Finishing the top of men's haircut

Men's haircuts can be thought of as:


1. Cut side


2. Cut back


3. Cut other side


4. Connect sides and back to top
See post " Transitioning side to top in men's haircuts "

5. Finish the top.

This post is about step 5.

Flat across the top



The easiest way to finish the top is to take side to side sections across the top of the head. A horse shoe shaped section at the top of the head will help you see the boundaries for the side to side sections. This horse shoe shaped section should be low enough to include some of the connection areas from sides and back. The side to side sections will then be inside the horse shoe shaped section.


These sections will go from the connection area above the parietal ridge on one side to the connection area on the other side. The length of the hair in the connection areas on the sides will be the guide for the hair in the side to side sections.



Comb the hair in the side to side sections straight up and cut them flat with the ceiling. This is the simplest finishing of the top. It goes pretty well with most men's haircuts whether or not the sides were cut with shears or clippers. It can be used with short haircuts and with longer ones.



Because of the roundness of the head from side to side, cutting flat across the top means the hair in the middle of the top of the head is shorter compared to the hair on the sides of the top of the head. The short hair in the middle will push the hair to the sides away from the middle. This follows the sacred law that "short pushes long."


This can be useful for squaring up a man's haircut. The hair pushed to the sides will fill in the space above the parietal ridge making it less rounded.



Round across the top from side to side


For heads where the hair on top is thinning, instead of cutting the side to side sections flat with the ceiling, cut them convex. This means the center part of the section is left longer than the sides. It is achieved by cutting the hair so it follows the curvature of the head from side to side. This will make the hair longer in the middle compared to cutting it flat with the ceiling.


For more thinning on top, the curvature of the head can be exaggerated so that the hair is a good bit longer in the middle.



Some curvature at the top can be good. Too much curvature will leave the center hairs with too much length and this can weigh down the overall shape on top.



Directing the hair with point cutting



This method is usually done after the hair on top has been evened out in one of the first two steps above.

The hair on the top can be made to flow in any direction by using point cutting. For example if you can make the hair flow toward the face. Take sections on top of the head from back to front. Comb the hair in these sections straight up to the ceiling and cut angled teeth into the perimeter of the hair. The shears are held handles up toward the front of the head and points down toward the back of the section and the head. You hold the shears about 45 degrees to the scalp and cut 1/2 inch notches in sections that are about 2 inches long. The short end of the tooth will be to the back and the long part of the tooth will be to the front. Start in the back and cut successive notches or teeth toward the front. The short ends of the notches will push the long ends forward.

Directing the hair with slide cutting

This method is usually done after the hair on top has been evened out in one of the first two steps above.

Slide cutting works the same way point cutting works by making part of the hair shorter so it can push the longer hair in the desired direction .

In point cutting you cut from the ends of the hair to the middle of the hair length. In slide cutting you cut from the middle of the hair to the end.

In point cutting the handles of the shears are going in the direction of desired flow and the points are going in the direction opposite the flow . In slide cutting the handles of the shears come from the direction the flow starts and the points go in the direction of the flow.

In point cutting the shear handles are high from the scalp and the points are closer. In slide cutting, the handles of the shears are close to the scalp and the points are further away.

In both slide cutting and point cutting, sections are taken along the path of the desired hair flow.



The same methods can be used for any desired flow direction. Just take sections in the scalp in the direction you want the hair to flow. If you want the hair to flow to the right eye, take sections across the head from the back left to the right front. Cut the teeth/notches so the scissors are about 45 degrees from the scalp and the points are in the direction opposite of the desired flow. The handles of the shears would be elevated and going to the right eye. The points are going back to the left back of the head top. This can also be done by slide cutting from back left to front right.





This method works because "short pushes long." It will not work to cut notches and teeth at the ends of very long hair because short hair will not be anchored to the scalp from which it could push.