You'd think growing a beard would be easy. Just stop shaving, right? But it's not that simple. Your facial hair, no matter how long, requires some tailoring. "Properly trimming a beard is an art," says Mike Gilman, founder of the Grooming Lounge. "Too tight and you can look scary, too long and you can look scarier." “ If your beard is left to creep down the front of your neck, it looks sloppy and makes your face look fat.” Most guys who grow a beard know to clean up the random hairs that appear on the upper cheeks, but the neck tends to be a problem. You see, when your whiskers are clipped too close to your jawbone, the resulting beard looks too perfect and it makes you look rigid and uptight. But if the hair is left to creep down the front and sides of your neck, it looks sloppy and—we're just going to say it—makes your face look fat. Aim for an inch or so just above your Adam's apple. Use a beard trimmer with guards to maintain the beard length you want. Clean up your neck with a razor or a guardless trimmer, then set the trimmer's guard to a 1 or 2 and fade the line for a more natural finish.