A faux hawk is a short haircut styled so the top rises into a ridge down the middle of the head, with the sides kept short. Unlike a mohawk, nothing is shaved off. The hair either side of the ridge is still there, just shorter and pushed in towards the centre. Most of the shape comes from how the top is cut, and the rest comes from about two minutes with a bit of product in the morning.
What Is a Faux Hawk? How to Ask for One
A faux hawk is a short cut styled into a ridge, not a shaved mohawk. How much length the top needs, which sides to pick and the words to use in the chair.
6 min readGolden Scissors, Maida Vale, London
Faux hawk or mohawk: where the line sits
A real mohawk takes the sides down to bare skin and leaves one strip standing up on its own. There is no hiding it, and growing it out means weeks of looking like you lost a bet.
The faux hawk keeps hair everywhere. The sides are faded or tapered, the top is left longer through the centre than at its edges, and you push it all in towards the middle. Wet it and comb it flat and it is an ordinary short cut. That is the whole appeal, and the reason it is still asked for long after the punk version went quiet.
How much length the top needs
The single most common reason a faux hawk does not work is that there is not enough hair on top to make one. These are rough lengths at the centre of the top, measured from the scalp, and they are what we look for before we agree to cut one:
| Length on top (centre) | What you get |
|---|---|
| Under 3cm (about an inch) | A bit of texture pinched up at the front. Reads as a crop, not a faux hawk |
| 4 to 6cm (1.5 to 2.5 inches) | The classic short faux hawk. Holds with a little paste, easy to look after |
| 7cm and over (3 inches plus) | Taller and more dramatic, but needs a hairdryer and a stronger hold, and straight hair tends to flop by the afternoon |
Hair grows about half an inch a month, so getting from a short crop to that middle row is two or three months of leaving the top alone. From a buzz cut it is longer. Keep booking the sides on their normal timetable while the top catches up, and tell us you are growing it so nobody takes the length off out of habit.
The other half of the cut is how the top is graduated. We leave the centre strip longest and take the hair at the edges of the top a little shorter, so it falls inwards when you push it. Cut the top all one length and you are trying to build the ridge entirely out of product, which is how you end up with something that looks glued on.
The sides decide which faux hawk you have
The top is roughly the same in every version. What changes the look is what happens on the sides and the back:
| Sides and back | How it looks | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Taper, no skin | Soft. The ridge is the only statement | Office, school gates, anyone trying it for the first time |
| Mid fade | The standard version, clean contrast at the temples | The safe middle ground if you cannot decide |
| High skin fade | Strong contrast, the ridge looks taller than it is | Thick hair, and men who can get back every two weeks |
| Burst fade | Curves round the ear and leaves length down the back, so the ridge runs to the neck | Anyone who wants it closer to a real mohawk |
| Disconnected undercut | Sides short in one length, a visible step to the top | Thick straight hair that will not lie down anyway |
| Curly or afro top | Curl holds the height by itself | The easiest faux hawk to live with, usually no product |
The burst fade version gets its own explanation in our guide to the burst fade and the modern mohawk, including what to do with the hair down the back.
Hair that fights it
Fine hair. It will stand up at 8am and be lying flat by lunch. You can still have one, but keep it short (the middle row in the first table) and use a matte clay rather than a wet-look gel, which weighs fine hair down. If your hair is genuinely getting thinner rather than just fine, a faux hawk puts all the attention on the middle of the top, which is often exactly where it is thinning. Our post on haircuts for thin hair has the cuts that work with that rather than against it.
A cowlick at the front. A whorl right at the hairline will try to push the front of the ridge sideways every morning. We can usually cut the front slightly shorter so it has less leverage, but tell us it is there before we start, because it does not show when your hair is wet.
A double crown. The back of the ridge splits where the two whorls meet. Keeping the crown a touch shorter than the rest of the strip stops it parting into a V.
Heavy, straight hair. It works, but it needs a hairdryer most mornings. If you are a towel-dry-and-go man, pick the taper version and keep the top short.
Styling it in two minutes
- Start with damp hair, not wet. Rough it with a towel so it has stopped dripping.
- If your hair is straight, blow-dry the top upwards and in towards the centre, using your fingers to lift at the roots. Curly hair can skip this.
- Take a pea-sized amount of matte paste or clay and rub it between your palms until it has gone see-through.
- Work it through the top from the back of the head forwards, roots first.
- Use the sides of your hands to push the hair in from each side towards the middle.
- Pinch the centre into a ridge with your fingertips. Do not comb it, a comb splits it into neat lines and that looks dated.
Paste or clay is the right hold for nearly everyone. If you are unsure of the difference, we have set the three main products side by side and what each one does to the finish.
Booking one, and what it costs
Use the words, then show a photo if you have one. "Faux hawk, mid fade on the sides, keep the length in the middle of the top and leave the edges of the top a bit shorter so it falls in." Swap "mid fade" for "taper, no skin" or "burst fade" depending on which row of the second table you liked.
Here, a faux hawk on sides that go down to skin, at any height, books as a Skin Fade, £17 and 30 minutes. If the fade stops at stubble rather than skin, a mid fade included, it books as a Taper Fade, also £17, and takes 40. If the sides are scissor-cut or a plain clipper grade with no fade, it is a standard Haircut at £15. Those prices are on our services page, and none of them changes because the top is styled into a ridge.
The sides need doing every three weeks or so to keep the contrast. The top only needs trimming every five or six weeks, and less if you are still growing it. When you are bored of it, the exit is easy: comb the top forward and you are wearing a textured crop, and nobody will know you ever had a ridge.
Common questions
- Can I wear a faux hawk to work?
- Yes, if the sides are a taper rather than skin and the ridge is kept low. Push the top forward instead of up and by Monday morning it reads as a short textured cut.
- Does a faux hawk work on curly hair?
- Very well. Curl holds the height on its own, so you often need no product at all. On afro hair the same shape is usually called a frohawk.
- How long does it take to style each morning?
- Two or three minutes once you have the knack, a little longer if your hair is straight and heavy and needs the hairdryer to lift it.
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