Pompadour Haircut: What It Takes

A pompadour haircut lifts the hair at the forehead and rolls it back over the head, tallest at the front and smoothed down towards the crown, over sides kept short. It needs about four inches of length at the hairline, a cut that tapers that length shorter as it goes back, and a blow dry every single morning. If the last part puts you off, take a quiff or a crop instead, because a pompadour without the dryer is just long hair falling into your eyes.

A pompadour haircut is not a quiff

The two get mixed up constantly, and asking for the wrong one gets you the wrong cut.

A quiff lifts the front up and a little forward, and it is allowed to look broken up and textured. A pompadour rolls back. The front stands tall, then the whole top is combed back over the head in one smooth shape, so from the side you see a curve rather than a peak. It is neater, it is shinier, and it is less forgiving. One stray section in a quiff looks like texture. In a pompadour it looks like a mistake.

The name comes from Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, which is slightly unfair on her, since she wore her own hair back and fairly flat. The name was attached later. The version men actually picture is the 1950s rock and roll one, Elvis and the rest, with oiled sides and a front you could shelter under. Nobody has to go that big now.

The length, and where it has to be

Four inches at the front is what we would want for a pompadour that reads as one from across a room. Three can work on thick hair if you keep the shape compact. Below that, there is nothing to roll back, and what you get is a short quiff.

The length is graduated. Longest at the hairline, shorter towards the crown, so the shape slopes down the back of the head rather than sitting on top of it like a block. That graduation is scissor work, and it is the bit that decides whether the style holds for the day or collapses in the middle.

If you are starting from a crop, be honest about the timescale. Hair grows roughly a centimetre a month, so going from an inch on top to four takes seven or eight months, not the six most men expect. While you are growing it, tell us to leave the front alone. We will keep the sides and the back tidy so the in-between stage looks deliberate, and take a little weight off the back of the top so the front starts to look longer than it is.

Classic sides or a fade underneath

This is the real choice, and it changes the whole look more than the height does.

Classic. The sides are scissor cut, tapered short around the ears and left long enough to comb back. That is the fifties look, and it suits a suit. It also grows out softly, so a month or more between visits is fine. You would book that as a plain Haircut, £15 for 30 minutes.

Faded. The sides go down to a taper or a skin fade, and the top sits on them with a hard contrast. It is the more modern of the two. The tighter the sides, the taller the top looks, which is useful if your hair is not quite as thick as you would like. A taper fade or skin fade is £17 and takes 40 minutes, because the blend under a heavy top is slow, careful work. A mid fade is the usual height for it, and a hard part shaved in where the side meets the top is optional. We usually talk people out of the part, because it only stays sharp for about a week.

The hair it works on, and the hair it fights

Thick hair, straight or with a slight wave, is ideal. It has the body to stand up and the weight to hold the curve.

Fine hair can do it, but smaller. A tall pompadour on fine hair goes see-through at the front, and shiny product over a thin patch shows the scalp under it. Keep it lower, keep the sides tight to cheat a bit of height, and use a matte product. The longer version of why gloss is a problem on fine hair is in the post that puts clay, pomade and wax side by side.

A receding hairline is the hard one. A pompadour pulls every hair at the front up and back, which puts both temples on display. If the recession is slight, a shorter pompadour can still look good. If the corners have gone back a fair way, there are cuts that do you more favours, and we have gone through them in the cuts we suggest once the temples start going back.

A strong cowlick at the front will fight you every morning. It can be dried into place, but if the swirl pulls the opposite way, you will be redoing it by lunchtime. We will see it within ten seconds of you sitting down, and say so.

Face shape matters less than people think. The height makes a round face look longer, which is mostly a good thing. On a long, narrow face, keep it lower and fuller rather than tall.

Five minutes in front of the mirror

Towel dry until the hair is damp, not wet. If you use a pre-styler (a little mousse or a volume spray), it goes in now.

Then the dryer, on medium heat. Lift the front up and back with your fingers or a round brush and point the air at the roots, not the ends. The height is set at the root, so drying the ends just makes them frizz. We cover the technique properly in our piece on getting volume into men's hair. Finish with a blast of cold air, which locks the shape before you touch it with product.

Now the pomade. Warm a pea-sized amount until it is clear on your palms, work it in from the back to the front, then comb the top back once in the shape you dried. Don't keep combing. Every extra pass flattens the height you just built.

Day two is easier than day one. Damp the front with a wet hand, re-dry it for a minute, and you are done.

The words that get you one

Bring a photo, and make it a side view. Height and the slope back are what you are asking for, and a photo from the front shows neither. Then say three things:

• How much length at the front, and that you want it graduating shorter towards the crown
• Classic scissor sides or a fade, and if a fade, the shortest grade you are happy with
• How much styling time you will really give it in the morning, because that decides how tall we cut it

That third one gets skipped, and it matters most. A pompadour cut for fifteen minutes of styling is miserable to wear if you have five.

For a first one, book a 40 minute taper fade or skin fade slot rather than walking in, so nobody is rushing the top.