The Scruffy Beard is a great place to start any beard adventure. It’s essentially the precursor to a Full Beard: Hair all around, usually about ¼ to ½ inch long, often kept a bit unkempt on purpose. Hence the scruffiness.
It’s a natural start to go to any longer beard, but it’s also a bold and somewhat rough fashion statement in itself. Not requiring much maintenance, it’s an easy way to venture into beard-land, and can work wonders for guys with a patchy beard that would not look good in any neater or longer style.
Scruffy Beard Variations
The Scruffy Beard sits right in between the stubble and a Full Beard. As such, both length and shape are pretty well-defined and don’t offer much in terms of variation.
Play with the length, roughly between ¼ and ½ inches. Trim your neckline, because - scruffy or not - too much hair on the neck does not suit any short beard. But beyond that, keep it basic, keep it simple.
The lack of variations might just be one of the most attractive things about the Scruffy Beard.
What Face Shape Best Fits a Scruffy Beard?
Being arguably among the most natural beard styles you can grow, the Scruffy Beard will fit just about any face shape.
Keep in mind though that, even at say half an inch, it’ll add some volume to your face, so large faces such as Round and Square shapes might not look that great. Triangle and Diamond shapes seem to be the best fit.
A noteworthy feature of the Scruffy Beard is its ability to patch a patchy beard, so to speak. While more elaborate and neat styles usually look better with full, non-patchy growth, this somewhat rugged and slightly unkempt style works well even if you have a patchy beard.
Famous Wearers of the Scruffy Beard
With the rugged look a Scruffy Beard provides, there’s no shortage of good-looking guys that have opted for this style.
Ryan Gosling for one. What a sexy scruffy.
Ben Affleck has been seen with a Scruffy Beard. Among many other styles.
Not his go-to beard, but Brad Pitt has been spotted in the wild with a nice rugged Scruffy Beard.
Usually clean-shaven, Denzel Washington sometimes opts for the old scruffy - when he’s in a beardy kind of mood.
Ray Donovan actor Liev Schreiber looks great when shaven clean. But even better with a Scruffy Beard.
How to Trim a Scruffy Beard
It don’t get much easier than this.
Sit back and chill for 2-4 weeks.
That’s it. That’s the Scruffy basic. Keep the neck and cheeks clean if you want - but fundamentally, you’ve arrived.
Summary
The easiest beard to grow after the basic stubble, the Scruffy Beard is the precursor to the Full Beard and simply consists of ¼ to ½ inches of hair all around. You can trim the neckline and cheeks if desired, but fundamentally it’s a rugged, somewhat unkempt look.
Unkempt does not mean nasty though. Go for rugged, not filthy: Use a Boar’s Hair Beard Brush to keep both skin and hair healthy, and treat it daily with the Best Beard Products out there. Do this right, and you will be irresistible.