Back to School Haircuts for Boys

The back to school haircuts for boys that actually work are the plain ones. A short back and sides, a crew cut, or a taper with some length left on top. All three sit inside almost any uniform policy, all three still look tidy well into term, and none of them ask a ten year old to do anything to his hair before school. The mistake most parents make is going too short in the last week of August, then finding it has grown into something else by the second week of September.

Read the uniform policy before you book

Every school words this differently and the wording is the only thing that counts. We will cut whatever your school allows, but we cannot tell you what your school means by "extreme", and neither can the internet.

Two things generally sit behind that word. Shaved patterns or lines cut into the sides, which almost no policy allows. And a fade taken all the way to bare skin, which some schools read as extreme and others do not mention at all.

The useful move is to bring the actual sentence with you, or a number. If the policy says nothing shorter than a grade two, that is something a barber can work with straight away. If it just says smart and conventional, tell us the school and how strict they have been in the past, and we will keep it on the safe side of the line. Growing a cut out is easy. Explaining one on the first morning of term is not.

Four back to school haircuts for boys that hold up

Short back and sides, £14, 20 minutes. The default, and it earns it. Clippers up the back and sides to a two or a three, scissors on top, neckline tidied. There is no hard line in it, so it softens rather than collapses as it grows, and it needs no product at all.

Crew cut, £10, 20 minutes. One guard over the whole head, edges cleaned up. For a boy who will not go near a comb, this is the least effort per week of anything we cut, and it is the cheapest thing on the price list. It is also the one to think twice about if he is self-conscious, because it hides nothing.

Taper fade, £17, 40 minutes. For older boys who want it sharp. The sides drop to a one or a half rather than to skin, so it grows out clean instead of blurry and buys you an extra week or two before the next visit. We steer a lot of teenagers here from the skin fade, which looks its best for about ten days and then wants you back.

Haircut with a crop on top, £15, 30 minutes. Scissors doing most of the work, fringe left blunt and pushed forward. This is the one for thick hair with a cowlick at the crown, and it is the one to ask for if he does not like the noise of clippers, because the top can be done without them.

How long each one lasts, and how to time it

Hair grows about a centimetre a month, which is why the shorter the cut the faster it stops being the cut you paid for. A crew cut at a two has doubled in length by week three. A scissor cut on top holds its shape for four weeks and still looks intentional at five.

Term runs to half term at the end of October, so most boys need two cuts across it: one in the days before term, one about four weeks later, then a tidy in half term week itself. A weekday morning in half term is the easiest slot in the calendar to get, because he is not in school and the shop is quieter before lunch than it is after three.

If you want to pick the guard number yourself rather than leaving it to us, we wrote up what each clipper grade actually leaves behind, and the same arithmetic on regrowth is behind how often to come back for a haircut at any length.

The last week of August is the one to plan around

Carnival lands on Sunday 30 and Monday 31 August this year, with the Sunday as family day, and getting across this corner of West London is slower all weekend. Term starts in the first week of September. That leaves a narrow gap where every parent between Harrow Road and Warwick Avenue has the same thought at the same time.

So come in before carnival weekend if you can, or take a weekday slot in the first days of September. We run six chairs and we take walk-ins, but the Saturday before term is the one day of the year we would spend two minutes booking a slot rather than chancing it.

We are open until 7:30pm Monday to Saturday and 10:00am to 6:30pm on Sunday, so an after-work slot in the week is usually there if the weekend has gone.

If he does not like the chair

Say so when you arrive, before anything is switched on. A boy who has had one bad haircut will sit rigid through every one after it, and the fix is mostly about order and pace.

What we do with a nervous kid: start at the back where he cannot see, use the scissors first so the first thing he feels is not a vibration, and let him hold the clipper and hear it running before it goes anywhere near his neck. Six chairs going at once helps more than you would think, because there is usually a grown man in the next seat having the same thing done and not minding it.

Two things you can do. Do not book him straight after school when he is tired and hungry, and do not tell him it will be two minutes if you have booked a 40 minute taper. Book the 20 minute cut for a first visit and save the fade for when he asks for it himself.

What to ask for

Three pieces of information get you the right cut. How short at the sides, as a guard number if you know one. How much off the top, in inches or fingers rather than adjectives. And whether the school allows a fade at all.

If you do not know the number, tell us what you want it to look like at half term rather than tomorrow, and we will pick the guard that gets there. It is a different answer from the one that looks best on the day, and for a school haircut it is the answer that matters.

If you have just moved into the area and are still working out where to take him, how to judge a barber in Maida Vale covers what we would check ourselves, and is honest about who this shop does not suit.