CONTENTS
Chinstrap Beard: The Ultimate Guide
Facial hair adds variety to your appearance, which can be a key factor in developing your personal style and attracting dates with your beard.
The chin strap beard is a versatile beard style that you can use to define and shape your features. At the same time, it’s one of the beard styles, that when done right, that always looks controlled and groomed.
The chinstrap dates back to the 18th century and has gone through many different variations, from thick to thin, to search out how to best use facial hair to shape a man’s face and personal style.
Chin straps aren’t all that easy, though. The strap beard can be a difficult style to pull off, and it requires routine maintenance to keep it looking great.
What You Should Know About the Chinstrap Beard
First and foremost, chin strap beards draw attention and require maintenance. If you don’t want to put in much upkeep, then it’s more likely that this style will draw the wrong kind of attention.
If, however, you’re willing to keep a clean shave on your cheeks and a good trim on the strap, then a chin strap beard can be a sure sign of grooming and self-care.
This is a great beard style for those with thick or patchy facial hair, as long as you can grow hair on the lower part of your face. It can be paired with other facial hair styles, such as a mustache or a chin goatee.
The width of your chin strap beard, whether it’s thin or thick, may create the personal image that you want.
A thick line will to develop more distinct facial features, while thin chin strap draws attention to a much more pronounced jaw line. Ultimately, we recommend finding a style that you like, even if you need to grow the beard and experiment to find it.
Pros and Cons
The basic variations on the chin strap beard remain one of the top trends for defining the jawline. Many men prefer the style for it’s ability to shape and define the face. A chin strap beard treads the line between rugged and trim, with a beard that is cleaned and maintained.
Pros
- It grabs people’s attention to help you stand out.
- It allows you to show off your grooming and shaving skills.
- It is clean and maintained to allow you a masculine appearance without a lot of long bushy facial hair.
- It’s a good choice for guys who can’t grow the perfect full beard.
- It looks good with a short mustache or goatee.
Cons
- It requires maintenance, and it won’t look right if you don’t keep it neat and tidy. This also means that the perfect chin strap beard may take you a lot of time.
- This is one of the less ‘natural’-looking beard styles, as opposed to stubble which works to accentuate the way that your hair naturally grows.
- It can be difficult to pull off. We’re just going to be honest with you. A chinstrap needs to be well-executed to accentuate your jawline. Otherwise, it can be considered both showy, unkempt, or unattractive.
Is a Chinstrap Beard Attractive?
People like variety, so at the end of the day the most attractive style will be the one that’s well-executed and offers a little variety from the rest of what we see around.
If chin strap beard styles are the norm around you, it’s more likely to be overlooked. If it’s something new and fresh, then it’s more likely to attract you a date.
Ultimately, people like variety. Beard styles aren’t stagnant, so keep your eye out for when the balance shifts.
While it can be easy to mess up a chinstrap, they can offer a lot of payoff when done well. Not only do they help to define your face and jaw, but they also look more groomed and less overwhelming than a full beard.
Additionally, a well-maintained beard is often interpreted as a good sign for a man who cares about how he presents himself.
The Different Chin Strap Beards Styles
There are many different styles and versions of chin strap beard to help you figure out what best matches your face and density of facial hair. The varieties of chin strap beard styles vary in more than length and width.
From thin beards to a wide chin strap, different lines and shapes will look best on different men. If you want a chin strap beard that looks best on you, we recommend browsing around for inspiration, and trying out different styles to find what fits your face shape.
A Simple Chinstrap
This is the traditional short style for a chinstrap. The cheeks, upper lip, and neck should be clean-shaven.
The strap of chin hair should follow a line from the sideburns, down across the jawline, over the chin, and all the way across to the other side burn. This style works best for men with a diamond, square, round, or oval face shape.
The classic chin strap tends to have hard lines. The chin strap can also be very thin to help you define and draw out your jawline. Keep in mind that you will need straight lines and clean edges for this style to work.
A Soft-lined or Subtle Chinstrap
You can achieve a more subtle chin strap style by shaving with less precise edges. This style tends to allow more hair along the jawline. Additionally, the hair might be a little longer than a more traditional chinstrap, giving it a more natural look.
The subtle style will appears to be less fuss and maintenance. It’s also possible to combine this with a little stubble on the cheeks, as long as it’s kept clean and tidy with a beard trimmer.
Chinstrap With a Goatee
A beard just on the chin is generally called a goatee. More than just a chin beard, though, goatees help to shape and lengthen the chin, which is good for men with round faces.
Combining your chinstrap with a partial or full goatee will help to fill out and define the lower part of your face. This is a good option for men with a patchier chin strap. The key is to maintain all the hair at an even length and not allow it to get too long.
This will make sure it looks neat and clean. Some might also combine this look with a mustache. Just make sure that they are all even since this isn’t the style for experimenting with a long mustache.
Long Chin Strap Beard
For guys with thick facial hair, a long chin strap beard can help to define and reshape the chin and jaw while emphasizing many of the face’s best features. As far as chin strap beard styles go, this one will also help you to look a little more laid back and relaxed than a closer trimmed beard.
This style works along two different trends. You can either grow your hair long all the way around the chin strap to round out your face, or you can emphasize the chin beard by allowing to grow at a longer length on the chin, which may help the face to appear longer and more narrow.
How to Shave a Chinstrap Beard
One of the keys to grooming a chinstrap is to keep it at an even length with clean lines. Of course, this also depends on your beard style. Some men will opt for a more varied chinstrap while others prefer to keep it short and clean.
Additionally, clean shave the remaining areas of your face, including the cheeks. Most chin strap styles also require shaving the neck and under the chin.
The more that you shave clean with a razor, the sharper your look will be. If you’re worried about over-shaving, avoid applying your shaving cream or shaving gel to the area of the beard you recently trimmed, and only shave where you put down cream or gel.
The width of most chin straps ranges between 2mm wide and 1-2 cm wide. Those with thick facial hair can benefit from a wider strap. When it comes to length, chin straps tend to be anywhere between stubble and a 10 mm length. Make sure the hair remains even by trimming it with a beard trimmer.
Styling and Maintaining Your Chinstrap Beard
Maintenance is important with a chinstrap, so make sure to trim it at an even length, and shave when you need to, keeping the edges neat and clean.
One good thing about a chin strap is that since it tends to be trimmed fairly short, it requires less product for maintenance. Many men with a chinstrap won’t need beard or mustache waxes for the beard to retain its shape. Although, a good beard oil is still important to keep your facial hair healthy.
Don’t forget that, even when you use high quality shaving gels and creams, shaving is still a process that removes skin cells as well as your hair, all of which dries out your skin. This means it’s a good idea to moisturize areas that you have shaved clean and use beard oils to keep your facial hair healthy.
Chinstraps are a beard style with a lot of flexibility. Rather than simply following the lines, consider which chin strap style will best complement your facial features. When done well, the chin strap beard style can have a big payoff.
