The Long and the Cool : Men Go to New Lengths--the Sideburn--to Get That ‘Masculine,’ ‘Rebellious’ Look

Sideburns or no sideburns, that is the question for the man who wants to try something new this spring.

Maybe teen heartthrobs Luke Perry and Jason Priestley of “Beverly Hills, 90210” will sway the vote. They now wear long, narrow burns.

Geri Cusenza, creative director for Woodland Hills-based Sebastian International, considers the sideburn revival part of a trend she calls face patterning. “They flatter a man’s face and bone structure with hair, the way makeup flatters a woman.”

There is more than one way to shape a sideburn. But no matter what the shape, Mitchell Field of Antenna salon in Burbank has a system for judging length. He puts his index finger on the center of the jawbone and his thumb at the end of the chin. Half that distance is the right length.

Shape is important too. Cusenza suggests that men with square-shaped faces wear sideburns just above the tip of the earlobe, angled and slightly longer toward the back. Round faces should wear sideburns even with the tip of the earlobe. And men with oval faces--the near-perfect shape--are ideal candidates for the pointed style.

Pointed, “Star Trek” sideburns top the request list at Stylesville in Pacoima. A newer option is the update on the Elvis “chop,” a sideburn with a pencil-thin line shaved into it.

Even some businessmen have started wearing sedate sideburns, salon owners say. “They can’t have long hair, so they go for sideburns,” owner Jesse Lynn Martinez, of the George Michael of Madison Avenue salon in Los Angeles, says of the suit crowd.

“They make me feel more masculine, sexier and a little more rebellious,” says Steve Dupin, a dancer and actor who has been wearing longer sideburns for about two months.

They require a touch-up about twice a month, but many stylists say they teach clients how to do the trims at home.