John BenosThough beard styles have evolved over the years, two main questions remain at the forefront for every man that desires to have a beard: How long do you want it to be and will you leave mustache or remove it?
In this article, we will discuss the various forms of beards without mustaches for you to choose what compliments your style and face the best. In addition, we’ll be talking about the steps you need to take to get your favorite beard style and how to maintain it in top shape.
While there are a multitude of options, we will unpack the top 17 styles and give some basic instructions on each one of them for how to get them.
The Goatee with Chin Strap
Most men are associate the term “goatee” with this particular style. All goatees remove hair from the cheeks and disconnect the hair on the chin from the beard. This particular style has no mustache but does leave the chin hair and soul patch intact. When done correctly, the style resembles an eagle symbol below the lips. The hair is usually at least a half of an inch in length below the chin.
This is one of the simpler facial hair styles to achieve and maintain. All that is needed is a safety razor (or cartridge razor if you prefer) or trimmer (specifically if starting with a longer beard).
As with all goatees and most beards, you should shave your neck and the under jaw area. No one needs or enjoys looking at a disjointed neckbeard from a goatee. You should take your beard trimmer or razor and cut all the hair on the cheeks and sideburns only leaving an area of hair that is around an inch outside the width of the lips on both sides. From this point, remove the mustache but leave the area where the mustache and goatee connected intact. You should still have a soul patch and it should naturally have an hourglass shape to it (those men with thick hair may want to shape the soul patch a little so the hair doesn’t look excessive). Trim the goatee, at least, every other week or sooner and shave the areas that need to remain hairless regularly.
The Chin Puff
Several of these styles were talked about in more detail in our Goatee article but this is similar to the standard Goatee with a little more length. It is trimmed so that the sides of the goatee stretch up to the top of the mouth and the area on the chin is usually at least an inch. This style doesn’t have a mustache, sideburns, or neck hair.
The Egyptian Goatee
This has long been the facial hair associated with famous Pharaohs and Egyptian royalty. Many people think about Egyptian men having elongated chins and long slender faces. This is in a large part due to this beard style. Still, most of their beards in pictures were actually fake metallic beards and were status symbols that gave people the impression that the wearers were godlike. As time has moved on, the metal beards have all but disappeared but the beard style and shape has remained.
The best way to describe this goatee is that it is a tidy goatee with a pointed tip that is usually fairly long. The edges of the goatee are about the width of the eyes and make a triangular slope so that it gets longer as it gets closer to the chin. Some people also call this goatee the triangle or arrowhead due to its shape.
While this is a goatee that will turn heads, it does require a decent amount of attention to pull off. First, you will probably have to grow a beard first or let the goatee grow out for a year or so to get the desired look and length.
To start, shave that neck beard and under jaw area then begin to give the goatee shape buy trimming the hair on the cheeks and jawline until you get to a point that is even with the center of the eye. Since this style doesn’t need a mustache, shave it off and remove the connection point with the goatee all the way down to just above the jawline. Make sure you don’t mess with the soul patch because it should look uniform with the goatee. Now comes the part that requires a steady hand. Using the jaw line as a guide, slope each side of your goatee (little by little so it stays even) until you achieve a sharp looking point at the tip. Remember, this should have a longer than most length to the facial hair and should be no less than 4 inches below the chin.
As with all longer beards, brush it downward daily so it grows like you want and stays clean and apply a good beard oil because the hair can get really dry when it is that far away from the skin.
The Chin Curtain
The chin beard takes a certain man to pull off. It has the odd balance of being quirky mixed with professional, almost, presidential as it reminds of Abraham Lincoln type men.
Some men call this beard the Chin Strap but the Chin Curtain is slightly different. The Chin Strap is shorter than the Chin Curtain and should look the like the strap that connects to a helmet. This does not mean the Chin Curtain is a long beard because the Chin Curtain style that grows over four inches is called the Shenandoah. The true Chin Curtain should be somewhere between 1-4 inches in length.
