Long gone are the days where someone was perceived as shabby or unkempt for having a little stubble on the chin. The 5 o'clock shadow creates and shape and depth your jawline while still presenting as classy and is relatively low maintenance to maintain. As an added bonus, because you use an electric razor and don't have to clean shave every day.
Follow these steps to achieve a fantastic 5 o'clock shadow:
Plan
Think about how your facial hair grows. The thickness, its growth pattern, and how long it takes to grow out should all come into consideration.
If you're clean shaven now, let your facial hair grow out for at least a day or two. You want the hair to be long enough to add shape and dimension to your face.
Trim the scruff
Once you have scruff about 1/4 inch (6mm) long, break out the electric beard trimmer. You want it close, but not a true stubble. I prefer to use either a #1 (3mm) or #2(5mm) guard to smooth out the growth.
Next, I will take a smaller guard under the chin, taking out bulk to limit as much of a neckbeard look as possible.
Clean up the cheekbones and neckline
Lastly, I go in with the safety razor (usually a vector) and line up under the cheekbones and cleaning up below the Adam's apple. The clean lines shouldn't have sharp angles to them, they should look smooth as natural as possible.
Maintain the Look
Now that you have a solid template of what your 5 o'clock shadow should look like, you can continue to follow the same process every few days. This should be a great, presentable look that you can follow with ease going forward.
Tip:
If you want to grow your beard out, you can maintain the same shape as it grows. Also, another great option is letting the mustache continue to grow as you maintain the stubble. For those with lighter-colored facial hair, this will help bring out the 'stache to emphasize that red-hot 70s sexiness.
P.S. We make some pretty good razors that offer clean, efficient shaves to clean up those cheekbones and that neckline ;).
