15 Trendy Boys Haircuts I Tried on My Son
I used to decide whether a haircut had worked while we were still standing in the shop. Once I started judging at week three instead, half the cuts I liked best turned out to be the worst value we had bought.
In this article · 22
- What Two Years of Week-Three Photos Told Me
- How to Choose Yours
- The 15 Haircuts We Tried
- 1. The Skin Fade That Lasted Nine Days
- 2. The High Fade That Looked Wrong Growing Out
- 3. The Mid Taper Over a Number Two That Held Three Weeks
- 4. The Low Taper I Booked Because It Was Cheapest
- 5. The Number Two All Over That Was Better in Week Two
- 6. The Number Four All Over I Thought Was Too Long
- 7. The Textured Crop I Tried to Cut Myself
- 8. The Design He Begged For
- 9. The Comb Over With a Hard Part That Lasted One Wash
- 10. The Two Block He Asked For
- 11. The Curtains That Just Kept Getting Better
- 12. The Mullet We Kept Above the Collar
- 13. The Buzz Cut We Did in the Summer Holidays
- 14. The Cut the School Sent a Note About
- 15. The Fringe I Kept Trimming Between Cuts
- Styling and Upkeep
- Mistakes to Avoid
- FAQ
- Final Thoughts
For about a year I decided whether a haircut had worked while we were still standing at the counter paying for it. My son is eight, and every one of those decisions was made about hair that was fifteen minutes old.
I stopped judging a haircut on the day and started judging it at week three. That is when he is still wearing it, still going to school in it, and nobody has touched it since.
Changing when I judged changed which cuts I book. Half the ones I liked best on the day turned out to be the worst value we had ever bought, and two I thought were dull are the only ones I have gone back for.
What Two Years of Week-Three Photos Told Me
The day-one photo is useless. Every cut looks good fifteen minutes after it was done, which means the photo tells you about the barber rather than about the haircut.
The shortest cuts changed the most. Three millimetres of growth on a three-millimetre cut doubles the length, where the same growth on a thirteen-millimetre top is barely visible.
A letter from school made me learn the guard numbers. The policy named a minimum guard rather than a style, and until then I had been choosing from photographs without knowing what any of them measured.
Length on top bought more weeks than anything else. Hair long enough to fall over the corner of the sides covers the line as it climbs, so the cut ages behind a curtain instead of on display.
How to Choose Yours
Work backwards from the next appointment. If the next slot is five weeks away, nothing with a hard line in it is going to survive to meet it.
Find the guard number in the school policy first. It is usually one line in a long document and it rules out more cuts than any other single factor.
Ask for more top length than the photograph shows. The photograph was taken on day one and top length is what pays for weeks four, five and six.
Assume no styling will happen. If the cut only works combed and dressed, it works on the day of the appointment and never again.
The 15 Haircuts We Tried
1. The Skin Fade That Lasted Nine Days
On the day this was the best haircut he has ever had, and I took four photographs of it. By day nine the bare section had grown into a soft grey band and the whole gradient had lost its bottom, and by week three there was no fade left to speak of. Verdict at week three, a poor buy, and it is the cut that taught me to stop judging on the day.
2. The High Fade That Looked Wrong Growing Out
I assumed a higher line would last longer, and in one sense it did, because there was more hair above it for the blur to disappear into. What I had not expected was that the shortest section sat so high that the growing-out phase read as a band around the head rather than as length at the bottom. Verdict at week three, better than the skin fade and still not something I would book again for a normal month.
3. The Mid Taper Over a Number Two That Held Three Weeks
This was the first cut that looked essentially the same in the week-three photo as in the day-one one. The line sat between the temple and the ridge above it and never went shorter than six millimetres, so there was no bare skin to grow back and the step it had to cross was small. Verdict at week three, the best cut we have bought, and the one I now ask for by description.
4. The Low Taper I Booked Because It Was Cheapest
I picked this one purely on price on a week when the diary was full. The low line meant the shortest point sat below the temple where his ears and collar hide most of it anyway, so the growing-out simply happened somewhere nobody looks. Verdict at week three, far better than it deserved to be, and a useful reminder that a line you cannot see cannot look blurred.
5. The Number Two All Over That Was Better in Week Two
On the day I thought we had made a mistake, because six millimetres everywhere looked flat and severe and had no shape in it at all. Two weeks later it had grown into about a centimetre with no line anywhere to go out of focus, and it was the first time I had seen a haircut improve. Verdict at week three, genuinely good value, though the fortnight of looking bare is the price you pay upfront.
