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Growing a beard is a great way to adjust for the loss of hair from the top. The longer the beard, the more pronounced the effect. This is everything you need to know about bald heads and long beards.
Being bald can make a man feel quite exposed from the neck up.
It can also exaggerate the shape of the face, often making it look rounder than it ever did before.
Growing a long beard is a great way to add length, prominence, and volume to the chin. It can be shaped and styled to adjust the shape of the bottom of the face, much like scalp hair previously did for the top.
In this article, I’m going to show you some great examples of bald men who use long beards to their advantage.
I’ll then give you some essential additional tips to use when rocking this style. The maintenance requirements and other commitments that come with growing a long beard do mean that it’s not for everyone.
But after reading this, you’ll have a much better idea of what it’s all about.
5 Great Bald With Long Beard Styles
Here are six phenomenal examples you can use for inspiration and to get a deeper understanding of this style combination.
1. Bald With A Garibaldi
It doesn’t get much fuller than this.
The style is named after the Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi who was instrumental in the unification of Italy in the 19th century.
He happened to have a solid beard and people do still copy it to this day.
It’s a large, full beard, typically around 20cm in length. The defining feature of the style is its rounded bottom. This keeps it looking neat despite it having a very masculine, woodsman-esque vibe.
It also consists of a mustache that should be well-groomed and not allowed to exceed the length of the beard.
Although it is extremely impressive, the increased maintenance requirements of a beard this full may put some people off.
The volume of the long beard can also make a bald head seem quite bottom-heavy.
Having said that, with a neatly-carved rounded bottom and a well-brushed body, it can still look great on a bald man.
If you’ve got the focus and dedication required to grow one, it may well be for you.
2. Long Beard And Handlebar
I wanted to include someone that isn’t bald in this to demonstrate how the principles are the same as they are for balding.
Buzz cuts are also great hairstyles for balding men with receding hairlines.
But the main focus of this example should be the Handlebar mustache.
A Handlebar mustache is styled by curling the tips of the mustache upward on either side. This makes the mustache resemble the handlebars of a motorcycle, funnily enough.
The Handlebar style can look great when sitting atop a glorious long beard, as you can see from this picture.
You’ll need a bit of beard balm or beard wax to keep it in place. However, it’s a fairly simple way to make a long beard look just a touch more unique.
3. Bald With A Long Extended Goatee
An extended goatee is a variant of the typical goatee. The difference is that the bottom edges trail backward along part of the jawline, almost like part of a chinstrap.
The benefits of a long extended goatee are similar to those of a long, traditional goatee. It definitely also adds length, volume, and prominence to the chin.
This is great for bald men.
However, it has the added benefit of adding some definition to the jawline. This can make the jaw look more chiseled and contoured.
Adding definition to the jawline is always going to be great for bald men. Again, baldness can make a face and head look rounder. Chiseling up the jaw is a great way to balance that.
4. Full Beard With Sharp Borders
This one is more straightforward. I’d call it a Full Beard but not quite full enough to be a Garibaldi or a Bandholz.
The main feature to note is just how well-defined the neckline and cheek line are. These sharp borders look fantastic with a bald head.
The sharp lines and angles add so much great balance and contrast to the curvature of the bald head.
Although the chin beard is a little scruffier here, it still looks neat and well-defined.
It’s a great example of how a round face is made to look more oval-shaped by growing and shaping a beard properly.
The clean-shaven head also looks very impressive and well-maintained. It looks moisturized with just the right amount of shine.
I’ll talk more about this later, but beards often look a lot better with clean-shaven and ultra-smooth heads.
5. Bald With A Salt And Pepper Beard
This beard length may lean toward a medium as opposed to long. However, the principles remain the same and the main feature we’re talking about is the color.
A “salt and pepper” beard has (as the name would suggest) a great mixture of white hair and dark hair.
It can often make a beard look very eye-catching. Although to a large extent a salt and pepper beard is created naturally via the aging process, it can be artificially created too.
It’s possible to dye a beard salt and pepper and there are commercially-available products to help you do it.
It has the benefits of a colored beard – an effective way of contrasting the skin tone of a bald head and face. But it also has the benefit of looking mature without looking old.
Plus, the mixture of colors just makes it look very interesting. It’s a great choice for bald men looking for an attention-grabbing long beard.
