When one first encounters a newly made beard and moustache (picture 1), and you want to make it into a nicely styled, shortish beard, it can be a little daunting if you don’t know some basic techniques of wet styling and cutting. So, let’s do this.
First, pin the moustache onto a wig block, and the beard onto a beard block. It’s important to have a good beard block and pin the beard down so that all the lace is smooth. (picture 2) Now it gets scary!! Wet the beard with water, comb it all out, separate a vertical section downward from the sideburn about an inch wide. Now just cut it all about 1 ½ inches. (picture 3) Don’t pull the lace away from the block and make sure your scissors are parallel to the surface. Before you squeeze the scissors together look at what you’re cutting. You can always go back and cut off more. Carry on with 1 inch vertical sections, (picture 4) then check the cut with horizontal sections with your comb and trim any long leftovers with a scissors over comb technique. (picture 5) Rewet the beard, and with a dye brush, brush it flat and down. Then hold it down and brush it in the other direction. (picture 6 and 7) This is called a finger wave and it is how you give the beard its direction and style. Then, I wrap a piece of lace over the whole thing to keep it flat while it dries. (picture 8)
I do this because I think it looks more realistic if beards stay closer to the face and don’t get too puffy.
When it is dry just brush it out and you can do any finishing touches with a warm iron. (picture 9) Now the moustache. Wet the moustache comb it out and holding the hair straight away, make a cut about an 1 ½ inches, keeping the scissors parallel to the wig block. Leave the ends longer so you can have some length to blend into the beard.(picture 10) Now you can finish the cutting with a little scissor over comb. (picture 11) Re-wet and bush into place. Then hold the style with pins (picture 12). When it is dry, just brush out and give it a little lift with a warm iron. (picture 13) Now you can pin the moustache on the beard block to see how it all looks together. Say, “ta da”. (picture 14)
Just a note on cleaning a lace beard after you have removed it. A beard can be applied with spirit gum, pros-aide paste, silicone adhesive or super baldies. It just depends on what works best for your circumstances. To get the glue out of the lace, I just pour a little 99% alcohol in a dish and brush the dried adhesive with a makeup brush. I use Telesis Super Solve to remove silicone and pros-aide. And then alcohol. Super Solve is fine, but not Super Solve Plus, nor isomyristate or detachol. The oil from these products can be tough to get out of the lace, but you are safe with 99% alcohol and Super Solve. After cleaning just pin everything back on the block and do any styling to make things ready for the next application.