The best summer haircuts for men are the ones that still look right after a sweaty Bakerloo line commute. That rules out anything relying on product to hold a shape, and anything so short it goes patchy in ten days. What works is weight off the sides and back, enough length left on top to style with your fingers, and a neckline sharp enough that it does not look scruffy by the weekend.
Between June and September the six chairs here run on repeat with about five cuts. Here is what they are, who they suit, and what to ask for.
What actually changes when it gets hot
Three things. You sweat, so anything greasy in your hair slides and your scalp itches. Your hair grows slightly faster, so the line at the back softens sooner than you expect. And you are outdoors more, so a cut with hard geometry catches the light and shows every mistake.
That is why we take a bit more off the sides in summer and slightly less off the top. Air gets to your scalp, the shape holds when you are damp, and you keep enough length to look intentional rather than shorn.
The five we cut most in summer
Skin fade with a bit of length on top, £17, 40 minutes. The most-booked chair in the shop, and for good reason. Bald at the bottom, blended up, two or three inches left on top. Cool, sharp, and it photographs well. The catch is upkeep. A skin fade is at its best for about ten days, respectable for three weeks, and gone by four.
Premium taper fade, £17, 40 minutes. A taper keeps a little length as it drops instead of going to skin, so it grows out clean rather than blurry. If you cannot get back every fortnight, take this over the skin fade. We push a lot of customers towards it in August when everyone is away for two weeks.
Crew cut, £10, 20 minutes. One guard over the top and sides, tidied at the edges. No product, no styling, nothing to think about at 7am. It is the cheapest haircut on our price list and the one men come back to when they have had enough of maintenance.
Short back and sides with a French crop on top, £14, 20 minutes. Ask for the fringe left blunt and pushed forward. It hides a receding hairline better than anything else we cut, and it works with sweat because the texture is meant to look a bit lived in.
Head shave with a straight razor, £18, 30 minutes. If you are already thinning, summer is the easiest time to commit. Hot towel first, straight edge after, and the finish lasts a couple of days longer than a home shave. Wear a hat for the first week, because a freshly shaved scalp burns fast.
What to ask for so you get what you pictured
Photos help, but the words matter more. Tell us three things: how short at the bottom, how much off the top, and whether you want the line at the front hard or soft.
Guard numbers are the shortcut. A 0 is skin, a 1 is about 3mm, a 2 is 6mm, and so on up. "A 1 on the sides fading into a 3, scissors on top, take about an inch off, keep the fringe" is a complete brief and takes eight seconds to say.
Two things worth saying out loud if they apply to you. If you have a cowlick at the crown, mention it, because it decides how short the top can safely go. And if your hair goes curly the second it is humid, say so, because we will leave a different amount of weight in it than we would on straight hair.
How often to come back
A fade needs a fortnight. A scissor cut on top holds three to four weeks. Beards drift faster than most men expect in summer because the edges soften with sweat, and a beard trim at £11 in fifteen minutes buys back most of the shape.
If you are going away, come in the week before rather than the week of. A cut settles after two or three days and looks its best somewhere around day four, which is also when you want to be by a pool rather than in our chair.
If you are going somewhere hot
Chlorine and salt water both dry your hair out and dull the colour, and if you have anything bleached in it they will turn it brassy. Rinse your head with fresh water before you get in the pool, and again after. Wet hair absorbs less chlorine than dry hair, which is the opposite of what most people assume.
Sun on a bare scalp is the one that catches men out. A skin fade or a shave leaves the top of your head with no cover at all, and the burn lands on the crown where you cannot see it. Cap, or factor 50 on the parting.
Come in, tell us where you are going and how much effort you are prepared to put in when you get there, and we will pick the cut around that. If you are not sure what suits your face to begin with, that is the conversation we have before the clippers come out and it does not cost anything.
