Shape up
With a Balbo beard, your mustache should never touch your chin hair. If it does, the style becomes a Circle Beard. Some men naturally have a hairless area between their mustache and their beard, but others will need to create one by shaving. A Balbo beard is wider than a Goatee, because the beard extends upwards into the wider part of your face. However, it should not be worn higher than your mustache, and in practice usually ends at mouth level. Beard hair above the top of the Balbo should be shaved, as should your sideburns.
Wear the Balbo beard in style
Nobody ever achieved a Balbo beard by being careless with the scissors. Because it’s composed of several different elements, it all needs to be created and maintained with attention to detail. A wide Balbo beard often looks good on guys with a thin face, and can add definition to a weak chin. If you’ve got a strong jawline or a wide lower face, try making the contours of your Balbo beard thinner. You could also ‘slim’ your face by shaving more of the area between your chin beard and your Soul Patch.
Anything else I should know?
The Balbo beard is rich in creative opportunities. Even though the beard only covers a relatively small area of your face, a Balbo can be refined in all sorts of clever ways. Armed with the right tools, you can make each part of the beard wider, narrower, bushier or thinner. With careful grooming, a Balbo gives you a subtly sophisticated, coolly urban look.
Want to learn how to do it?
Check out the How-to Balbo Beard page.