How to trim a beard with a beard trimmer

Have you ever wondered how you can trim your beard without making it look like Edward Scissor Hands just went to town on your face? Well, that’s what we’re here to help you with today. No, unlike Mr. Scissor hands you’re not going to be using scissors.

The question we’re here to address is How to trim a beard with a beard trimmer? It may seem a little intimidating at first, but it really is not that hard, at least if you have the proper know how to get it done. With a few simple tools and some even easier to follow steps, you can use a trimmer to trim your beard quickly and properly.​

​What You Will Need To Trim Your Beard

Trimming your beard with a beard trimmer is not very difficult, but there are a few tools that you will need to do the job right, and we’re not just talking about the trimmer itself. Here is a list of everything you will need to trim your beard to perfection.

You want to get yourself some decent beard shampoo that will remove grease and debris from your beard while at the same time moisturizing it, supplying vital nutrients, and keeping it healthy.

The next thing you will need for this project is a towel. Simply put, you need to dry your beard after washing it to get the best trim.

Another thing that you definitely want to get is a beard comb or even a beard brush. You will want to untangle your beard and get all of the hairs nice and straight before you begin the trimming process.

Of course since we are talking about trimming your beard with a beard trimmer, you will need a decent trimmer.

Remember to get a trimmer that has a range of guards so you can trim your beard to the desired length in all places. Another option is to get a full body groomer that has the necessary length guards.

You will use a small pair of beard trimming scissors to fine tune your beard, especially when it comes to the mustache.

Beard oil is not 100 percent necessary, but it’s a good thing to put in your beard after you have trimmed it to nourish it, give it a sleek look, and to make it smell good too.

Step By Step: How To Trim Your Beard With A Beard Trimmer

Now that you have all of the necessary tools to trim your beard you can get started. Remember to follow these steps closely, but also keep in mind that these steps can vary slightly depending on the results and the look that you want to achieve.

Step 1

For the first step in the beard trimming process, wet your beard in the sink with some warm water, making sure that the entirety of it gets nice and wet. You can also do this in the shower while you clean yourself.

Take that beard shampoo we talked about earlier and lather up your beard, making sure to get every last hair with those precious suds.

Then use warm water to wash the shampoo out thoroughly. You want to make sure to leave no shampoo behind because leftover shampoo can cause irritation, dryness, itchiness, and when it dries it can end up looking like dandruff.

Step 2

Now use that towel that we talked about and thoroughly dry your beard. Try to rub the towel from top to bottom along the length of your beard, so you don’t cause any tangles.

Your beard does not need to be 100 percent dry, a little dampness doesn’t hurt, but it definitely should not be dripping wet.

Step 3

For this step, you want to take your beard comb or beard brush which we talked about earlier. Use your comb or brush to comb out your beard. Start at the skin where the beard grows out of your face and work your way down.

Always go with the grain when combing your beard or you will end up tangling it even worse. When you do this, make sure to get the underside and inside beard hairs as well. You want everything to be as straight and untangled as humanly possible.

Step 4

The first step in actually trimming your beard requires you to define the neckline. For this, you will want to remove the guard from the trimmer so that the blades are exposed.

The idea is to make this neckline right where the underside of your jaw meets your neck, you know, that somewhat of a 90-degree angle right above your Adam’s apple.

Use the trimmer without a guard to cut away anything under the line which you want to define. If you really want to, you can wet shave from the desired neckline down; that’s probably quicker than using the trimmer. Just be sure not to go too far up and to keep it straight.

Step 5

Now it is time to move on to the rest of your beard. You are going to use the trimmer to cut the entirety of your beard down to the desired length. This is where you need to decide how long you want your beard to be.

A good rule of thumb is to use a guard that is slightly longer than what you want your beard to be.

This is because you can always move down to a shorter guard if it’s too long, whereas if you cut away too much, you will have to wait for it to grow back. Work your way from the neckline up to where your beard stops growing along your cheeks and under your nose.

Make sure to start at the bottom and work your way up vertically, thus trimming against the grain.

Trimming against the grain will ensure a uniform cut and will also help feed the hairs through the trimmer. Going with the grain may cause irregularities in length, plus it’s harder to trim that way because the hairs get pushed down and away from the cutting blades.

Also, make sure not to move horizontally when using the trimmer because that never turns out well. This process will ensure that your whole beard is the same length from top to bottom and left to right, but we aren’t done yet.

Step 6

Now it is time to decide if you want your beard to fade, or in other words be progressively shorter, on your cheeks and towards the ears. If you are happy with your whole beard being 1 uniform length, you can ignore this step.

If you do want a fade towards your ears, remove the guard that you had on the trimmer and put on the guard that is 1 level shorter than the one you used to trim the whole beard.Using that length, trim from your jawline to the ears, which will ensure that it is slightly shorter above the jawline and going towards your ears.

We still aren’t done, though, because now you have a beard that is shorter above the jawline and going towards the ears, but you still don’t have a proper fade, you just have a 2 step beard.

The trick here to get a steady shortening fade is to keep putting on a guard that is 1 level shorter than the previous one and move towards the ears and the top of your beard (where it stops growing on the cheeks and at the sideburns) in progressive increments.

This is probably the hardest part of trimming your beard, especially if you want a consistent fade that goes from your longest beard hairs at your jawline and gradually gets shorter until you hit your ears.

It’s going to take some practice, especially regarding choosing where to start each fading step with a shorter guard, but a few trial and error runs will have you doing it like a pro in no time at all.

On a side note, you may not want any hair on your cheeks, such as a goatee, in which case just use a wet razor to shave it all off in one go. Just make sure to define the sides of your goatee before you start shaving, or else you’re going to end up with something crooked.

Step 7

This step simply involves trimming your moustache to the desired length. Maybe you already handled this in step 5 when you trimmed your whole beard to a uniform length where you would have also done the moustache.

However, if you are annoyed by those hairs that go over your lips and into your mouth, just use a comb to straighten them out over your lip and use some small trimming scissors to cut away any hairs that go down past your top lip.

You may use a trimmer to do this. However, it is unnecessary and much easier with a comb and small scissors.

Step 8

Now that you are done trimming your beard, simply massage in some beard oil to keep it hydrated, prevent split ends, to provide it nourishment, and give it that sleek look that you desire.

How To Trim A Beard With A Trimmer: Conclusion

If you use all of the tools we talked about and follow all of the above steps, you really shouldn’t have a problem achieving the exact look and length of beard that you desire. Trimming your beard with a trimmer is not very hard, at least not if you have some practice.

Getting it perfect may take a little practice and trial and error, but after a few tries, you should have it down to an exact science. Keep growing that beard and trying new things because that is what life is all about!

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