Whether you choose to follow Octobeard, National Beard Growing Month (aka No Shave November), or MaBeGroMo, growing a beard is one of the simplest, zero-effort, macho things you can do. As someone who has been growing an annual winter beard for years now, I highly recommend it.

The FAQ

There are a lot of excuses that men use to not participate in annual beard growth, and I’ve compiled a FAQ to help them overcome their excuses and have a pretty rewarding experience. If you’re on the fence about growing a beard, check The Beard FAQ.

Beard Type Chart

If you’re looking for some ideas on how to shape your facial hair to fit your style, check out my updated and expanded chart of facial hair types. All the old favorites are there, as well as some more modern styles.

The Quest For Every Beard Type

If you’re looking for more detailed descriptions and examples of some of the beards listed in the beard type chart, check out my Quest For Every Beard Type. So far, I’ve managed to provide personal examples of 25 27 of the 36 beard types listed. I test them out, so you don’t have to.

Need Beard Grooming Tips?

Having trouble taming that unruly beard? Me too. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few tips to tame an unruly beard

Beard Shaving

Every year, I try to have a little fun while shaving my beard off and attempt to demonstrate as many known beard types as I can. I always make up a semi-coherent story to tie the pictures together, although I can’t explain why.

2003: Beard Shaving 2003
This was the first documented case of beard shaving on record, and the bearded mountain man ends up winding his way through several jobs and a lot of beard types.

2004: Beard Shaving 2004
The bearded mountain man makes a trip to Lancaster and Starfleet Academy. In the process, he manages to represent both the Klingon beard and the federation standard sideburns.

2005: Unavailable
Beard Shaving canceled by a freak barber accident.

2006: Beard Shaving 2006
After getting it in my head that I looked like a 70’s camp counselor, I started laughing and dropped my camera. The camera broke, leaving me with only two fully bearded pictures for the year.

2007: Beard Shaving 2007
The bearded mountain man goes evil and transforms himself into “El Magico the Magnificent”. He also knocks off a couple more of the beard types including the balbo, the hollywoodian, and the anchor.

2008: Beard Shaving 2008
The soul patch (a repeat), rap industry standard, toothbrush, a la souvarov, hulihee, ducktail and French fork are featured through the tale of the mountain man’s life as Thaddeus B. Butterworth.

2009: Beard Shaving 2009
The bearded mountain man has to use several well thought out aliases to avoid being recognized as the R&B powerhouse, MC Butterworth. The van dyke reappears, as does the handlebar with chin puff, and handlebar with goatee.