Trimming beard while allowing patchy areas to grow

[jordan606060]

Hello

I've been growing a beard for about 4 weeks (under the chin area where it's longer) and about 2.5 weeks where the cheek line is (barber shaved the cheek line a lot shorter than the rest of the beard, so that was practically fully shaven 2.5 weeks ago)


Picture 1 is my current beard where i've grown it out

Picture 2 is my beard maybe a week ago or so (plus I used a beard pencil to fill in a few patches in this picture)

I'm basically trying to achieve the length of Picture 2 but for the beard to look a lot more dense, and for the lighter patches to fill in without me having to use a beard pencil.

From my understanding the best way to fill in patches is to let a beard grow so that the slow growing hairs can have the chance to catch up. But I really like the length in picture 2 so I don't want to grow the beard out more in order to fill in the patches, i'd like to try to give the slower growing hairs the chance to grow, whilst keeping the beard short.


So I have a couple of questions

1) To achieve the length in picture 2, should I just trim below the neck area with scissors, and then just leave the area near the cheek line to grow

2) Alternatively, If I used a beard trimmer and lightly trimmed the beard with a high enough guard, would I be able to trim the longer hairs without trimming any of the shorter hairs near the neckline? If so, what number guard do you think this would be on a beard trimmer?

Thanks,

Jordan

 

[troy]

I would go option 2 and start a couple notches longer than you think you want. It doesn't look too patchy as is. No one looks as closes as you do and the human eye and brain tend to fill in the gaps. Keep it up, it will only get better with time.

 

[Atlantic59]

I would go with option #2. Start with a #4 guard, see how it looks. If it is not short enough, then go over it again with a #3 guard.

#4 = 1/2"
#3 = 3/8"

 

[xiletero]

I would avoid scissors, go w trimmer, do it once or twice then let it all grow together.

 

[RookieGuy]

I've always used a trimmer when starting for patchy areas. Go up a size or two longer than you think. But yeah, let the longer parts grow out a bit then trim it all. You'll be surprised how that thickens things up.

 

[Badgerstate36]

Just trim it to whatever length you want when its all said and done and forget about the rest. If you want a beard that fills in the patchy spots, you may have to be willing to live with a longer beard length. Filling in the patches means often having to live with more length. If you want to rock a short beard, you may have to live with it not being as thick as you want.