The Top 20+ Short Beard Styles For Men

So you want to rock a short beard style but need some inspiration? In this blog, we curated the top twenty best-looking short beard styles for men! These styles are perfect for guys who want something low-maintenance and looks great. So whether you're just starting to grow a beard or looking to switch up your style, keep reading for the best short beard styles.

Short Beard Styles

A beard is an extension of your personality. Some are perfect for the office, while others give off a more intimidating look. Consider how a short beard style will work with your style and face shape. When you find the perfect short beard style, it usually jumps out at you. So browse the styles below until you find something you relate to and go for it!

Modern Short Beard Style

The modern short beard style is a very clean and conservative look. While short, it still grows out longer than stubble. The key to this look is having nice, even hair growth up to your cheek. To get all the hair the same length, you will need to let your hair grow out, and you don't want to trim it too short. The best way to get this look is using a trim guard with a beard trimmer. You will also want to use a product like the Zero Blade to keep that neck nice and clean.

Short Stuble Beard

This short beard style is also known as the three-day stubble beard and is a fantastic look. All you do is shave your face clean and then grow your hair for three to four days. It's perfect if you have a thin beard that you can't seem to grow out. If you want to keep this look all the time and never shave, then be sure to have a beard trimmer and add the two mm guard. This will give you that perfect stubble length without shaving each time.

Short Boxed Beard

If your natural facial hair has more of a goatee under your bottom lip where hair grows in the center and less around the left and right, then the short boxed beard is perfect for you. It's almost the same as the modern short beard style, but the goatee under your bottom lip is more pronounced. The sideburns are also shorter. We recommend using a beard guard of three at the top on the sides to give it a nice trimmed appearance, and a seven guard on the mustache, chin, and jaw. You will want to finish the look off with nice clean lines on the top and bottom to shape the beard. The Zero Blade is perfect for this final touch.

Chin Strap Beard

The chin strap beard can look great, or it can look terrible. We find the best look right now is keeping the chinstrap beard a little thicker and not going too thin. A common mistake is shaving the hair on the jaw itself instead of letting the hair grow past the jaw. When you trim the beard, you want to trim it right under the jawline, so it gives the appearance that the beard is covering the entire face.

Short Ducktail Beard

This is one of the longer beard styles on this list, but it looks badass and masculine. You want it to be short at the top and fade into the lower section of the beard that is longer. You can achieve that strong jawline by using a comb at the bottom of the beard as a trim guard. It would help if you had a powerful trimmer like the Brio Beardscape for cutting thick beard hair.

Corporate Beard

The corporate beard is perfect for the office. It has an excellent even length across the jaw and lower cheeks. You can achieve this by using trimmer guards and letting your hair grow out. This style has a well-groomed neck but a more natural upper part of the beard.

Classic Goatee

This classic beard style looks fantastic if done correctly. It looks best when well groomed and not too long. To achieve the classic goatee, you must shave the hair on your cheeks and neck clean. Then, you will need to let the hair on your chin and upper lip grow. Once the hair has reached the desired length, you can trim it into a neat goatee shape. You can use the beardscape or razor to trim it. Remember, don't grow it out too long.

Royal Beard

The royal beard features a slightly curved mustache with a goatee at the bottom in the shape of a T. This style is perfect for men with circular faces, and you want it to appear longer. All the facial hair on the cheeks and neck is trimmed clean.

Soul Patch

The soul patch is that little section of hair on the lower lip. The soul patch has a bad reputation from all the men in the 90s who rocked a soul patch with a clean-shaven face, and it just doesn't look great. But if you grow a little stubble hair on your face, the soul patch looks distinguished and manly. You can get the perfect stubble length using a beard trimmer with a guard that is about two or three. It also looks great with a short haircut and a side fade.

Short Viking Beard

The short Viking beard style is perfect for those who want a fierce look. It features shorter hair on the cheeks that fades into longer hair on the chin. The bottom of the beard is shaped to have a nice horizontal line that emphasizes the jaw. You will need to have a trimmer with multiple lengths of guards to get that nice fade. Start with two or three at the top around the sideburns, then fade into a seven at the chin. You also want to have a close trim around the neck and upper check line to create sharp lines.

If you want to learn more about viking beards check out our complete guide to viking beards here.

Balbo Beard

The Balbo beard is a European style that is becoming more popular. It features a thin chin strap covering the jaw's entire length. It also has a chevron mustache, which is just a normal-length mustache that grows straight down. To pull this off, you need a clean neck and beard lines, so be sure to use a razor or the Bro Zero-Blade to trim around the mustache and define the lines of the chin strap beard.

Mutton Chops

The Mutton Chops are a unique look that not everyone can pull off. It's a reverse goatee, with the hair on the cheeks and upper lip grown while the chin area is trimmed. This style looks best when you keep it short and even. If you let it grow out, you end up looking like a gold prospector. You can use a beard trimmer with a guard length of about three to four. It would be best if you also trimmed or shaved your neck, and the chin area.

Short Beard And Mustache Styles

If you want to rock a short beard style with a mustache, we have you covered. These are the best short beard styles that also feature a mustache.

