Lots of guys have beards, but you’ve probably noticed that some beards look much better than others. When you keep in mind these beard trimming tips, you may be able to have an awesome beard too. Of course, genetics and many other factors come into play, but you want to do the best you can with what you have, don’t you?

Here are 12 beard trimming tips that will help you achieve as much awesomeness as your face will allow:

1. Get the neckline right. The most common beard grooming mistake is getting the neckline too high, too low or crooked and wavy. Most of the time, guys cut it too high. If you trim along your jawline, that will leave you with a terrible-looking beard. The best place to set the neckline is where your neck meets your head. You may have a distinct crease or bend there – or you may have to experiment a bit. Of course, if you have weird growth patterns or patchiness, you may have to go just a bit higher. But not too much.

2. Buy some good tools. If you’re planning to have a beard for a while, you’ll need a professional quality beard trimmer. There are good overall grooming devices as well as specialized stubble trimmers, mustache trimmers and powerful electric clippers made to cut through even the densest hair. Decide what kind of growth you have, then buy something that will meet your needs over the long term. If a trimmer is really cheap, it’s probably junk. But you don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars either.

3. Never trim wet hair. Clippers won’t work when your hair is wet anyway, but cutting wet hairs with scissors will end up with bad results. When your hair dries, it appears shorter, so cutting wet will give you results that are shorter than you’re expecting and that appear uneven. Groom before washing your face or getting in the shower. This could be the most important of the beard trimming tips here.

4. Consider whether scissors might work better than clippers. If you let your beard get long, you won’t be able to find a beard trimmer that will do the job anymore. That’s when it’s time to move to some sharp barber scissors. With a little practice, you can get excellent control from scissors and really good results. Plus, you can cut only a little at a time until you get the results you want.

5. Go very slowly when trimming. You can always cut more or go over an area again, but if you move too quickly you can end up with a disaster on your face. You don’t want to make so big a mess that you have to shave everything off, so take your time. It’s worth it.

6. Comb it up to see if it’s even. If your beard hairs are long enough, you can comb the opposite direction from usual and look at the length of individual hairs. You may see some that stick out from the gang, and those need to be trimmed away. If you see clumps that are longer or shorter, you’re not grooming well. Use scissors to even things up – and try for more even results in the future. All of these beard trimming tips are useless if you don’t check your results carefully and learn from any mistakes you make.

7. Think carefully about the stache. The bigger your beard, the longer and bigger your stache needs to be. Forget using a trimmer on your mustache and trim with scissors only. A lot of guys trim their staches too short. It’s okay for hairs to hang down below your lip line, and it’s fine to let the hair grow long and brush it to the sides. This look adds interest to your face, makes your mouth look wider and is easier to maintain too. You may need to use mustache wax if you decide on a long stache.

8. Keep the cheek line in check. For most guys, shaving into the cheek line is unnecessary and looks unnatural. Leave your cheek line as high as possible. Cleaning up strays is perfectly acceptable – and it’s okay to trim down low if you don’t have much growth on your cheeks anyway. Use what your have to your best advantage. If you cut a cheek line, try to go along a line from the bottom of the sideburn area to the mustache.

9. Get on a regular maintenance schedule. You probably don’t need to groom your beard every day. Instead, you can shave your neck and get rid of stray cheek hairs daily and trim your beard once a week. If that’s not enough, set up a schedule that works for you – and stick with it.

10. Don’t panic if you make a mistake. A small mistake may not be noticeable anyway. Plus, no beard is ever perfect. If you make a mistake, even it out a little if possible and try to live with it. That’s better than giving up and having to shave. You’ll hate yourself for shaving if it isn’t absolutely necessary.

11. Don’t be afraid of professionals. There’s nothing wrong with turning to a barber for your beard grooming. And you can pick up some useful beard trimming tips if you watch what the barber does to your beard. Notice results you like and those you don’t so you can instruct the barber better in the future – and perhaps even learn to groom your own beard.

12. When in doubt, do less. A natural beard looks better than one that’s over-groomed, so when in doubt, do less. You can always trim more later. An untrimmed or under-trimmed beard is so much nicer than one that’s all carved up.

When you take these 12 beard trimming tips into consideration as you grow out your beard, you’ll look and feel great about having facial hair. You deserve to have the best facial hair your face can grow.