Massive 18 Month Beard Gets Crispy Birthday Trim

It's probably getting closer to a year and a half. I'm turning 45 here on Friday. Figured I wanted to, you know, at least be cleaned up to that. What's up my YouTube homies? We're here at the Beer Brand Barbershop in Austin, Texas with my friend Micah, and we're gonna clean him up today. So what's the goal? Like, what's the goal with the hair and the beard? Like, what's, uh, what's some, any looks you're interested in or what you want to achieve with everything, So, on the sideburns area, I like to bring that down a lot. Yeah, of course. Maybe like a number two or something. Yeah, yeah, shave that down, yeah. Shorten up on the hair a lot. I do want to keep a bit of a part, but I really want to go a lot shorter. Uh-huh. It's got a few months' growth on it, way too much. So something a little, like a gentleman's taper, a little bit tighter, though. Like, almost a fade. Yeah. All right, cool, man. And then on the beard itself, I want to bring that off of the neck a bit because it just kind of pushes out more than I like. I don't like it where it becomes rounded like it is. Uh-huh. But a lot more where it's down and creates kind of a line down my jaw. Okay, yeah. Straight across on the bottom so it's a lot tighter. Yeah, a lot tighter, a lot more shaped up and sculpted rather than loose and round. You want almost a square but keeping as much as the length as possible. Yeah, trying to lose a little bit of the shaggy look, much more angular. Do you want to go any shorter on the beard? It could go a little bit shorter, just depending on how it cuts in. Just for the sake of shape, yeah. Yeah, but I like how it elongates my head a bit that way because I have a bit rounder of a head. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, man. Perfect, then we'll get into it for you. All right. We'll clean you up. Just going to take my blades and just go down. I'm going to start with a three and a half up top, taper back the back all the way to skin as usual with, you know, classic haircuts. And then just trim the top a little bit, just add a little more flow. Are you a little maintenance for the hair? Do you want to style it? Do you not mind styling it? Or at least finding the part in the morning and getting at the house? Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. Just find the part, get it over a little bit, keep it a little bit messy. Okay. And, yeah. All right. We'll retain some length then. I won't chop it all down, but yeah, the sides are going to go. How long have you been growing out the beard, man? Let's see, I think I started around the end of September of 2019. Okay. So I was just going to grow it out a little bit. I normally keep a stubble. And then, you know, November hit and it's Movember. It's like, all right, I'll keep it. And it just kind of stuck with me a bit. COVID hit and all of a sudden I was like, well, let's just grow it out and see what a year looks like. I actually left school early because it was the late 90s and jobs in tech were easy to get, even without a degree. Yeah. And so I got a job offer, left school, started working. And then I went back in my early 40s about five, four years ago, five years ago. And finished up my degree in IT security. Nice. And then picked up an MBA after that. It's really intertwined in every aspect of our lives. Yeah. Where even people that are fairly technically illiterate are very literate compared to what people were 20 years ago. Yeah. So in terms of the beard, man, are you trying to just grow that out as long as you can? Or you kind of like where it's at once we groom it? It's kind of just going to stay where it is. Yeah, I think I've really reached the point where I'm happy with it lengthwise. You can always just keep growing it longer and longer, but it becomes harder to manage. Right. I'm not sure I'm really looking for that. Right. So now I got my two blade, which fits right underneath the three and a half. Okay. And that's just going to start the blend. It's going to start to taper all the way down and get him all cleaned up. Yeah, right. Barbers, if you're not using detachable clippers, man, go pick some up. It's super easy. It almost feels like cheating sometimes with the blade system because there's no guesswork. There's no lever. The blades just perfectly talk to each other and you get a really nice blend. Especially for haircuts like this. For plastic haircuts, plastic tools, plastic techniques tend to work the best. For me, personally. I mean, I could do the same haircut with guards. It doesn't matter. I'll step down to one and a half. So now I got my 1A on. I stopped with the one and a half around everywhere else because for the sake of blending the beard, I'm going to just stop at a one and a half, which is pretty short as you can see. So now I'm just going to keep stepping down my blades on the neck here until we get tapered down the skin. Then I'll work my way back up. Clipper over comb. That bulk right off the ridge there. Edge him up. As you can see, the taper is basically done. Thanks to those blades. But I'll just make sure this is clean. I'm just going to dampen the hair a little bit so I can see exactly what's hanging over the ridge here with his parietal ridge. Let's knock this bulk out. The ridge is still pretty dark and dense, but I'm going to go ahead and carry on with my shear work. And then we'll see what it looks like after my shear work. Yeah, use a beard softener a bit with it. Just the beard oil and combing it on a daily basis down has really been able to give it a good shape. I actually started using the Old Money one. During the consultation, he used words like messy and things like that, so we're