To get the Chin Curtain, shave the neck and underjaw area. Remove the have on the cheeks and mustache. When shaping the Chin Curtain, you want to remove all the hair on the face except for the hair that sits on the jaw line. The soul patch is removed and trimmed down until the only hair below the lip rests on the chin. Using the trimmer, make sure that the line of your Chin Curtain has a straight, even curve on both sides.
Most men find that around two inches is the best length for them so trim the beard accordingly and shave the areas where the hair doesn’t belong regularly.
The Chin Strap
The Chin Strap is the shorter version of the Chin Curtain. It is less than an inch in hair length and follows the same shape of the jawline. It can be achieved the same way as the Chin Curtain but requires using a trimmer with a guard to keep it a nice, clean, short beard length.
The Old Dutch
While the Chin Curtain reminds most men of Abraham Lincoln, the Old Dutch reminds us of the typical Amish Man. Technically, one should think about the Old Dutch as the more refined version of the Amish beard they have seen. It looks similar to the Chin Curtain but includes thicker sideburns that flair out a bit. The Old Dutch, usually, extends 2-4 inches below the jawline.
Getting the Old Dutch is fairly easy.
Starting with a full beard, shave the neck and underjaw. While you have the razor in your hand, go ahead and remove the mustache. You should leave the sideburns alone but the hair from the sideburns (just below the ear) to below the lips should be shaven. The hair under the lips should be left alone. When done correctly, this style should look like a nice full beard with the absence of a mustache and the hair that connects it to the sideburns.
The Dutch
A beard that looks just like the Old Dutch but is between a ½ inch to two inches in length is considered the Dutch style. It is maintained and shaped just like the Old Dutch but a trimmer with a guard is used to keep the hair at a nice, tamer looking length.
The Norse Skipper
The Norse Skipper is a goatee with very little area cover with facial hair. It looks like an extended soul patch that creeps down just below the chin. Many people describe it as an upside down teardrop on the skin. The Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian is one of the more well known wearers of this style. It should be around an inch or longer below the chin and the rest of the face should remain clean shaven.
Since this beard requires so much clean shaving, it will not limit your daily shaving routine at all.
To begin, shave the neck and underjaw hair. Then, remove all the hair on the face except for the area under the bottom lip. Trim the remaining hair until it is around the width of the nose. Make sure to get rid of the mustache and make everything look clean. The leftover facial hair should be formed into a sort of rounded rectangle shape on the face and the part below the chin will begin to come to a point as it gets longer (tear drop shape). The chin hair should extend beyond the chin by an inch or so. If not the style is called a Goat Patch instead of the Norse.
The Goat Patch
When you trim the hair similar to the Norse Skipper but don’t allow the hair to extend beyond the chin, it is called the Goat Patch. Since it doesn’t have the point at the bottom, it looks really similar to a vertical rectangle that extends from the soul patch to the base of the chin.
While the Norse Skipper tends to be rounded on the edges slightly, the Goat Patch has more straight angles and lines. The hair is usually groomed to less than ¼ long and has the same width of the Norse Skipper (around the width of the nose). It can be achieved the same way as the Norse Skipper but a trimmer with a guard should be used to keep it short and tidy.
The Soul Patch
The Soul Patch is similar to the Goat Patch but does not extend down to the chin. It is the least of all facial hair styles and only leaves a triangular like shape just below the lips.
It should be shaped just like the Goat Patch and Norse Skipper but the area below the bottom lip should be shaved off after only about an inch down. The hair should not extend to where the chin begins to stick out and most of the hair should be confined to the divot area just above the chin.
The Deer Tail
The Deer Tail is the slightly wider version of the Norse Skipper. Like the Norse Skipper, it is a popular style for many older rock musicians. It has the same tear drop look to it as the Norse Skipper but it is wider and fuller looking (it looks like a deer tail in that regard).