5 Tips For Bald Men With Long Beards
Growing a long beard is easier said than done. It takes time, dedication, and willpower. You’ve got to get through some difficult, trying, testing, and itchy obstacles to reach the pinnacle.
Here are some tips for bald men looking to rock the look.
1. Brush And Comb Regularly
Maintenance is everything. You’ll need to incorporate certain habits to keep a beard growing healthily and happily.
Once you’ve got about four weeks of growth, it’s time to start brushing with a boar bristle beard brush.
Boar hair is similar in texture to beard hair and as a result, is able to navigate through it with minimal tugging and pulling.
The bristles are great for training the beard to grow in the desired direction. They’re also good for redistributing oils – whether that’s natural sebum or beard oil.
Combing is something you’ll want to start doing once you’ve got around 2 to 3 months of growth. Essentially, once the beard is too long for the bristles of a brush to reach the underlying tangles, you’ll want to start using the teeth of a beard comb.
Combs are also great for styling once this becomes a priority for you. But their most useful property is just how good they are at detangling hair in the depths of a long beard.
These two grooming tools are so important for ensuring a beard looks intentional and tidy.
A bald man with an untidy and poorly-groomed long beard can never look professional. Unfortunately, bad maintenance can completely ruin the look.
2. Use That Glorious Beard Oil
Beard oil is often playfully referred to as “beard food”. There are a huge number of them available on the market today as their popularity has really taken off in recent years.
They consist of essential oils and carrier oils such as jojoba and argan oil. The scent is usually what keeps men coming back for more, with a wide range of exotic and delightful ones available.
But beard oil actually has great moisturizing properties for both the beard hair and the underlying skin. It leaves the beard with a nice, subtle, gentle shine.
It’s even recommended that you use beard oil on stubble. With a long beard, it’s almost mandatory.
3. Treat Yourself To A Barber’s Trim
Long beards are hard to maintain. That’s the unfortunate truth. One slip of the clipper and you’re trimming a chunk out and losing weeks or even months of hard work.
A bald man runs the risk of losing touch with a barber he may have had a great relationship with before. Losing your hair doesn’t mean you have to lose your barber too.
A skillful barber knows how to sculpt a long beard to meet your needs. They’ll trim it (without messing it up), define the borders, and more.
When you’ve got a bald head, getting a barber to trim your beard may be even more important. It’s important that the sideburns blend naturally into the bald head on the sides.
This may or may not mean fading them. However, it’s always best to allow a professional to deal with this while you relax and look forward to seeing the finished product.
Side Note – A common cause of disputes between a long-bearded man and his barber is miscommunication. Make sure the barber knows just how much or how little hair you want removed before you start.
4. A Clean-Shaven Head Is Usually Best
The mere thought of it can be daunting for a bald or balding man. I’m not suggesting fully shaving the head is a decision that should be taken lightly.
The natural-looking bald on top with hair on the sides can look alright.
But when you’ve got a beard, a super-smooth dome is often the way to go. It just looks so much better.
Once again, the reason for this comes down to contrast and balance.
Having no hair on top of the head with all of the hair on the bottom looks a lot more balanced than leaving things patchy or horseshoe-esque.
Going clean-shaven also looks more youthful (surprisingly) than leaving hair on the back and sides.
The combination of a clean-shaven head and a long beard is intensely masculine and worth trying out just once. The likelihood is that you’ll keep coming back to it time and time again.
5. Work Out
This one is less concrete but still important to mention. There isn’t a whole lot to say about it and I’ll try and sum it up from the start.
Being bald and bearded is great. But being bald, bearded, and built is on another level.
When you’re bald, slimming out the face and chiseling up the jawline is a great way to sharpen up.
Even a small amount of fat loss from the cheek and jowl area can really make a difference.
Plus, being able to fill out a suit with a muscular physique compliments a bald head and long beard so nicely. It just oozes competence and masculinity.
Conclusion
These aren’t decisions to be taken lightly. Growing a long beard takes focus and time. Shaving a head takes commitment and a certain amount of bravery the first time you do it.
But the results often speak for themselves. Hopefully, the pictures you’ve seen and the descriptions that went with them have shown you that.
It’s a great style combination for a bald man that’s fully embraced his baldness and is looking to make a statement to go with it.
Enjoy and have fun with it.
Dilshan
Ready Sleek founder. Obsessed with casual style and the minimalist approach to building a highly functional wardrobe. Also a fan of classic, vintage hairstyles.
