down.
You'll notice as you do this,
other additional hairs pop
out that you didn't get before
because they were tangled in the beard.
Do this two or three times
and repeat the process
until the side is nice and smooth.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
Then you're gonna repeat
this on the other side.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
Once you've got the walls
finished on either side,
nice and flat and smooth with no flyaways,
work very slightly underneath the chin
but be careful in this area.
You don't wanna remove too much hair
because this is where
the bulk of the beard is.
Brush the hair down slightly and just take
one single pass over top,
underneath your mouth.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
It looks better already.
The second part of the
interior is called the shelf,
and that's the length
of the beard underneath.
This should have a slight
downward angle forward
so it looks more like a jaw shape.
What you wanna do is tilt your head back,
take your clipper inverted,
and punch a straight line
from the front length of the beard
right towards your Adam's apple.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
Once you've done a single
pass, take your pick
and pull down any hairs that
may be tangled underneath.
[relaxed music]
And take a second pass to clean it up.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
This area underneath
the neck will grow hair.
Your goal is to make
sure that you don't see
any hair growing on the
neck behind the front line
or the length of the beard.
If you see hair growing
down here, clean that up.
My suggestion is to
take your clipper first,
reverse it, and work upwards
just softly on the neck
to take the hair nice and
short before you shave it.
This'll make it much more comfortable
for you to remove with a
razor or with a trimmer.
[relaxed music]
Now it's time for step
four, which is the outline.
Now the outline of the
beard is very important
and it's broken down into three steps.
The top line, the base
line, and the lip line.
Let's start with the top line.
To create a strong top line,
you're trying to create a nice clean line
from the corner of the sideburn
towards the corner of the mouth.
This line can either be straight
or it can be slightly curved.
Most people where their
line slightly curved,
but if you have a wider face shape,
I suggest using a straight line.
It'll make you look leaner.
Take your trimmer and
turn it on, invert it,
and punch a line descending
from the corner of the sideburn
toward the corner of the mouth.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
Once you wanna remove the hairs
that grow up in the cheeks,
turn your clipper over
and push up away from that line.
This gives your beard the appearance
of being thicker and stronger.
Repeat it on the opposite side.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
The real trick is making sure
that both those lines are level.
Mine aren't.
[relaxed music]
[clipper buzzing]
Much better.
The baseline is the bottom part
of the outline of the beard.
It starts behind the ear and descends
all the way around the Adam's apple
and up the other side.
You want this to be as clean
and strong as possible.
Start from behind the
ear, making sure you hold
the bulk of the beard out of the way
and outline it using your trimmer,
delicately pressing a line in.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
Now we have a nice line
from the corner of the jaw
descending towards the Adam's apple.
It's easiest to just lift your head,
carve in a nice straight
line right at the corner.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
And work your way down
towards the Adam's apple.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
Now we're gonna start
on the opposite side.
[relaxed music]
[trimmer buzzing]
Brush through your hair, just to make sure
you got all the pieces
and that there aren't
any additional flyaways.
[relaxed music]
The lip line, which is the last step.
You wanna make sure that your mustache
isn't going over the crest of the mouth.
So to do that, I like to
comb all of the hair forward
and I like to create something that peaks
very slightly in the center.
For people that have short beards,
they can follow the top lip line,
creating a soft peak in the
center using their trimmer,
but for longer beards,
it's better to create
an arcing shape away to the corner.
To do that, turn your clipper on its side.
Start in the center, and roll outwards
towards the corner of the mouth.
[funk music]
[trimmer buzzing]
Once you're all finished,
I highly recommend
applying beard oil to nourish
and moisturize the beard.
To apply a beard oil, just
take two or three drops
and work it between the
palms of your hands.
Apply it throughout the beard vigorously
so it gets all the way through
and coats all of the hair.
To finish it off and make sure it gets
all the way through the beard,
use a natural bristle brush.
Natural bristles have a tendency
to move oil around in the hair
and will actually help
you condition the beard.
[funk music]
And there we have a perfectly
groomed longer beard.
So when it comes to growing out a beard,
let's say you've never had one before
and you're looking at COVID quarantine
as your opportunity to go for it.
A couple of steps need to happen.
First of all, you need to stop shaving.
You need to see what's
gonna grow in and how thick.
Some people have very dense
growth all over their face,
and some people have very patchy areas.
That's okay, because not all
beards need to look the same.
There's lots of different types
of beards that you can pick.
If you have very patchy
cheeks or bald spots,
you may wanna consider
going with something lower,
maybe a goatee, or simply
rocking the mustache
because I think that's cooler
than people give it credence to.
But if you are somebody
that's trying a beard out
and has a full growth all
over, I highly suggest
just focusing on the outline of the beard
for the first two to three months
and letting the bulk of the beard grow in.
The only area where you may wanna consider
trimming it down slightly
is in the cheek area,
and making sure the outline
stays nice and crisp
from the corner of your jaw to
the top of your Adam's apple.
That's gonna give you
the strongest beard shape
and give you a fighting chance
at growing a damn fine looking beard.
Good luck, and good grooming.
