in addition to smedstad's excellent advice, something you may want to consider -- check out YouTube and some of the various tutorials there, notably from Beardbrand and The Beard Baron. Both have a variety of excellent vids on different topics to help us through this process.

Regarding your follow up question about trimming the sideburns, some guys use scissors, some use a trimmer with an attachment.   Just depends on preference and how adept one is with using scissors versus a trimmer.   As an example, The Beard Baron (who has an epic beard)  uses a trimmer and as Smedstad stated, advocates less rather than more.  Start with less than you think, regardless of the method.  

Last Edited By: Thom02099 Mar 27 16 3:49 PM. Edited 1 times.