Beard styles for a diamond-shaped face

A diamond face has a narrow forehead, high and wide cheekbones as the clear widest point, and a jaw that tapers to a narrow chin. The outline reads angular at the middle and light at both ends. The zygomatic bones do the defining work, and a beard cannot move them. What it can do is add width and weight below them, so the cheekbones read as a feature rather than the only width the face has.

The nearest shape is heart, which shares the narrow chin but carries its width at the forehead. A heart face takes a full beard spread across the jaw; a diamond face wants the weight concentrated toward the chin, with the sides kept moderate so the beard does not widen the face at cheekbone height. The beard style tool gives the same advice, and the face shape detector at the top of this page tells the two apart from a photo.

• Chin-focused full beard. A full beard with the sides trimmed shorter and the length building toward the chin. It fills the narrow lower face without adding width at the cheeks.
• Goatee or extended goatee. Hair on the chin, sometimes running a little way along the jaw. The simplest way to add weight at the chin, and it suits men whose cheek growth is thin.
• Circle beard. A goatee joined to a moustache, which adds a rounded shape at the centre and softens the angular midface.
• Short boxed beard with a fuller chin. For men who want full coverage: keep the sides short and leave the chin a little longer and broader.

All of this is barbering convention, not research; there are no studies of beard styles by face shape. It follows the same composition as the hairstyles for a diamond face, which add width above and below the cheekbones rather than at them.

Take the cheek line slightly lower than where the hair naturally stops, and keep it soft. The lower the top edge of the beard, the more cheek skin shows between the beard and the cheekbones, and the less the beard adds width at that height. Avoid a hard, straight line high on the cheek; it frames the widest point and makes it read wider.

Set the neckline about a finger's width above the Adam's apple, following the crease under the mandible, and keep the chin area full right down to it. Because a diamond face tapers, the beard should look broadest at the chin and the lower jaw, not at the ears. How the neckline and brow line together change the jaw the eye reads is covered in eyebrows, beard and the perceived jaw.

A diamond face often reads with a jaw narrower than the cheekbones, and when the tool reads it that way it says a beard would add structure: width and definition at the lower face that the bone does not give. If your jaw reads wider and your chin fuller than typical, clean-shaven or stubble suits you too, and a long beard would hide that. If both read close to typical, beard or no beard both work, and you can choose by style.

Clean-shaven, a diamond face shows its cheekbones fully, which some men prefer. Stubble adds a little shadow at the jaw without changing the balance much. A chin-focused beard is the option that moves the balance most.

Patchy growth is less of a problem on a diamond face than on most, because the styles that suit it put the hair on the chin and keep the sides moderate. If the cheeks grow thin, a goatee or circle beard is the recommended style anyway. If the chin is the thin area, grow it longer before judging, or keep everything as even stubble until it fills in.

A diamond face that leans oval, with the cheekbones only a little wider than the jaw, can wear a fuller, more even beard. One that leans long should keep the chin beard short and broad rather than pointed. Frames work at the same height as the cheekbones, so the glasses for a diamond face guide is worth reading alongside this one.