Model beard styles. Beardtouring - the new bespoke facial hair craze

G rooming expert Parsa Rad says, “Don’t forget that you can use facial hair as an effective way to enhance your own features”. Beard styles 2016.

While women have long been savvy about the benefits of contouring with make-up, many men do not realise that with some clever manipulation of their facial hair, they can create similar effects in a completely natural way – just one of the many ways stubble can be used by the male of the species to let their true style out.

Whether you have strong facial lines or a softer profile should inform your shaving style. Then it’s all about experimenting to find out which facial hair suits you.

Edging

The first thing to consider when you stand in front of the mirror is edging your facial hair.

Rad says: “If there is a strong contrast between your hair and skin colour, you should blend your edges, because strong lines will look very harsh on the face, especially if you have strong jawlines and cheekbones.

“Otherwise, if you do have softer and rounder features, you could consider using a harsher line to your advantage. It can add strength and dimension.”

“Your key tool is a kit such as Braun’s new Multi Grooming kit, which has many cutting heads to allow you to create different lengths and effects.”

Facial hair styles 2016

Shaping

Next, think about your shaving boundaries and let your cheekbones dictate where you shave up to, because a strong line at the cheekbone will help to accentuate it. And when it comes to shaping at the cheek line, you have the choice of going either straight or curved. Again, let your features dictate your decision.

“A slight curve will soften a square or angular face shape, but if you have rounder features you can choose straighter lines to add definition,” says Rad.

Styling

Then you need to take a step back from the bathroom mirror and consider your overall style.

“If you’re all about casual, effortless style, keep your edges natural, whereas if your look is well thought-out you can reflect this by creating precise lines on your face,” says Rad. “Braun’s kit is brimming with attachments to help you achieve each look.”

Rad says: “The precision head will allow you to create a straight line in moments. But if you want to fade your edge, just add on one of the short-length guards to soften it.”

Advanced

If you want to look slimmer in the face then you should know a little about beardtouring. “This is the skill of using different lengths, thicknesses and even colours of facial hair to sculpt and define the face,” says Rad.

Mens beard styles 2016

“You can let the hair on the sides of the face grow longer to add shadow, and round the edges to slim down your face. If you want to hide a double chin, letting the hair grow thicker under the jawline will create the illusion of a shadow and lift the chin. Also, allowing a beard to grow at the chin will make it look more prominent and will create the overall effect of making the face longer and stronger.”

Darker hair looks thicker than lighter hair, so if your facial hair is darker under the chin you may need to make it shorter than on the cheeks to even out the appearance.

The Braun Multi Grooming Kit is the ideal tool for beardtouring as it is equipped with multiple-length cutting guards that give you the freedom to trim hair to any length between 1mm and 21mm.

And for those guys who struggle to produce much growth anywhere except around the mouth and chin, Rad advises that you concentrate your efforts there. “Don’t try and cheat it too much. Just experiment with the areas where growth is strong to let your true style out.”

Male power grooming

Braun sent fashion photographer GarçonJon to London Men’s Fashion Week to see what the future of facial hair looked like. In this series of Telegraph features, grooming expert Parsa Rad explains how to get these cutting-edge beard styles – and how to be perfectly groomed in general.

Braun has kept men looking sharp since the 1950s and its range of hi-tech products now includes the Multi Grooming Kit, with eight attachments for total precision, whether you’re clipping your hair, tidying your ear and nose areas, trimming your beard or grooming your body.

Hair and shaving style

Find out more about Braun grooming tools at uk.braun.com