How to Trim Your Beard with Scissors

Why scissors

Clippers are fast but they cut everything to one length, which is fine for the neckline but lousy for shaping. A beard cut entirely with clippers looks flat. Scissors let you take off the stragglers, even out the bottom, and clean up the mustache without buzzing the whole thing down.

If you're growing a beard out, scissors are the only tool you actually need for a long time. Clippers come into play for the neck and cheek lines. Everything else is scissor work.

What we sell

Beard Scissors. Stainless steel, sharp, comfortable in the hand. Sized for face hair, not the giant kitchen-shear style scissors some companies sell.

Mustache Scissors. Smaller, curved, with a rounded tip. Curved blades follow the natural shape of the lip line, and the rounded tip means you're not going to stab yourself when you're trimming close. If you've ever tried to trim your stache with regular scissors and the points kept getting in the way, this is why these exist.

Both are sharp out of the package. Treat them like real scissors, not a beat-up pair from the junk drawer.

Before you start

  1. Wash and dry the beard. Wet hair looks longer than it actually is, so if you trim wet you'll cut too much. Always trim dry.
  2. Comb it out so all the hair is laying the way it naturally falls.
  3. Have good light. Bathroom mirror with the overhead on, not a dim corner.
  4. Cut less than you think. You can always take more off, you can't put it back.

How to trim the body of the beard

This is for evening things out, not reshaping. If you want a major reshape, see a barber.

  1. Comb the beard down.
  2. Look for the strays sticking out past the rest. Those are what you're cutting.
  3. Hold the scissors with the blades pointing up at a slight angle, not straight across. Cutting at an angle leaves a more natural edge. Cutting straight across leaves a blunt line that looks like you trimmed it.
  4. Snip the strays one or two at a time. Move slow.
  5. Comb again. Repeat. Stop when it looks even.

That's it. The whole technique is "comb, snip strays, comb again."

How to trim the bottom

If your beard's getting long and you want to keep the bottom edge clean without taking length off:

  1. Comb everything straight down.
  2. Pick the lowest line you want to keep.
  3. Trim across just below that line, working in small sections.
  4. Resist the urge to keep going higher. The first pass is usually enough.

How to trim the mustache

This is where the curved scissors earn their keep.

  1. Comb the mustache straight down over the lip.
  2. Smile or pull your lip tight so the hair lifts off the skin.
  3. Trim along the lip line in small snips. The curved blade follows the curve of your mouth.
  4. For the ends, snip the hairs that are obviously longer than the rest. Don't try to make it perfectly even.

How often

Depends on how fast you grow. Most guys do a quick stray-snip session every week or two, and a fuller trim once a month. If you're growing it out long-term, less is more.

Common mistakes

  • Cutting wet. Always trim dry.
  • Cutting too much in one go. Small snips. Step back. Look. Snip again.
  • Cutting straight across. Angle the blades for a natural edge.
  • Trying to fix one side by cutting the other. You end up with a shorter beard on both sides and you still didn't fix it. Walk away and come back later.
  • Using dull scissors. Dull scissors crush hair instead of cutting it, which leaves split ends. If yours feel like they're tugging, they're done.

Care

Wipe the blades with a dry cloth after each use. Don't rinse them under water, the pivot screw will rust over time. Keep them in a drawer or a case, not loose on a wet bathroom counter. Sharpen or replace every few years depending on use.