When they decide to grow facial hair, many men face the question of how thick their mustache should be in relation to their beard. Should your beard be thicker, as most conventional wisdom suggests, or are there times when your mustache should be thicker than your beard? The answer to that question depends largely on your individual features and what facial hair style you're aiming for.
Here are some of the most important factors to consider when questioning how thick your mustache should be in relation to your beard:
How Thick Is Your Facial Hair?
While hair-growth supplements exist, styling your facial is largely about working with what you've got. Therefore, the first thing to consider is how thick the hair grows in on your mustache and beard. Let your facial hair be the guide and try not to force anything--if the hair on your chin tends to grow in fuller and thicker, then it's not a good idea to try to force your mustache to be thicker than your beard. Traditionally, most people think beards should be thicker, but if your mustache hair grows in thicker than your beard, it's perfectly ok for your mustache to be thicker.
What Type of Facial Hair Are Your Growing?
How thick your facial hair should be also depending on what kind of facial hair you're growing. For example, if you're going with a mustache and goatee, it can be a good idea to have your mustache be thicker, as goatees are a subtler, more understated type of beard. If you're growing a longer beard that will hang down past your chin, it should also be thicker than your mustache, so the beard doesn't look scraggly. If you're growing a beard that wraps around your chin and meets your sideburns, you want your mustache to be as close to the thickness of your beard as possible, since full facial hair works best when the hair is of uniform thickness.
What’s the Color and Volume of Your Facial Hair?
The color and volume of facial hair is another key factor to consider when styling your mustache and beard. In terms of volume, keep in mind that what you want to avoid is a mustache that is drastically different in volume than your beard. If one grows in much faster than the other, you may need to cut the faster-growing hair more regularly to keep them at the desired thickness. In terms of color, lighter facial hair appears thinner than darker hair in almost all cases. Because of this, men with light hair are usually better off having a thicker beard than mustache, as a thinner mustache is easier to pull off while a thin, light-haired beard will almost always look patchy.
What’re Your Facial Features Like?
How thick you grow your facial should also be dependent on your facial features. If you have a large or prominent nose, a thicker mustache may be the way to go, since eyes will usually be drawn to that area of your face. Conversely, if you have a large chin or prominent jawline, your beard should be thicker and fuller than your mustache so that a thin or patchy beard isn't highlighted. Generally, identify what the most prominent area of your face is, and make sure that the facial hair in that area is thicker and fuller than your other facial hair.
What Style Are You Going For?
One final consideration is what kind of look you want to achieve with your facial hair. For example, if you're growing a soul patch to evoke a classic jazz-musician feel, growing your mustache thicker than the patch can provide good contrast and make your facial hair look classy (after all, having a bushy-looking soul patch defeats the purpose.) If, on the other hand, you're growing beard, mustache and sideburns to go for a rugged, lumberjack look, your mustache should be thinner than your beard and sideburns, although if it's too thin it may ruin the style you're going for.
When questioning whether your mustache or beard should be thicker, take a few minutes to think about your facial features, how your facial hair grows in, and what style you're aiming for. While some styles need a thicker mustache or thicker beard to work, there really is no standard approach; every man's face is different, so let your individual features be your guide.