The origin of the name of the anchor beard is pretty clear—the beard looks like a nautical anchor! The moustache makes up the two arms of the stock, the soul patch is the shank, and the body of your beard makes up the two arms of the anchor’s base. Trimming this beard style however, is a bit more complicated than just pointing out the parts on an anchor.
Grab your beard trimmers, this beard style is neat and tidy, with minimal long, loose facial hairs. The anchor goatee style has no sideburns or mutton chops and no cheek hair. It sits on your chin and under your lower lip, and the moustache is kept short and contained. It’s similar to a Van Dyke or a Balbo beard (or even a ducktail beard), however those are bigger and thicker than the simple anchor beard.
The anchor beard style takes a bit of skill to perfect, so if you’re not 100% happy with it the first time, don’t worry, plenty before you have had the same experience. It does require beard care like most short beard styles, you need to keep your anchor beard trimmed and styled, keeping the hair shorter and neater than bigger beard styles.