What Is a Caesar Cut? Two Cuts, One Name

A Caesar cut is short hair cut to one even length all over the top, brought forward into a short fringe that runs straight across the forehead. That much everyone agrees on. The trouble is that two different haircuts answer to the name. One is a scissor cut with an inch or two on top and a soft, blunt fringe. The other is a clipper cut, a few millimetres all over, with the front hairline edged dead straight. Both are a Caesar. Ask for one and you might get the other.

Two haircuts called a Caesar cut

The word reaches our chairs from two directions. To a man with straight hair who remembers George Clooney's in ER, "Caesar" means scissors and a fringe. To a man with tight curls it usually means a short clipper cut with a hard edge at the front, often worn brushed so the waves show. Neither of them is wrong. They just mean different haircuts.

	Scissor Caesar	Clipper Caesar
Length on top	About 2 to 5 cm, one length	3 to 6 mm, a 1 or a 2 guard
The fringe	Short, blunt, combed forward	No fringe as such, the hairline is the fringe
Front edge	Cut with scissors, soft	Lined straight with trimmers
Sides	Scissor tapered, or faded under it	Same guard as the top, or faded
Best on	Straight or wavy hair	Afro and tight curl hair
Looks sharp for	Four to five weeks	One to two weeks
Booked here as	Haircut, £15, 30 minutes	Crew Cut, £10, 20 minutes

The table is the whole post in short. The rest is the detail that decides which column you are in.

The scissor Caesar

This is the one most style sites mean. The top is cut to one length, roughly an inch, and combed forward so it all ends at the front in a short horizontal fringe. The sides are tapered short with scissors in the old version. These days most men want them faded under it.

It is the parent of the French crop, and the difference between the two is small enough that we have already set it out in our French crop guide rather than repeat it here. The short version: a Caesar is flatter and more uniform, the crop has more texture through the top and more fringe.

Where it works:

• Straight hair on a full or slightly thinning crown. One even length lies flat and reads as denser than layers do.
• Temples starting to go. The fringe comes forward over them and the top is too short to draw attention back there.
• Men who do nothing in the morning. Towel dry, push it forward with your fingers. That is the styling.

Where it does not. A cowlick at the front will lift that fringe on day one and keep lifting it, because there is not enough length to weigh it down. And very thick, coarse straight hair cut to one length stands up like a brush unless we take weight out, at which point you are closer to a crop anyway.

The version we steer men away from is the fringe cut too long and too heavy. Even top, blunt edge, nothing at the sides to break it up. That is a bowl. Keep the fringe short, a finger's width above the eyebrows at most, and keep the sides tighter than the top.

The clipper Caesar

On Afro and tight curl hair, the Caesar is a different job. The top goes down on a guard, usually a 1 or a 2, which is 3 to 6 mm. The sides either match it or get faded below. Then the whole outline is cut in with trimmers: straight across the forehead, squared or rounded at the temples, a clean neckline. It is the same edging we describe in what a line up is, and on this cut the line is half the haircut.

If you want waves, say so before we start. Waves are not cut in. They come from brushing the hair in one direction day after day, and from leaving enough length for the curl to form a pattern. A 1 is usually too short for them to show. A 2, or a 1.5 on top with the sides shorter, gives them something to work with. The brushing is yours.

The guard numbers matter more here than on the scissor version, because a millimetre is visible. Our buzz cut lengths guide has what each grade leaves, if you want to walk in with a number.

The catch is how fast it goes. Hair grows about a centimetre a month, so a 3 mm cut has doubled in length in about ten days. The length you barely notice. The front edge you do: the straight line across the forehead starts to soften after about a week, and by two or three weeks it wants cutting in again. Men who wear it well tend to come in for the edge more often than for the cut.

Saying which Caesar you want

Do not just say "a Caesar". Say which.

For the scissor version: "Caesar, scissors on top, about an inch all one length, fringe blunt and short, taper the sides." Then touch your forehead where the fringe should stop.

For the clipper version: "Caesar, a 2 on top, skin fade the sides, and line the front straight across." If you want the sides matching the top, say "a 2 all over" instead. Add "keep it rounded at the temples" or "square the corners", because that one choice changes your face more than the guard number does.

Either way, a photo helps. Bring one, and we will tell you which Caesar it is before we pick up the clippers or the scissors.

What it costs here

The scissor version is our Haircut, £15 for 30 minutes. Take the sides down to skin underneath and it becomes a Skin Fade, £17 for 30 minutes.

The clipper version, one guard all over and the edge lined, is the Crew Cut at £10 for 20 minutes. The line up is part of the cut, not an extra. Sides faded to skin under the clipper top are the Skin Fade again, £17.

Not sure which of the two you have been asking for all these years? Sit down and tell us what you liked about the last one. We work it out from there.