Cutting beard with hair clippers

Irish Guitarist

I grew a beard last year and until a few months ago I was using a beard trimmer to keep it tidy (there's no way I could use a scissors without messing it up). The problem with that was the trimmer only goes to half an inch. i wanted it a little longer so I started using my hair clipper with a grade 5 attachment (which is 5/8 inch).

Now I'd like it a bit longer than that. I haven't trimmed my beard (apart from the moustache which I trim with a scissors to keep it from hanging over my lip) in about a month and I think it may be a little over an inch long. The longest attachment on my hair clipper is grade 8 (1 inch) so I bought a grade 10 attachment (1 1/4 inch) on eBay. I've also ordered a grade 12 (1 1/2 inch) and grade 16 (2 inches). I got the grade 10 in the post but the others haven't arrived yet.

I was planning on using the grade 10 attachment and keeping my beard an inch and a quarter for a while, then letting it grow sometime in the future and using the grade 12, then eventually the grade 16.

I was doing a decent job with the grade 5 attachment and I think I'd be okay with the other supplied attachments. The problem is the grade 10 attachment I purchased is made completely differently to the ones that are supplied with the clipper. Instead of seven teeth it only has five and they're made from really flimsy plastic. I'm afraid the teeth will bend around so much it will leave my beard uneven, or even worse the teeth could snap off and totally destroy the beard.

This is a picture of the grade 10 attachment (the white one) next to a grade 8 (the black one). Does it look like this could potentially destroy my beard?

we'llallhavetea

just go slowly, should be totally fine! i presume it only has 5 teeth because 7 teeth could get tangled in that length of hair.
(hair stylist)

Skatedude

Just a steady hand and for feck's sake, don't sneeze.

Skatedude

Or Laugh.

beardybrewer

To grow your beard out properly eventually you'll have to move to scissors. It's not as hard as you might think. I found longer scissors were better at keeping straight lines. So rather than using your moustache scissors get something like this:
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Stainless-Steel-Hair-Scissors-Salon-Cutting-Thinning-Shears-Regular-Professional-/191857043607

Often I'll do the bulk of the trim, erring on the side of caution. Brush/comb it out, then tidy. Sometimes I'll do another tidy or two over the next couple days to get it just right.