6. The Number Four All Over I Thought Was Too Long
I nearly asked for something shorter in the chair because thirteen millimetres looked like no haircut at all. It turned out to be the only cut that went seven weeks without me thinking about it once, because there was no edge, no contrast and nothing to maintain. It is the same guard I had already landed on when he was a toddler, and for exactly the same reason. Verdict at week three, unremarkable and completely fine, which is exactly what I now want most weeks.
7. The Textured Crop I Tried to Cut Myself
I got the sides right and then clippered the top, which gave one flat plane that showed every dip in his skull. The fix was scissors over a comb the following weekend, and once the ends were slightly uneven it finally looked like the photograph I had been working from. Verdict at week three, decent after the second attempt, and the lesson is that the top is a scissor job.
8. The Design He Begged For
Two lines shaved into one side, which he was delighted with and which looked sharp for about six days. Shaved lines are the narrowest gap on the whole head, so they close first, and by week two they had gone from a design to two vague smudges. Verdict at week three, a short-lived novelty, and worth doing only at the start of a holiday.
9. The Comb Over With a Hard Part That Lasted One Wash
The barber set the parting with a razor and dressed the top into a comb over, and it looked like a proper haircut for exactly as long as that styling lasted. Once it had been washed the top had no instructions in it and simply fell forward, and nobody in this house was going to comb it every morning. Verdict at week three, a cut that needed a routine we never had.
10. The Two Block He Asked For
The heavy top and the short back sit as two separate blocks rather than as a gradient, so there is no blend that can go out of focus. The top grew and the disconnection stayed exactly where it was, which meant week four looked like week one with slightly longer hair. Verdict at week three, one of the few sharp-looking cuts that ages well.
11. The Curtains That Just Kept Getting Better
Two weeks in, the front had grown enough to split properly and fall either side instead of sitting as one lump. Long shapes have no shortest point at all, so growth adds to them rather than eroding them, and this is the only cut where week six was the best week. Verdict at week three, still improving, and the cheapest cut per month we have had.
12. The Mullet We Kept Above the Collar
He wanted length at the back and the uniform policy has a rule about hair touching the collar, so we kept it deliberately short of it. That gave us about three weeks of margin before it needed trimming, which turned out to be the same interval as everything else. Verdict at week three, fine, and the back is now the part I check rather than the sides.
13. The Buzz Cut We Did in the Summer Holidays
Six weeks with no uniform rules is the only window where we could go properly short without checking anything. It grew out through several usable lengths rather than out of shape, because a single length has nothing to lose, and it needed no attention at all for the whole holiday. Verdict at week three, excellent for summer and wrong for term time.
14. The Cut the School Sent a Note About
The note did not mention the style at all, it mentioned the length, because the policy names a minimum guard and the bottom of that cut went below it. I had chosen it from a photograph without knowing what number the shortest part was. Verdict at week three, it had already grown back into the rules by then, which is its own comment on how fast his hair moves.
15. The Fringe I Kept Trimming Between Cuts
The fringe reaches his eyebrows about two weeks before anything else needs doing, so I started taking a few millimetres off it on its own. It buys another fortnight out of the same haircut for two minutes of work, and it is the highest return of anything I do. Verdict at week three, the cheapest improvement on this whole list.
Styling and Upkeep
Take the week-three photo, not the day-one one. It is the only picture that tells you whether to book that cut again.
Trim the fringe on its own. It grows into his eyeline long before the sides need anything.
Ask for the top longer than the photograph. The photograph never has to survive to week four.
Keep the numbers in your phone. I have the line height and the guard written down and I read them out at every appointment.
Do not tidy a blurring line yourself. Every attempt moves it higher up the head, and I have made that particular mistake twice.
Mistakes to Avoid
Choosing from a photograph without knowing the guard number. That is how we ended up with a note from school.
Booking a fade with a five-week gap after it. You have paid for a look you will have for less than half the time.
Expecting a styled cut to survive a wash. If it needed dressing in the shop, it needs dressing every day, and it will not get it.
Going shorter to make the cut last longer. Short cuts change proportionally faster, so it does the opposite.
Judging the sides in a bathroom mirror. The part that ages is behind the ear, where the front view never shows it.
FAQ
Which cut did we go back for? The mid taper stopping at a number two, with plenty of length left on top.
What surprised me most? That a number two all over looked better in week two than on the day.
What do I check before booking now? The guard number in the school policy and the date of the next free appointment.
Final Thoughts
The only change I made was moving the moment of judgement from the shop counter to a Wednesday morning three weeks later, and it quietly rearranged the whole list. The cuts that win that test are the ones with no bare skin at the bottom and enough length on top to hang over the corner, and they are almost never the ones that photograph best on the day.
For the version that suits curl see curly haircuts for boys, and for the disconnected shape at number ten see the two block haircut for boys. More in Men's Haircuts.
