Fading your sideburns into your beard is essential to maintaining your beard's shape, and keeping a beard well-shaped can be a challenge for neophyte beardsmen. Beards can grow unevenly on different parts of the face, requiring frequent trims and touch-ups. For easier fading, it's best to trim your beard prior to cutting your sideburns so that you have an established short length to base your fade on.
Wash, Trim and Fade
Wash your beard with warm water and soap and then pat yourself dry with a towel. Brush or comb your beard so that all of your beard and sideburn hair face downwardly. Decide how long you want your beard to be and then click the comb on your trimmer to the proper setting.
Hold the trimmer upside down with the comb facing away from you when trimming. Decide where you would like your sideburns to fade into your beard and then start trimming your beard there, taking downward strokes. Continue to trimming in this manner until the length of your beard is uniform.
Remove the comb from the trimmer. Comb all of your sideburn hair forward and trim it upwardly in a vertical line, starting where your sideburns end and your beard begins.
Comb the rest of your sideburns back across the ear, using the comb to hold the hair in place at an angle consistent with the ear line and your beard. Trim the hair sticking out along the comb. Repeat this process until your sideburns fade into your beard in the manner you desire. Trim away any extraneous hairs with scissors.