definitely going to retain a little bit of length. So give him a good chop, but not as perfectly sculpted as maybe one would do with his hair. I'm going to start in the back for this one. And kind of approach the front at the angle that I want. Because I saw the front was a little shorter, actually, than the center of the head, and I want to reverse that. I want the front to be the longest part. That's right. Just going to shape up the back with a razor real quick. So whether he puts effort into his hair or not, it'll just flow. Now once we move on to the beard here, man, you're going to be a new man. You've got to make the beard fit with it. Yeah, exactly. We're going to go straight down, give you a jawline again. I forgot to mention the mustache part. You have to go over the lip on it, basically. Take it off the lip or keep it over the lip? No, off the lip. Okay, okay. And then kind of fix up the catfish whiskering stuff, because when they're eating something, all of a sudden you find you're chewing on hair. Yeah, that's me. I'm growing out the mustache right now, so I'm choosing that life, but whatever. Yeah, I did that for a while, but you've really got to train it to go over to the sides. It's getting in your coffee all the time. It's kind of a challenge. I'm being very conservative at first just to start to see the shape, but he does want more of a generous trim on the sides to really taper in and set in a nice jawline into the beard. Neck is great. Not too much craziness going on under the hood here. Yeah, I kind of try to keep it a little bit trimmed. I do like to take it off the neck and get rid of it, because it pushes it out. Yeah, a little too much. Yeah, it's finding a balance. Sometimes there's undergrowth that I tell guys, we're just going to leave it how it is. It's working for you. Sometimes, yeah, it's a little more in between. Yeah, I feel like in general I've got enough thickness in my beard. Yeah, yeah. I'm just cutting off the bottom there. What I'm doing now is giving him a jawline back, reflected in the beard, which is what he asked for. What I'm doing now is just going a little more dramatic with the taper on his cheeks, because hair on your cheeks is just so poofed out. The tapering, the sideburns wasn't enough, so now I just have to, just shaping it in a little more. I mean, as you see, man, almost about to be there after a little more shaping up. Moustache down. Got my clipper blade open. Just now gliding the surface, getting any flyaways, and just dialing in that shape. What do you think of the shape, man? What do you think of the shape so far before I put it? Do you want to rein it in a little? Once we straighten it out and everything, because I like straight lines. Do you want it a little more dramatic than it is? What do you mean by dramatic? I mean just what it is now, but more, if that makes sense. Do you want me to just go in a little bit closer on these lines? Yeah. Okay. Cool. Then let me knock that for you real quick, man. You just have to go a little bit tighter just to achieve those lines. Cool, cool, cool. You're happy with how it's all come together? Yes, sir. The real test will be what my girlfriend thinks of it, Terry. She always says, you know, when I met you, you only had a little bit of scruff. You didn't have this. But she's been a good sport about it, so I'm trying to keep it a little clean. She's got some big surprise plans for us. Have you used any of our scents before? If it wasn't Old Money, what would you use? I say that because we don't have Old Money right now. I just bought some two weeks ago. Is that the first scent you've tried from us? Yeah, it is. I thought about Temple Smoke also. So which kind of product are you going to put on there? I'm going to use the Utility Balm. Just mainly for the skin. I'm going to run a little through your beard. That's just to soften up the skin after that shave, you know. I was curious if I should just be using the oil or if I should be using more of the balm. If you're looking for a little bit of hold and more groom, the balm. You know, the balm is going to moisturize down to the skin and a little bit on the hair. Beard oil, just think beard oil strictly hair. It does help. It does nourish the skin a little bit. But the Utility Balm, pretty versatile. Pretty good for the skin, for the beard, hands, what have you. Any dry areas. Okay, and that's the Temple Smoke you're going with? Yeah, that's what you're smelling right now. Shave up the neck. And I'll throw a little bit of the Temple Smoke Styling Balm through the dome. I put in the Styling Balm. I already have blow-dried his hair right after I cut it, so it already has like a loose shape to it. And all the Styling Balm does is just, you know, softly lock that into place. We'll send Michael home here with some Temple Smoke goods. Oh, okay. You'll get both, man. You'll get the Styling Balm and the Utility Balm, so use that in the beard, use that everywhere, man. Head to toe, really. Get away with it as a solid cologne. I did that with Old Money Utility Balm before I got the actual EDP from them. Try the Styling Balm, man. And then you got the Old Money stuff on the way, but now you got the option to choose between the two. All right, sounds good. Thanks a lot, Micah. Yeah, appreciate it. You have to remember what you did because I'll probably be back. Oh, yes, sir. And be like, I just want what you did last time. Hey, I'm Mark. I think that beard brand products and the beard brand mission, they've really helped me kind of wear my beard and present it to the world in a way that, honestly, for the first time in my life, kind of makes me feel kind of handsome. You know, sometimes. But anyway, thanks, guys.