15 High Fade Haircuts I Tried and Loved
A high fade uncovers skin that has been under hair since childhood, and the first few taught me things about my own scalp I had never had cause to learn. These are the fifteen that came out well and what each one showed.
In this article · 22
- What the Height Actually Exposes
- How to Choose Yours
- The 15 High Fades I Tried
- 1. The First High Skin Fade
- 2. The High Taper I Should Have Started With
- 3. The One That Found a Scar
- 4. The One With a Millimetre Left Over the Scar
- 5. The One I Sunburned
- 6. High Fade With a Short Top
- 7. High Fade With a Longer Top
- 8. High Fade With a Textured Crop
- 9. High Fade Slick Back
- 10. High Fade With a Hard Part
- 11. High Fade With an Unfaded Beard
- 12. High Fade With the Beard Faded to Match
- 13. High Drop Fade
- 14. High Fade Grown Out Six Weeks
- 15. The One I Kept
- Styling and Upkeep
- Mistakes to Avoid
- FAQ
- Final Thoughts
I started the year wanting the sharpest cut on the board and ended it knowing more about the skin above my own ears than I ever expected to.
Every one of them began at the parietal ridge or higher, which is the only thing that makes a fade a high one. It uncovers everything from there down to the ear and around the back.
All of which had been under hair since I was a child. A scar I had forgotten about, a difference in tone between the sides, and skin that burns in an afternoon.
What the Height Actually Exposes
The whole side panel goes. From the ear up to the widest point of the skull.
And the back goes with it. Which is half the exposed area and the half you never see.
Whatever is up there becomes public. Scars, tone differences and density all read at conversational distance.
The top has to carry the shape alone. No side weight is left to balance anything.
How to Choose Yours
Look at your own scalp before you book. Everything on it is about to be visible.
Add a centimetre to the top. More than a mid fade needs, because nothing else is holding the shape.
Start with a taper floor. A #1 at 3mm gets most of the effect and forgives more.
Photograph the back every time. It is half the cut and the half you cannot check.
The 15 High Fades I Tried
1. The First High Skin Fade
Sharpest haircut I had ever had, and it lasted about nine days. A skin fade blurs in one to two weeks, and at this height the blur is much more obvious than it is lower down.
2. The High Taper I Should Have Started With
A #1 at 3mm floor instead of skin, which is properly a high taper fade. Nearly the same look on day one and still convincing on day twenty, which is why it became my default.
3. The One That Found a Scar
A two-centimetre line above my right ear from a childhood accident. Nobody mentioned it, but I saw it in every photograph for three weeks. It had been under hair since I was nine and I had genuinely forgotten it existed.
4. The One With a Millimetre Left Over the Scar
Same cut, with the barber leaving a fraction more length in that one spot. It is a normal request and it worked completely.
5. The One I Sunburned
An afternoon outdoors in the first week. That skin has been under hair its whole life and it burns faster than anywhere else on your head. It peeled across the whole faded panel, which looks exactly as bad as it sounds.
6. High Fade With a Short Top
Three centimetres, which turned out to be a mistake. With bare sides and a short top there is almost no silhouette left, and my head read narrow from every angle. It also grew out badly, because the top caught up with the blend within a fortnight.
7. High Fade With a Longer Top
Six centimetres instead. The extra length gave the head back a shape, and this was the single biggest improvement of the year.
8. High Fade With a Textured Crop
Point-cut ends built upward rather than outward. There is no overhang above the parietal ridge, so texture has to be visible from the front instead of as a side shadow.
9. High Fade Slick Back
Everything combed off the face, the arrangement collected in high fade slick back haircuts. The most exposing arrangement I tried, and the one that only looked right in the first four days.
10. High Fade With a Hard Part
A razored line running into the blend. It gave the head a vertical to read against all that horizontal, and it outlasted the fade's own edge.
11. High Fade With an Unfaded Beard
Bare skin sitting directly against a full beard. The contrast was too much, and it was the only cut of the year I actively disliked.
12. High Fade With the Beard Faded to Match
Same cut, beard graduated from short at the sideburn to full at the chin, which is the standard fix throughout high fade ideas with a beard. Two gradients instead of a step, and it fixed the problem entirely.
13. High Drop Fade
The line dropping behind the ear. It softened the back while keeping the full lengthening effect at the front, which suited me better than the straight version.
14. High Fade Grown Out Six Weeks
The sides had reached roughly mid-fade length. It takes about a season for a high fade to disappear completely, which is worth knowing before the first one.
15. The One I Kept
Line at the parietal ridge, #1 taper floor, six centimetres on top with texture built upward, beard faded to match, rebooked every three weeks. Sharp on day one and still deliberate on day nineteen.
Styling and Upkeep
Moisturise the exposed skin daily. It shows dryness that a mid fade would have hidden.
Wear sunscreen on the sides. The first burn taught me this and the second would have been avoidable.
Use a firmer hold on top. The shape has no side support and light product drops by lunchtime.
Rebook by finish. I ran both across the year and the numbers held exactly: one to two weeks before a skin finish looked soft, three to four before a taper did.
Photograph the back as well as the sides. It is half the exposed area.
Mistakes to Avoid
Booking a skin finish and rebooking at four weeks. You wear a blurred fade for half the cycle.
Cutting the top short at the same time. The head ends up narrow from every direction.
Leaving a full beard unfaded. It is the highest contrast a face can carry.
Forgetting sunscreen in week one. Scalp that has never been exposed has no tolerance built up at all, and it goes over in a single afternoon.
Not mentioning a scar. A millimetre of extra length over it costs nothing to ask for.
FAQ
What surprised you most? How much scalp becomes public at this height.
Does it need a longer top? Yes, a centimetre or two more than a mid fade.
How often did you rebook? Ten days for skin and three weeks for the taper.
Final Thoughts
The high fade is worth the fuss if your face suits it, and the fuss is real. Look at your scalp before the first one, leave the top longer than instinct suggests, fade the beard if you have one, and put sunscreen on the sides in the first week. Do those four things and it is the sharpest cut available.
For the full range of the cut see the high fade haircut guide, and for the same experiment on a softer blend see 15 taper fades I tried. More in Fade Haircuts.
