A beard is a stylish and powerful look that can symbolize masculinity, culture and sophistication, transcending an aesthetic and blending into the meaningful. From rugged and long to corporate, black men are embracing their freedom to grow, shape and style their facial hair in ways that make them feel confident and attractive.
Luckily, most black men with beards inherently understand that some styles are better suited to their facial hair texture and skin tone, and choosing a proper length and design can enhance their appearance.
Some of the most popular black men’s beard styles are short, full and well-groomed, offering a versatile and classy look suitable for any occasion. Rooted in the traditional, a mustache or goatee can be simple facial hair that emphasizes your chiseled chin and jawline while complementing your mouth.
Check out these stylish and trendy beard styles for black men that will create an attractive adornment and accentuate your masculine facial features.
Trendy Black Men’s Beard Styles
Short Beard
A short beard is easy to maintain and offers a clean, structured appearance for black men who struggle with longer facial hair. Start by growing out your beard before trimming it back using a 1 or 2 guard for a well-groomed, neat finish across the chin and jawline. Blend the top into faded sideburns to create a sleek, connected aesthetic that effortlessly frames the face.
Full Beard
The full beard is a popular style with black men who want dense, ultra-masculine facial hair to balance out a short haircut with faded sides. Sculpt the beard into a uniform shape or let the chin grow slightly longer to create the illusion of angles around the jawline. Tame your look with a comb and balm to keep the hair perfectly shaped and moisturized.
Long Beard
A long beard is a classic style for black men who want to show off their volume and length while adding dimension to their faces. Masculine, longer facial hair can pair well with a voluminous, curly afro for a retro appearance that exudes confidence and virility. Connect your beard into tapered sideburns to create light structure and trim the edges to prevent your style from looking unkempt. Use a sulfate-free beard shampoo and conditioner combo to cleanse and prevent any breakouts under the skin.
Goatee
A simple goatee is an excellent way to tame coarser facial hair while accentuating the jawline and adding definition that disguises a weak chin. This beard is incredibly versatile, allowing you to keep it neatly trimmed for a polished look or grow it out for a rugged appearance. Regular trims will help to maintain any thin edges and keep your mustache in check.
Beard Fade
A beard fade adds instant dimension to your face, combining a sharp, graduated effect with thick facial hair. The beard is typically clipped right by the edges of the jawline for a clean-cut appearance, with the fade starting close to the earlobes. Keep the hair around the chin thick and dense, and pull out your trimmer every couple of weeks to maintain the eye-catching gradient.
Stubble
A stubble beard offers a relaxed, carefree look that requires minimal touch-ups over time, making it an excellent choice for low-maintenance men. This barely-there facial hair creates a sophisticated appearance that doesn’t look like you’re trying too hard. To maintain your edges, run a short guard over the entire lower face to quickly clean things up.
Beard Line Up
A beard line up is a refined style that creates a sharp division between the neck, facial hair and cheekbones. Use a precision trimmer to form a sharp line where the sideburns meet the mustache, then fade the sides for a more dimensional appearance. Trimmed and well-groomed beard designs are more fitting than unkempt and messy looks, so find a skilled barber to shape your facial hair.
Power Beard
A power beard is a rugged, sexy style that radiates success and confidence with its perfectly shaped edges and long, thick appearance. This beard takes several weeks to grow out, and you should use a sharp trimmer to create highly symmetrical lines on both sides of the face. Connect the mustache to your beard and keep the neck free of stray hairs for a balanced, clean aesthetic.
Five O’Clock Shadow
The five o’clock shadow is characterized by short, fresh stubble that comes in after a morning shave. This minimalistic facial hair looks scruffy and effortlessly chic, but you’ll want to groom the neck and cheeks to maintain the style. A trim once every few days will keep your scruff at the perfect length for a barely-there look.
Mustache
A mustache is a low-maintenance facial hair style for black men who prefer a polished look that balances and softens sharper features. Groom a stylish mustache to match your lips or grow out your coarse hair into a Chevron or handlebar.
Circle Beard
Neat and fashionable, the circle beard is a common style for black men that gives you creative license to experiment with thickness, length and size. Also known as a “standard beard”, the circle combines a mustache and goatee. Maintain the classic curvature and keep the edges clean with regular trims.
Bushy Beard
A bushy beard is a longer, thicker style that requires patience to grow, but this voluminous look will turn heads. Keep the style groomed and rounded at the bottom with subtle clipper trims. A sharp line from the ear to the mustache will elongate the face and bring structure to an otherwise casual and unkempt look. Use beard oil on damp hair daily to promote growth and soften the length for a smooth, moisturized finish.
Van Dyke Beard
A Van Dyke beard might be an acquired taste, but this traditional style brings instant elegance to any look. Pairing your facial hair with a modern afro or faded cut creates exceptional visual interest across the whole head. The pointed tip also sharpens the chin, bringing shape and a new dimension to round or heart face shapes.
