Every guy still has this haircut?
Chances are, if you’re observant, you may have noticed that every other guy these days seems to sport more or less the same haircut. From your boyfriend or brother to your co-worker and perhaps even your gym trainer, all of them appear to have asked their barbers for identical styles: short or buzzed on the sides, longer on top, then slicked back with a touch of pomade. Some even have tramlines to emphasize where they parted their hair.
“I think it goes along with a newly restored romance for tailoring, the cut and craftsmanship you see with this current heritage trend,” said The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman to the New York Times in 2011. Four years on, super-tight sides are still the go-to cut for young men.
CONTROVERSIAL ROOTS
While an increasing number of gentlemen continue to sport this haircut, probably only a few are aware that this style has controversial roots. Referred to as The Hitler Youth cut, the buzzed temples and flopping forelocks trace their way back to the days of fascism. Search for the 1935 Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will to spot early versions of today’s popular undercut.
On the other hand, men, including a handful of celebrities, have cottoned on to it despite the totalitarian connotations because it’s easy to dress up or down. Justin Timberlake has been coiffed like this since he released “The 20/20 Experience” in 2013. Brad Pitt’s hairstyle in last year’s Fury looked like a more extreme form of his do in 2009’s Inglourious Basterds. Early this week, even pop star Austin Mahone posted an Instagram photo of himself with much shorter sides and the top combed back. Alas, Amon Goeth, Ralph Fiennes’s character in 1993’s Schindler’s List, remains the pop culture paragon for this haircut.
FLATTERING CUT
I myself have been loyal to it for quite some time. And why not? The cut is very flattering and the high sides give the illusion of a slimmer face. As a teen, I was stuck with The Caesar, slathering my short crop with gel. In hindsight, with my tiny bangs pushed up, it made me look like the Statue of Liberty. Pushed down, it evoked Eminem. (In both instances, yikes.) Then I rocked The Fin, which was how this pre-David Beckham version of the fauxhawk was known in East London; I have a passport and a couple of student IDs to remind me of the time I looked like an egg with a longitudinal hair appendage.
Fortunately, I grew that out during my British indie rock phase and ended up with — depending on my mood — sideswept bangs, a bedhead or both. The goal was to look like I was part of Babyshambles. Then came my infatuation with nu-rave, when I got a modified mullet — again, yikes — followed by a military crop when it seemed the world was wearing Bieber hair.
Until the late 2000s, my thick, slightly wavy mane handicapped my dream of growing it into something I could actually fix in different ways. My current hairstyle, a more laidback version of Alex Turner’s rockabilly quiff, evolved from the time I had my locks shorn à la Bjorn Lothbrok, whose haircut in Season 1 of Vikings in 2013 was the coolest I had ever seen.
NATURAL PROGRESSION
While I’m still enjoying my 21st-century undercut — for the first time I have enough hair to push up, sweep forward, and part to either side — I can’t help but be uncomfortable with the fact that it’s such a mainstream look now. The Man Bun, a natural progression, was cool a year ago and looks best with facial hair, which I can’t grow. I’ve always been fascinated by surfer-type hair, but my hair is so lush that I fear the daily maintenance of it. (Besides, I don’t want to look like a lion in this humidity.)
I’ve come so far only to have my hair cropped yet again. Maybe I’ll experiment with slightly lower fades or a little more length on the sides. Until then, I’ll keep searching for a new, clean-cut look, hopefully one without a connection to a German dictator.
* * *
