Long sideburns need to be washed daily or at least every other day. The best time to do this is when you are in the shower and the scalp hair is being washed. Long sideburns can be washed with a gentle moisturizing shampoo. Care should be taken to thoroughly rinse all shampoo from your sideburns to prevent drying of the skin. A conditioner can be used about every other wash to tame prickly or coarse sideburns.
Sideburns that run anywhere from the ear lobe down to the chin are considered long sideburns. These extended sideburns can be trimmed tight to the face or can be worn grown out and bushy. Sideburns can be sculpted into a pleasing shape or can run straight down the edge of the face. Either way, long sideburns can help to soften and de-emphasize a long, pointed or angular chin.
The best way to grow sideburns is to not shave the sideburns for two to three weeks. Once the hair has grown out, you can decide what length sideburns is best for your face by trimming about a quarter of an inch (6 mm) off the bottom edge of the sideburns at a time. You may want to trim a little and keep that length for a day or two to see how you feel about it and then trim more if you are not happy. You can also play with the shape making it curved toward the chin or into the cheek or keep it simple and straight.
After washing your long sideburns, you should be sure to thoroughly dry the facial hair with a towel. You should then use a beard or mustache comb with fine, closely set teeth, to comb the long sideburns. This will flatten the hairs and train them to lay the way you want them to.
To neaten and trim long sideburns, you will need a beard trimmer. Start by combing the sideburns forward toward the face and then run the trimmer along the face edge of the sideburns to clip any facial hair outside the natural line. Repeat this same procedure on the back edge of the sideburns. Next, clip along the bottom edge of the sideburns, taking care to keep this line symmetric with the other side.
If you do not have a trimmer or don’t want to purchase one, you can use a good pair of scissors and a comb to trim long sideburns. Start by thinning out the sideburns by running the comb halfway through the hair and clipping the hair on top of the comb with the scissors. You can also comb the sideburns forward and backward and cut along the front and back edges of the sideburns. Finally, comb the hair downward and cut flat along the bottom edge. This clipping method is harder when the sideburns are shaped and do not have straight edges.