Short, Thick Beard
The short, thick beard oozes charisma and adds subtle ruggedness around the jawline for a cool, casual look that’s easy to maintain. The thickness of your facial hair should hide patchiness, but you can always add a subtle fade to the top of the beard to disguise thinner areas.
Sculpted Beard
A sculpted beard pairs brilliantly with unruly hair on top, bringing structure and balance to everything from dreads to voluminous afros. Ask your barber to use a precision razor around the cheeks to create sharp lines and a short guard around the chin and jaw for a sharp finish. Pair your clean-cut beard with a sleek shape up for a desirable structure that flatters strong features.
Mutton Chops
Mutton chops consist of facial hair that brings the sideburns down along the lower jaw while avoiding the chin area, resulting in a shape that looks like a “chop.” The chin is typically bare but may have some sparse or short hair, and a mustache is also optional. Mutton chops were popular among black men in the 60s and 70s, and the vintage look is making a significant comeback.
Patchy Beard
A patchy beard is a dapper style with thicker, more structured facial hair around the goatee area and sparse volume along the cheek. It’s ideal for men who may appreciate the look of a full beard but cannot (or choose not to) grow fuller facial hair on the cheeks. Paired with sharp edges at the forehead and a carefully trimmed chin, a patchy beard appears well-groomed and neat.
Designer Beard
A designer beard is a masculine, well-groomed style that has been trimmed, faded or lined-up to create a stylish look. Black men often pair this facial hair with mutton chops, thin mustaches, soul patches or other trendy facial hair to create a highly personalized look. If you want to personalize your aesthetic, talk to your barber about trimming your beard after a good haircut.
Chinstrap
A chinstrap connects the hair on the head to the facial hair via a thin “strap” that flows along the sideburns. Whereas many similar styles cover the entire chin and create a more curtain-like effect, the strap only reaches the edges of the jaw and chin, leaving most of the face bare. Clean, sharp edges along the jaw give the style a more sophisticated vibe.
Long Chin Beard
A long chin beard focuses all the facial hair on the chin, usually keeping the rest of the face bare. A thin, short mustache can help balance the face, especially when the chin growth reaches two or more inches. The look exudes confidence, and it is trendy among guys who want to make their less-than-prominent chins appear more angular and refined.
Blended Beard
A blended beard is a modern, classy style that instantly adds sophistication to any look. It’s perfect for guys who prefer haircuts with fades. The goal is to create a balanced look from the top of the head to the tip of the chin. The haircut fades down into the sideburns, and then the beard gradually fades back in, growing longer across the jaw and cheek until it reaches its longest point at the chin.
Groomed Beard
A groomed beard is a trendy, expressive choice for any modern black man blessed with incredibly thick, full facial hair. The full-bodied, rounded beard reaches from the top of the ear down under the jaw, accompanied by an equally impressive mustache. Though grooming is often frequent and requires patience, many men see it as an opportunity to visit the barber’s chair.
Light Facial Hair
Light facial hair is youthful and charismatic, especially when carefully coiffed to suit a unique facial shape. A light disconnected mustache lines the outer edge of the upper lip, while slightly longer hair sits at the bottom edge of the chin and follows the lower jaw. A neat edge-up creates contrasting angular lines, offering cohesion and balance.
Beard with Thin Mustache
A full beard with a thin mustache is a distinguished and elegant approach to masculine style. A small amount of blending at the sideburns makes the haircut and facial hair appear more uniform, and the thin mustache features subtle but impeccable detail. Clean edges along the cheek, forehead, and temples emphasize the fullness and pull the look together perfectly.
Old Dutch Beard
An Old Dutch beard, also known as a Shenandoah or chin curtains, is a classic style frequently associated with Abraham Lincoln. It boasts a substantial, fuller appearance and looks best on round or square faces. The traditional look connects the sideburns, but contemporary barbers often fade the cheeks into the hairline to add visual interest and unique flair.
Trimmed Beard
A timeless trimmed beard is a versatile style suitable for most facial features and adds a distinguished yet rugged aesthetic. From short to long, it is always carefully groomed to uniformity and follows natural growth contours. Most black men keep their trimmed beards short and neat to complement their signature hairstyles.
Business Professional Beard
A classic business professional beard (or corporate beard) is modest and closely trimmed to conform with dress codes and grooming policies in most professional settings. It is no longer than one inch long, and the edges are neat and clean with no flyaway or stray hairs. Though designed for business meetings, the versatile beard looks phenomenal in casual settings.
Cool Beard Fade with Hair Design
Expressive and creative men appreciate a cool beard fade with a hair design that helps them stand out from their peers as individuals. The beard fades in at the sideburns, then wraps around and covers both cheeks. The hair gradually grows longer toward the lower jawline, and a sharp, perfectly straight line between the jaw and the ear adds definition. The curved hair design follows the natural contour of the head and makes the facial hair pop.
Round Beard
When fullness is the most critical factor, a round beard is the facial hair of choice. The inner cheek line features well-defined curves that flow into the mustache without interruption, and the outer jaw line flares out until it is about one inch wider than the head. The versatile round beard looks amazing in casual and formal settings when kept neat.