Anchor Beard

The anchor beard is like a high-end goatee. It features a mustache and chin hair. You want to trim or shave all the hair on the left and right of your face while letting the hair on your chin grow out. You also want to let the hair at the bottom of your lower lip connect to the chin hair creating a T and giving it that "anchor" look. To finish the look, we recommend using a trimming head like the zero blade, which can trim close to the skin to define the edges of the mustache and goatee to make it look sharp and high class.

Van Dyke Beard

The van dyke beard is similar to the anchor beard, where you want that T-shaped goatee and a mustache. The difference is you want to style the mustache like a handlebar with a bit of curl, which you can achieve with mustache wax and growing the mustache out a little longer. Most men wear this style with clean-shaven checks and necks. This style is perfect if you have patchy or uneven hair growth on the side of your cheeks that you want to shave off, but you still want to have a beard.

Circle Beard

The circle beard is similar to the classic goatee, but features a mustache that the beard is connected to. You will need to let the hair on your chin and upper lip grow out. Once the hair has reached the desired length, you can then trim and shave the hair on your cheeks and neck clean.

Pencil Circle Beard

This style is very similar to the circle beard. The difference is all the hair is shaped around the sides to give a more sharp appearance. You want to let your facial hair grow to the desired length, then trim or shave the hair on your neck and cheeks completely clean. The final step is to define the mustache and side hair using the Zero Blade to get a close trim around the edges and shape the beard.

Classic Handlebar Mustache

The handlebar mustache is a classic mustache style that just looks masculine. We put it on this list because it looks incredible and more rugged when paired with a bit of stubble. You can use a trimmer with a guard at two or three to get the perfect stubble. You can read our guide here to learn how to get a handlebar mustache.

The Imperial Mustache Beard

The imperial mustache is another classic style that gives off a classy appearance. It looks fantastic and more rugged with a bit of stubble hair. With stubble, it has a rustic western cowboy look. You will need to grow the mustache for about two months to get that nice imperial curl that you can style with mustache wax. To get the perfect stubble length use a beard trimmer with a guard of three to four.

Short Beardstache

The short beard stache is a more conservative look. The mustache is grown longer than the beard but is not styled or curled. The beard is slightly longer than stubble and comes up to the cheek. You will need to use a trim guard of about three to four to get the perfect length. This style looks great, but if you have a patchy beard, then you might want to cut the stubble length shorter with a guard of two, which also still looks fantastic.

Patchy Beard

Have a patchy beard? No worries, you can still make this look great. John Wick himself has worn this short shaggy beard style. Patchy beards look better when shorter, so use a trimmer with a guard of about three to four. You also want the neck hair to be short and trimmed with a guard length of two or three. If you have a patchy beard, it's better to keep it short but natural looking, don't try to create any sharp lines. Pairing this with long or messy hair is a great combination.

How To Maintain a Short Beard

Maintaining a short beard is easier than maintaining a full beard. With that being said, you still need a few tools and habits to keep your facial hair healthy and your beard looking sharp. Let's get into it.

Products You Need

When it comes to short beards, it's all about an even finish and clean shaping depending on the style you choose, so a beard trimmer is a must. Here are the products you need for short beard styles.

Beard Trimmer

You need a solid beard trimmer like the Brio Beardscape because when you have a shorter beard style, you will need to trim it more often than longer beard styles. The Brio Bearscape also has a broader cutting range, meaning it takes less time to trim, and you won't miss any areas of your beard.

Trim Guards

Trim guards are perfect for short beards because you want your beard to look full, but you don't want it too long. When you use trim guards, it cuts the hair at a specific desired length and allows the shorter hair to grow simultaneously.

Trim guards are also great for styles like the ducktail, where you must create a faded effect. You can use progressively shorter guards at the top of the beard like a two length and then go to a four of five length on the checks, then finish it off with a seven length by the chin.

Razor or Zero Blade

To get those nice clean lines at the top of your beard, you want to use a razor or the zero blade, which allows you to get a trim that is extremely close to the skin. These products are also great for trimming your neck hair.

Optional: Mustache Wax

If you have a handlebar or imperial mustache and need to style it, then you can use mustache wax. Beard oil could also work. Just remember to wash it out in the evenings, so it doesn't collect too much grime and dirt.

How Often Should You Trim A Short Beard

It's good to trim your beard about twice per week, but it depends on your hair growth and the style you want. Typically shorter beard styles need to be trimmed more often than longer ones to keep them looking neat and short.

Wash and Comb Your Beard

It's good to wash and comb your beard every day. Especially if you are using mustache wax or beard oil, this helps prevent ingrown hairs, which are more evident in shorter beard styles. This also keeps the underlying skin healthy. You can also use a moisturizer that best suits your skin type.

If your beard or mustache is long enough, combing it is also a good idea because it keeps hair smooth and growing in a particular direction. This minimizes flyaways and makes trimming easier.

Beards are a great way to look more masculine and add personality to your look. We hope you found some beard inspiration in this article and learned a few things about maintaining it.

Do you have any other tips for short beard styles? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!