15 Curly Hair Boy Styles I Tried on My Son
Fifteen cuts over about four years, several of which were mistakes I made twice. The pattern that emerged was simple, which is that every failure came from asking his hair to be styled by someone who was never going to style it.
In this article · 22
- What I Got Wrong for Two Years
- How to Choose Yours
- The 15 Styles I Tried
- 1. The Panic Buzz
- 2. The Long Grow-Out Mop
- 3. The Low Taper
- 4. The Skin Fade
- 5. The Fringe Cut Straight Across
- 6. The Broccoli Cut
- 7. The Middle Part
- 8. The Walk-In Wet Cut
- 9. The Dry Cut at a Curl Specialist
- 10. The Top Knot Phase
- 11. The Bowl Cut
- 12. The Kitchen Scissors Trim
- 13. The Nape-Only Trim
- 14. The Two Block
- 15. Where We Landed
- Styling and Upkeep
- Mistakes to Avoid
- FAQ
- Final Thoughts
Four years, one head of curls, and a run of haircuts that ranged from excellent to genuinely regrettable.
Almost every failure had the same cause. I chose shapes that needed styling for a child who has never once styled his hair and shows no sign of starting.
The other half came from wet cutting. Curls lose about a third of their length as they dry, and I paid for that lesson at least four times before I connected the two facts.
What I Got Wrong for Two Years
I let every cut be done wet. The result looked right in the chair and short by dinner, every single time.
I brushed it before school. Brushing dry curls separates the clumps that create definition, so I was manufacturing the frizz I was trying to fix.
I bought products before I bought a pillowcase. Satin fixed more overnight damage than anything on the shelf reversed the next morning.
I read the matted nape as neglect. It is friction from collars, pillows and a car seat headrest, and no amount of extra washing touches it.
How to Choose Yours
Assume nothing will be done to it. If the shape needs product to read correctly, it will be worn wrong for six weeks.
Ask for a dry cut and be prepared to change barber over it. It is the single highest-value change on this list.
Choose the version that looks good in week four. Week one flatters everything.
Solve the nape first. Most of what looked like a bad haircut turned out to be a friction problem at the back.
The 15 Styles I Tried
1. The Panic Buzz
Everything off with a #2 after a matting incident got out of hand. It solved the immediate problem entirely, and the honest verdict is that it was the right call badly timed, because at 6mm the curl pattern disappeared completely.
2. The Long Grow-Out Mop
Nine months of no cuts at all. It looked wonderful for about four weeks in the middle and required a full detangling session every single evening, which is the part nobody photographs.
3. The Low Taper
Curls untouched on top with the perimeter graduated to a #1. This is the one we came back to, because it holds for three to four weeks and asks for nothing in the mornings.
4. The Skin Fade
Sharp for about ten days and shapeless by day twenty. It is a good haircut on a fortnightly schedule and we were never going to keep a fortnightly schedule.
5. The Fringe Cut Straight Across
Cut level and dried into a staircase within an hour. Each curl draws up by a different amount, so a blunt line across curly hair cannot stay level once it dries.
6. The Broccoli Cut
Requested by him, after seeing it at school and recognising it from the broccoli haircut doing the rounds online. His pattern is loose enough that it worked, but it needed the top left much longer than the reference photo suggested to survive shrinkage.
7. The Middle Part
Lasted three days. He has a strong cowlick at the front hairline, and a centre part needs both sides to fall with similar weight to hold on its own.
8. The Walk-In Wet Cut
Booked in a hurry, cut soaking, finished four centimetres shorter than asked for. This happened often enough that it stopped being bad luck and started being a method problem.
9. The Dry Cut at a Curl Specialist
More expensive, twice as long in the chair, and the first haircut that came out the length I asked for. Seeing the curls in their finished state during the cut removes all the guesswork.
10. The Top Knot Phase
Long enough to gather at the crown, tied loosely, worn for a summer. Tying it high kept the weight off the nape, which quietly halved the matting we had been fighting all year.
11. The Bowl Cut
Attempted with a clean round perimeter and abandoned quickly. On curl a hard outline reads as a helmet, and softening the edge afterwards is what made it wearable.
12. The Kitchen Scissors Trim
A home attempt during a week we could not get an appointment, made without reading anything about cutting a child's hair at home first. Cutting curls in a straight line without point cutting left a visible shelf that took two months to grow past.
13. The Nape-Only Trim
Three minutes with a guard on the hair below the occipital bone. It changed nothing about how he looked and removed most of the matting, which makes it the best value cut on this page.
14. The Two Block
Longer top disconnected from much shorter sides, borrowed from the two block on boys. On curls the top falls over the disconnection and hides the hard line, which made it far softer than the same cut looks on straight hair.
15. Where We Landed
A dry-cut low taper every six weeks, a nape tidy in between, water in the morning and nothing else. It is unglamorous and it has survived longer than every more interesting thing on this list.
Styling and Upkeep
Water in the morning, and nothing else on short cuts. Ten seconds resets whatever the pillow did.
Moved every detangle into the bath and left the conditioner in until it was finished. It removed the argument entirely, which no product ever managed.
Satin pillowcase before any product purchase. It was the cheapest thing we bought and the most effective.
Trim the nape between full appointments. Three minutes at home buys an extra week or two.
Photograph the cut in week one. It is the only reliable way to ask for the same thing again.
Mistakes to Avoid
Cutting wet. About a third of the length comes back as it dries and by then the cut is finished.
Brushing before school. It separates the clumps that were holding the shape together.
Choosing a fade you cannot maintain fortnightly. It looks neglected for most of its life.
Cutting a fringe straight across. It dries into a staircase every time.
Blaming the child for the nape. It is friction, not neglect, and shortening that patch is the fix.
FAQ
Biggest mistake? Wet cutting, repeatedly, because a third of the length returns as it dries.
Least work? A low taper with the curls left alone and water in the morning.
Was a specialist worth it? Yes, mainly because a dry cut removes the guesswork about finished length.
Final Thoughts
If I could hand one instruction back to myself four years ago it would be to ask for a dry cut and stop buying products. Everything that worked came from making the haircut carry the load, and everything that failed came from expecting a child to finish the job every morning.
For the shape we settled on see curly hair boy ideas with a taper, and for the wider catalogue read curly haircuts for boys. More in Men's Haircuts.
