Shaving to the jawline

[sevenwithcheese]

Greetings first time beard grower here and I'm been attempting to grow one for about a week and a half now.  I know shaving to the jawline is a big faux pas but is it acceptable to do it in the stubble phase because it looks so untidy now and growing a full beard isn't my intention anyways.

[SlyMike]

What sort of beard are you trying for?

[slymyke]

My thought on this is that it may be okay to shave just under the jaw line, using the shape of the jaw as a guide.  You really want to avoid the tragic mistake of having a Nike swoop or stripe across your face.  I do agree that while growing in a new beard, it is not good to see thick stuble all down the neck. (My opinion of course).

[Semi-Sly]

Yep.  "neck beards" are really gross!

[mike609]

You should be able to easily "cut out" your beard from a few days growth.  No need to wait a week for everything to grow in. In fact I find it counter productive.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Yep.  "neck beards" are really gross!

Allowing the beard to grow under the jawline is not gross nor is it a "neck beard".  The bottom of a beard should divide the head from the neck, not the head from the bottom of the jaw.  The reason shaving at the jawline is a faux pas is because it places that boundary at a visually unexpected location.  Ideally, a beard should end at that natural curve under the jaw where your head folds into the neck so that the beard looks like a "sling" supporting the head instead of a stripe holding a goatee to the ear. Unfortunately this is one of those things about beards that people insist on doing wrong and these beards with these high necklines just look weird when viewed from the side.

The strange thing about beards is how frequently guys want to minimize their beards and would rather grow a full beard (at least in their minds) wrong than choose a smaller style grown right.  For example, if you don't want hair below the jawline then don't grow a beard wrong by edging the neck up on the cheeks, just grow a goatee right since the jawline does tend to be a good bottom boundary for a goatee.  Likewise, if you don't like the quantity of hair hair involved with a beard then minimize the quantity by growing a proper goatee, mustache, or sideburns instead of growing a beard wrong by ripping it to stubble.

But back to the OP's questions: my suggestion confirms to my rules.  If you don't want to start out a full beard from Day 1 I think you should do it right by growing a goatee right, and then once you have an established goatee then expand it into a beard.

[SlyMike]

But back to the OP's questions: my suggestion confirms to my rules.  If you don't want to start out a full beard from Day 1 I think you should do it right by growing a goatee right, and then once you have an established goatee then expand it into a beard.

I would agree, this is what I did.

[Quiet_Dan]

if you don't like the quantity of hair hair involved with a beard then minimize the quantity by growing a proper goatee, mustache, or sideburns instead of growing a beard wrong by ripping it to stubble.

Is there any way that can work for sideburns without being part of a full beard?

[TheSlyBear]

Sure, the guy across the hall from my office is sly with full sideburns from the top to bottom of ears, and a soul patch. Looks good on him.

[slybeard]

I have see a few sly guys with sideburns and thought it looked good on all of them.  It is easy to remove them if you do not like them.  But, my preference is for a full beard.

[SlyMike]

Sideburns don't have to be part of a beard, you can have muttonchops.

[Contradiction]

I would also say what has been mentioned here already that you DO NOT want to shave exactly to your jaw line. it just looks odd, especially on the people that cut it across in a straight line!

When I start growing a beard I'll go about 4-5 days without shaving at all just to let it fill in and find a good boundary.

Then I'll shave my neck, but I'm looking for a good overlap from my jaw line onto my face to start the beard.  Don't think of your jawline as the exact edge you have to mirror either.

Think your jaw looks a little "short" or square?  Then use your beard to round it out!  I try and pick a nice naturally transitioning rounded curve.  I also grow my beard edge down to about where the bottom of my jaw and my neck meet.  It's a good place to stop IMO because right at the "crease" is where you will probably experience irritation early on.  Try and find that sweet spot before that.

Another thing I always do is cut around my Adam's Apple too.  This get's rid of the bottom of my beard line having an odd "bump out" and it keeps a smooth transition.  If you look at the bottom of my beard with my head back I'm basically curving up in the center over my Adam's Apple and towards my chin.  I find this helps to give the beard line a nice round transition too. 

When you are cutting your jaw line for the beard look in the mirror and constantly switch angles as you shave.  Try and see your face from the front and the sides and see where you need to trim to get a nice round transition.  This will give it a nice clean look and avoid the "Neck Beard" look.

[SlickBic]

If you want to have a fairly short, yet great looking beard, do this:

1. Lather up with a medium amount of shaving cream.
2. With your dominant hand, place your index finger on the point of the opposite jaw.
3. Do the "cut throat" gesture. This should be just above your Adam's apple.
4. Do the same thing with your other finger, if the line is not symmetrical.
5. Shave everything from that line down.
6. Bask in the glory of your perfectly groomed neckline.

[geeman]

It amazes me how many people get it wrong and shave too high, always looks odd, glad to see I'm not the only one lol

[Rusty Shackleford]

It amazes me how many people get it wrong and shave too high, always looks odd, glad to see I'm not the only one lol

It always looks odd because the bottom of the beard should divide the head from the neck, and when someone edges at the jawline you end up with 2 divisions, a weird "stripe" of beard, and a section of skin below the beard that's just there and belongs to neither side.  It just looks bad in a profile view, and it's sad how guys overdo it in the name of making sure no one calls them "homeless" and end up with a beard that just looks bad.

I think one of the benefits of the hipster movement that made beards so trendy is that it encouraged a lot of existing beard wearers guys with butchered beards to take another look and do it right.  I seem to be seeing fewer terrible jawlines and why-even-bother stubble than I did in the past where virtually every beard was the same blotchy stripe of stubble running along the jawline.  Hopefully when hipsters move on to follow the next trend that they'll deny following the guys who made these corrections will continue doing it right.