High and tight beards are huge right now. There's even a war!

We mean that both in the sense of being on-trend, and in that the socially-acceptable level of bushiness appears to be constantly increasing.



The ahem, unchecked growth in the popularity of lumberjack facial hair raises a key question: how do you match your beard and your hair?



Fortunately, we've got you covered.

Long, flowing locks





Your ideal beard: Full. Once your beautiful mane has crept 3 or more inches past the collar, you have carte blanche to fully embrace your inner Jared Leto/Jesus of Nazareth. Trying to pull this off? It's imperative to bust out the trimmers periodically to keep that thing from straying into crazed-mountain-man/Charles Manson territory.

Hockey mullet



Your ideal beard: Scruff. Mid-length, slightly greasy bad-boy hair a la Erik Karlsson deserves an equally devil-may-care approach to facial hair. Note: we in no way condone or endorse the creepy playoff moustache pictured above.

Slick Rick

Your ideal beard: Go big or go home. Countless hipsters have embraced the slicked-back hair and full beard combo. The dude above is an example of what can happen if you oil 'er up, but leave your serial-killer mug totally bare.

2007-era Bieber

Your ideal beard: None. The bowl cut is dominating your entire forehead region, anyway: do you really want to introduce a beard into the fray? Also, we're assuming that any self-respecting man of beard-growing age would be sporting a Justin Bieber-style bowl cut in the first place.

Undercut

Your Ideal beard. Tapered. Make high-and-tight, high-volume hair even sharper with a tapered beard that matches the sideburns to the lower step of the undercut, then reverse-tapers the length from the sideburns down to the chin. Sounds tricky, but with the assistance of a good beard trimmer, you got this.

Classic Side Part

Your ideal beard: Neatly trimmed. The clean-cut, classic side-part works well with a beard that's short and elegantly maintained. Ryan Gosling had this look down to a science a couple years ago, if you need a visual reference.

Going, going....but not quite gone

Your ideal beard: Stubble. Sorry to tell you this, but the years between "hmm-is-his-hairline-slightly-receding" and "omg-check-out-chrome-dome" aren't very kind to most (although some dudes, including the guy above, make male-pattern baldness look almost enviable) If you just can't part with those last, straggling strands, we recommend maintaining some sexy stubble: women reportedly dig a 10-day beard above any other type of facial hair, compensating for anything you might lack on top.

Cue ball





Your ideal beard: Any beard. Do you want to be known as "the bald guy?" No? Set yourself apart from your brethren with literally any type of facial hair. There are some people who feel so strongly that all bald men should have beards that there's an entire website about it. Ignore non-bearded Bruce Willis, above - even he's seen the error of his ways.