When getting the Deer Tail you should follow all the steps of the Norse Skipper but trim the hair on the chin so that it is a little wider than the width of the nose. The goatee will come to the same point naturally and should have that same tear drop shape. The Deer Tail, typically, extends an inch or more below the chin. Make sure to brush the hair daily with a good natural beard brush so that it grows downward rather than out.
The Petite Goatee
When the Deer Tail is formed but the hair is cut short and not allowed to have any length on the tip of the chin, it is called the Petite Goatee. It resembles the chin cover than many football players strap on at the base of their helmets.
Shape this style so that it is slightly wider than the nose at the top and widens out to the middle of the eyes at the base.
The Brett Beard
The best way to describe the Brett Beard is to say that it is the Chin Curtain (or Chin Curtain depending on length) with the addition of a soul patch.
While there is debate on who Brett is, his style has becoming increasingly popular. It is fairly easy to convert your full beard to a Brett Beard in just a few steps.
First, shave all the hair on the cheeks and disconnect the sideburns from the beard. The Brett, almost, always doesn’t touch the sideburns. The hair left should belong the jaw line (like the Chin Curtain) and the neck and underjaw should be shaven. As with all beards in this article, the mustache should be removed and kept clean shaven. The soul patch should be left intact and connect to the beard. It should be trimmed so that soul patch stays in its natural hourglass like shape. This beard is usually less than three inches and is trimmed and groomed so that it stays professional looking.
Sideburns
A popular style for any man is the basic sideburns. They allow a bad to have a more masculine appearance without any resemblance of a beard or mustache. The standard sideburn extends down the face to just below the ear and is kept short and clean.
It is an extremely easy style to get. All you have to do is clean shave your entire face but stop just below the ear. Many men use a trimmer to ensure that the edges of the sideburns have straight lines and use a trimmer with a low guard or setting to keep the sideburns below ¼ inch in length.
The Mutton Chops
When a guy wants a fuller, more manly look to his facial hair but doesn’t want a beard, he can opt for the Mutton Chops. The Mutton Chop gets its name from its shape which resembles, you guessed it, Mutton Chops. Ambrose Burnside was given the honor of crafting the Mutton Chops into a popular brand (though his namesake is the origin of the term “sideburns”).
Most men let their beards grow then shape their Chops out of them. They remove the neck hair and under jaw with a trimmer or razor until it is clean shaven. Next, remove the mustache and ,gradually, trim the area directly below the mouth and clean shave it. The Mutton Chops are the opposite of the Standard Goatee and everywhere hair would exist with a Goatee, hair should be removed and vice versa.
The Wolverine
A style that has seen a resurgence of popular, recently, is the Wolverine. This is largely because of the beloved X-Men character and namesake of the style being so present in popular culture. It is considered mainly and is a hybrid of sorts between the beard and Mutton Chops because of how it leaves a small amount of chin hair. It leaves a thin line of hair on the chin so that the two side connect.
From your full beard, follow all the first steps of the Mutton Chops but use a trimmer or razor to shave an inch or so about the jawline on the chin up to the mouth. This should leave a same amount of hair on the chin that connects to both sides of facial hair. Most men embellish the look by sloping each side so that it has a V shape to the overall look. The mustache and neck hair should always be removed with this style.
The Neck Beard
We must admit, this is an odd choice for facial hair but some men like the look. It does the reverse of the first step for every facial hair style we’ve previously talked about in this article. Simply put, it leaves the hair on the neck and under the jaw while shaving everything else. So this style is probably the easiest to get. All it takes is shaving the face, completely, but leaving the hair below the jawline untouched.
Closing thoughts
Some men just don’t like the feel of a mustache or are looking for something with a different style than they are accustomed to seeing. For this reason, we give you 17 options of beard styles without mustaches. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it should give you numerous ideas and starting points to mold your facial hair into your desired greatness.
Thanks for reading and may great facial hair days be in your future.
