15 Fringe Haircuts for Men I Actually Tried
Fifteen fringes over about three years, and the thing nobody tells you is that a fringe is judged in week three, not week one. Every one of these looked good the day it was cut, and only some of them survived the fortnight after.
In this article · 22
- What I Learned to Judge Them On
- How to Choose Yours
- The 15 Fringes I Tried
- 1. The Blunt Straight Fringe
- 2. The Short Textured Crop
- 3. The Eye-Length Fringe
- 4. Fringe With a Skin Fade
- 5. Fringe With a Low Taper
- 6. The Middle Split
- 7. The Side Sweep
- 8. The Disconnected Undercut Fringe
- 9. The Air-Dried Fringe
- 10. The Wet-Cut Disaster
- 11. Fringe With a Beard
- 12. The Grown-Out Two-Block
- 13. The Self-Trimmed Fringe
- 14. The Salt Spray Fringe
- 15. Going Back to the Crop
- Styling and Upkeep
- Mistakes to Avoid
- FAQ
- Final Thoughts
I have had roughly fifteen different fringes since I first grew one out, and I kept notes on most of them because I kept making the same mistake.
A fringe is judged in week three, not week one. Every cut on this page looked good in the mirror on the day, which turns out to say almost nothing about whether it was a good decision.
Only some of them survived the fortnight after. The ones that did had something in common, and it was not the styling — it was where the length sat relative to my brow on the day it was cut.
What I Learned to Judge Them On
Week three, not week one. A fresh fringe tells you what the barber can do, not what you will be living with.
Where it sits against the brow. Above it, growth helps. Below it, growth is a countdown.
How much I had to touch it. Anything needing more than two minutes got abandoned within a month.
How it looked in the rain. A style that survives only in still air is not a haircut, it is a photograph.
How to Choose Yours
Be honest about your booking habit. A fringe that needs re-cutting fortnightly is only a good idea if you actually go fortnightly.
Ask for a position on your face, not a number. Brow level and eye level mean something. Two inches means nothing.
Let your texture make the decision. I fought my own wave for two years before I gave up and started cutting with it.
Try the short version before the long one. It is a shorter mistake to grow out.
The 15 Fringes I Tried
1. The Blunt Straight Fringe
Sharpest thing I have ever had cut and it lasted about ten days. Straight hair holds whatever line you give it, so by week two the left side was visibly longer than the right and there was nothing to hide it behind.
2. The Short Textured Crop
The one I keep coming back to. It finished above the eyebrow, which meant weeks two and three were the best it ever looked, and I ended up booking around the sides instead of the front.
3. The Eye-Length Fringe
I wanted the hair-in-the-eyes look and I got it for about four days. After that it stopped being a style and became something I pushed out of the way every ten minutes.
4. Fringe With a Skin Fade
Looked incredible for a week. The skin blurred by day ten while the fringe had barely moved, so the whole cut aged from the bottom up and I was back in the chair in a fortnight. That fortnight is the real price of a skin fade, whatever the front happens to be doing.
5. Fringe With a Low Taper
The same cut with a #1 left at the neckline instead of bare skin, and it held three to four weeks. This was the version that fixed my scheduling problem rather than my styling one.
6. The Middle Split
I do not have the hair for it. My front hairline has a cowlick slightly off centre, so one half always sat lower, and every morning was spent trying to talk it out of that.
7. The Side Sweep
The one that got the most comments at work, mainly because it covers more forehead per centimetre than a forward fringe does. It also needs the most product, which is why I stopped.
8. The Disconnected Undercut Fringe
I had this in about 2015 and it has not aged well. The hard step between the top and the sides is the single most dating feature you can put in a modern haircut. The undercut fade is the blended version that replaced it.
9. The Air-Dried Fringe
Clay on damp hair and then nothing. It looked less controlled than the blow-dried version and better for it, because air-drying leaves the root direction irregular in a way a dryer flattens out.
10. The Wet-Cut Disaster
Asked for eyebrow length, got it measured wet, and watched it dry a full centimetre higher. That is the wavy hair penalty and I now ask for it to be cut long and checked dry.
11. Fringe With a Beard
Best proportions I have had. The beard puts weight at the jaw and the fringe puts it back at the top, so the two ends of the face balance instead of one dominating.
12. The Grown-Out Two-Block
I let a two-block go for eight weeks and the step softened into something closer to a layer. It was better at week eight than at week one, which is not true of anything else on this list. Look at an overgrown two-block before you decide the step needs re-cutting.
13. The Self-Trimmed Fringe
Cut it myself, dry, forward, taking half of what looked right. It worked, and it is the only reason a longer fringe is survivable between appointments.
14. The Salt Spray Fringe
Salt at the roots instead of clay, scrunched upward. Salt roughens the cuticle so strands grip each other, which gave me lift without the weight that was flattening the front section.
15. Going Back to the Crop
Where I ended up. The crop settles the length question permanently, and the entire fringe problem is a length question wearing a styling costume.
Styling and Upkeep
Style it damp or do not bother. Product on dry hair coats the strand and does not move the root.
Own one clay and one cream. One lifts and one drops. Everything else in the cupboard was a mistake.
Finish with cold air. Hair holds the shape it is in as it cools, and thirty seconds buys most of the day.
Trim the front yourself at week two. Dry, forward, half of what looks right.
Take a photograph at week one. It is the only reliable brief for the next barber.
Mistakes to Avoid
Judging a fringe on the day it is cut. Week three is the honest test.
Asking for a length in inches. Give a position on your face instead.
Buying a skin fade you cannot maintain. It blurs in one to two weeks whatever you do.
Fighting your own growth pattern. I lost two years to this.
Letting it be measured wet. It rises as it dries and there is no undo.
FAQ
How long does a fringe last? Two to three weeks before it is in your eyes.
Which held longest? The short crop that finished above the brow.
Most common mistake? Cutting to the wet length.
Final Thoughts
If I could give one instruction back to the version of me who started this, it would be to pick the length by how it will look in three weeks rather than in three minutes. Every fringe on this list that I kept was one that got better as it grew.
For the full range of shapes see fringe haircuts for men, and for the cut I ended up on see the French crop haircut. More in Men's Haircuts.
