Best beard styles for a diamond face: build the chin, keep the cheeks light

The short answer

For a diamond face, the best beard is fuller at the chin. Building out the chin adds width and weight where the face narrows, while keeping the cheeks short avoids adding any more width at the cheekbones. A short beard with the chin carrying the most length, or a goatee-led style with a broad base, both do this well. Full, bushy cheeks and wide sideburns do the opposite.

Before the detail, the honest caveat: beard-by-face-shape advice is barbering convention, not science. Nobody has tested which beards suit which face shapes. The reasoning is that, at a normal viewing distance, the edge of a beard reads as the edge of the face. A 2017 study offers some support for that: changing jaw size affected how clean-shaven faces were judged, but made little difference once the faces had beards. That is evidence that a beard can replace the outline underneath, not proof of any particular style.

How to tell if your face is diamond-shaped

Check from a photo taken at a distance. A close selfie enlarges the centre of the face, which makes the cheekbones look wider than they are and can make almost anyone look diamond-shaped. Prop the phone about a metre and a half away at eye level, use the timer, push your hair back, and look for:

1. The cheekbones are the widest point, clearly wider than both the temples and the jaw.
2. The forehead is narrower than the cheekbones, often noticeably so at the temples.
3. The jaw narrows to a smaller chin, which may come to a gentle point.

If the forehead is the widest part rather than the cheekbones, you are closer to heart-shaped. If the face is fairly even from forehead to jaw, look at oval or oblong.

Beard styles that suit a diamond face

Short beard, longest at the chin. Cheeks kept short, around 4–8 mm, the jaw a little longer, and the chin longest, perhaps 12–25 mm, with a rounded or flat bottom edge. This builds the lower face out and down without touching the cheekbones. It is the most reliable option.

Broad goatee. A goatee joined to a moustache, slightly wider than the corners of the mouth, with a flat or rounded base. It adds weight at the chin and leaves the cheeks clear. Pair it with light stubble on the jaw if you want a softer transition.

Full beard, chin-weighted. If you want a longer beard, it can work, as long as you keep trimming the cheeks back so the fullness stays at the chin and jaw. Bearded men tend to be judged older and higher in status than the same men clean-shaven, so this reads more mature than the shorter options.

The details that make these work:

• Chin fullest, cheeks lightest. That ratio does most of the work.
• Cheek line natural or slightly lowered. A lower line keeps hair off the widest part of the face. Avoid carving it into a hard, angular shape, which draws the eye to the cheekbones.
• Bottom edge rounded or flat. A pointed bottom repeats the shape of a pointed chin.
• Neckline low. Two fingers above the Adam's apple, curving back to just below the ears. A high neckline shrinks the chin area the beard is meant to build.

What to avoid, and why

• Full, bushy cheeks. They add width at the cheekbones, which are already the widest part.
• Wide sideburns and mutton chops. Same problem, and they leave the chin bare.
• A narrow, pointed goatee. It adds length at the chin but not width, so the chin stays narrow and the point is exaggerated.
• Clean-shaven chin with stubble cheeks. It is rare as a deliberate style, but uneven trimming can drift this way. Keep the chin at least as long as everything else.

Plan it with the haircut

The haircut advice for a diamond face follows the same idea from the top: add some width at the forehead so the cheekbones are not the only wide point. A fringe, a textured top brought forward and slightly fuller sides help. Very short sides and slicked-back styles narrow the forehead further. Together, a fuller chin and a fuller forehead turn the diamond outline into something closer to oval.

What to tell the barber

"I'd like the beard fullest at the chin. Keep the cheeks short and tidy, maybe a #1 or #2, a bit more on the jaw, and leave the chin longest. Round off the bottom rather than pointing it. Natural cheek line, slightly lowered if it helps keep the cheeks light. Neckline at about two fingers above my Adam's apple."

For the haircut, a typical diamond-face request is sides kept at a #3–#4 guard and 6–8 cm of texture on top, brought forward. The how to ask a barber guide has the full script.

If you can't grow a full beard

Many men grow denser hair at the chin and moustache than on the cheeks. On a diamond face, that pattern happens to fit the advice.

• Keep the cheeks at even stubble, about 2–3 mm, so the gaps read as texture.
• Let the chin and moustache grow a little longer where the growth is dense. A short goatee over stubble suits this shape well.
• Keep the neckline and cheek line sharp. Clean edges make sparse growth look deliberate.

The softer jawline guide has more on placing the neckline and working with patchy growth.

Checking the result

Judge it from a photo at a metre and a half or more, at eye level, rather than in a close mirror. Close up, the cheekbones look wider and the chin smaller than they really are, which will make the beard look less effective than it is.

Not sure of your shape? Find it from one photo.