Buzz it: "Set guard to 3 and buzz your whole beard." Clean the lower neck: "Switch guard to 1 and buzz from your Adam’s apple to two inches below your jaw." Fade it: "Switch guard to 2 and buzz that remaining two-inch area, finessing and fading the 1 zone into the 3 zone." Remove strays: "Remove guard (so that it’s on the 0 setting) and buzz below your Adam’s apple and any strays on the sides of your neck."

More beard shaping tips: If you’re feeling fancy with your trimmer, consider sporting a new beard style.

How to Trim Your Beard Neckline

Before you fade your beard, you need to define the neckline. This prevents you from having a neckbeard, and it also shows that you’re serious about this beard grooming thing. The neckline is pretty straightforward: Take two fingers and place them above your Adam’s apple. Imagine a U-shape that connects to the back of each ear, and meets in the middle at the base of the U. Shave everything below this line, with an actual razor or with the naked guard on your beard trimmer. Et voila!

How to Trim Your Beard Without Making a Mess

In the market for a solid, no-mess trimmer? Get one with a built-in vacuum, which promises to collect up to 90% of stray hairs. It’ll save you 10 minutes on cleanup, instead of wiping down every surface in a five-foot radius.

GQ’s picks for best vacuum beard trimmers:

Wahl vacuum trimmer $60 Walmart Buy Now

Philips Norelco vacuum beard trimmer $60 Amazon Buy Now

Remington vacuum beard trimmer $59 Amazon Buy Now

3 Beard-Growing Myths, Debunked

New York dermatologist Dr. David Colbert sets us straight on three common beard misconceptions. Though, there’s still some room for convincing...

Myth 1: Certain foods and vitamins make your beard grow quicker.

"No food or vitamin makes the beard grow faster. However, we do need amino acids or protein in our diet to grow hair. For instance, guys who are anemic often experience beard thinning." (Still, many dermatologists will tell you to take supplements like biotin to strengthen hair and beard growth, and some still believe it speeds up growth too. So, this one remains a myth.)2.

Myth 2: If you shave more often, your facial hair will get fuller.

"Shaving absolutely does not make your hair grow at any different rate,” he says. “One reason it might seem that way? If you shave often, you’re feeling the prickly sensation of hair growing back more frequently."

Myth 3: Gray beards are coarser.

"If anything, our follicles become smaller as we age. Gray beards are not much different than regular ones, structurally speaking. If a Santa-like beard seems coarse, it’s just because it hasn’t been conditioned properly or is full of split ends." Which leads us to…

How to Keep Your Beard Soft (And Avoid Beard Itch)

You know the phrase “you are what you eat”? The same can be said for your beard. If you don’t feed it anything, it turns into a brittle skeleton, and starts scratching everything it touches. (This is how beard itch happens.) The best way to avoid this is to routinely apply beard oils, conditioning creams, and nourishing balms to the whiskers—of any length. They hydrate each whisker, softening them, and keeping them from frizzing and flying astray. These products also hydrate the skin beneath the beard, preventing beard dandruff and dry skin.

Here are our picks for the best beard oil, conditioner, and balm.

Brothers Artisan Oil beard oil $22 Amazon Buy Now

Stubble & ‘Stache face moisturizer and beard conditioner $34 Amazon Buy Now

The Roosevelts beard balm $20 Amazon Buy Now

Beard Grooming Essential: The Beard Brush

A beard brush is essential for numerous reasons. First, if you’ve got a long beard, it helps to distribute oils from the shaft throughout the rest of the beard—whether they’re the natural oils from your skin or the ones you’ve applied by hand. Secondly, a beard brush helps exfoliate the skin underneath your beard, so that you never need to worry about beard dandruff. (Just pair it with a good oil or conditioner, as mentioned above.) And third, it pulls debris from the beard that you may have otherwise missed, and much more effectively than a comb.