Reviewed & updated: October 19, 2022 by Jamie Wilson BA
Picking a new haircut involves more than just rocking up to the barbers and sitting in the chair. What kind of style do you want and will it suit your hair type? Is it going to be too much upkeep for you and will you even suit the style you’ve chosen in the first place? There’s so much to think about, so to save you the trouble, we’re here to help out.
Your hair is a big part of your appearance so getting an awful haircut isn’t really something you want to be doing. You need to look suave and stylish and your hair can contribute a lot to this. A great hairstyle will give you that confidence you need to go up to the girl or boss the job interview, so choosing a new haircut is a big milestone in anyone’s life. So, if you’re thinking of revamping your barnet, you’ve come to the right place, because choosing a new style involves a lot more brain power than you may think. This subtle yet very important part of your look can alter a lot of things, making this quite an important decision.
You’ll Need Some Inspiration
Finding the best haircuts for men involves, as we now know, a lot of planning. But where do you find the inspiration you need? Online, magazines or generally just being out and about will provide you with an array of ideas. You may even have a friend that has the hairstyle you aspire to have or like most people, there’s a celebrity cut that’s taken your fancy. Your inspiration can come from anywhere, so don’t be afraid to take in and show a selection of photos to your trusty barber, as believe it or not, having some visuals to work from is better than you trying to vaguely explain what you have in mind. When this happens, it’s most likely that you’ll come out with something completely different to the look you were actually going for. What is your texture like, and do you want a quiff, fringes, or a taper cut? For more inspiration, here are some best men’s haircuts
What You Need To Consider
As well as needing a load of inspiration for your cut, there are a few things you need to consider, because let face it, you don’t want a style that doesn’t suit you. So, there’s a lot to think about, but the two main things to really consider are your face shape and your hair type. If you find a cut that suits both of these, whatever your barber does will look good. Your face shape will determine quite a lot. Do you have medium-length hair, rectangle face, oblong face shape or defined pointiest parts of it? It is important to customize your look.
Your Face Shape
Knowing your face shape is the first step to a good haircut. So as face shapes play a big part in what hairstyle suits you, here’s how to work out what shape yours is. There are two basic ways to measure up the facial department. The first is done by taking a load of quick measurements. Note down your forehead width (measure the widest part), the space between the top of your cheekbones (just underneath the eyes), your jawline (from the tip of your chin to under your ear where the jawline starts to angle upwards, each side of course) and finally measure the length of your head (from where your hairline starts to the tip of your chin). Once you have all these measurements you can draw your face shape out on a piece of paper. This gives you an outline of your face shape.
The other way to figure out ‘what face shape am I’ is to simply look in the mirror and, using your girlfriend’s, sister’s or mum’s lipstick, draw around the outline of your face reflection. You’ll then have a shape drawn on your mirror that should, at least, resemble something like your head shape. Just remember to clean up after yourself as we’re not sure a face drawn on the mirror will go down well.
Now that you have an outline drawn somewhere that resembles your face, you can look at what shape category it fits in to. There may be parts of your measurements that fit into different categories or parts you’re not quite sure on but in general you’ll be able to tell what shape it is.
- Oval – Your jaw is rounded rather than sharp, and the length is greater than the width of the cheekbones. You will also enjoy showing off a man bun or a top knot if you have oval face shapes with no sharp angles.
- Round – Your cheek bones and face length are of a similar measure. Your jaw line is soft and the jaw and forehead measurement is also similar in size. You will like buzz cuts with this face shape.
- Long – Your face length is the longest with the forehead, cheekbones and jaw line being similar sizes. Consider side partings in this case and when it comes to your haircut.
- Square – All your measurements are fairly similar and your jawline has sharp lines. Square faces with defined facial features will enjoy rocking a beard and comb-overs.
- Diamond – The chin is fairly pointed and the cheekbones are the widest part of the face. Ivy leagues hairdos tend to look amazing with this peak face shape.
- Heart – or the triangle shape, has the forehead as the widest part of the face with the chin being fairly pointed. If you have wavy hair and light stubble this will suit you.
Your Hair Type
The next thing to think about when thinking ‘what haircut should I get’ is to know what type of hair you have. Your hair type can’t be changed and whatever you’re born with, you’re stuck with for the rest of your days I’m afraid. But the good news is that for whatever hair type you have, there’s a style that’ll work for you. One that will highlight all the strong points. If you have thick hair, thin hair or curly hair, you can find a style that’ll work into the hair and not have you forcing it into the wrong style every morning. So what hair type do you have? The most common types are straight, curly, thick, thin, kinky. Between these you may have thick curly hair, or thin straight hair – everyone is different so you need to know what you’ve got going on up there. Men’s hairstyles will vary, so consider the look based on your different face shapes.
Final Factors to Consider
As well as knowing your face shape and hair type, you need to see whats actually looking good for hair right now. What trends are you seeing? What are people loving? Are there any popular TV series’ or films that have made an impact on hair trends? What trendy haircuts for men are popular amongst your mates? You need to think about what’s current and what happening around you when deciding on your new haircut. Cool haircuts for men don’t just pop into your mind like that, do some research and look at what’s happening around you.
How To Pick a New Haircut
You’ve now thought about all the factors that’ll contribute to you choosing your new style. You know your face shape, hair type and you have some inspirational pictures and ideas in the back of your mind. Now you’ve just got to decide what style you’re going to go for. Here are our favourites right now, plus what face shape and hair type they look good on.
- The Undercut – This is probably the most versatile cut out of the lot as it’ll look good on most face shapes, especially the longer ones. The undercut is where the hair is longer on the top and short at the sides. It may sound similar to a standard short back and sides look, but the hair on top is cut and styled differently as it’s much longer than your usual top length. This is a cut that has become very popular in recent months, so most barbers will know the style. Plus, this works for both straight, thick and thin hair so you can basically get this style not matter your hair type.
- The Buzzcut – This is one of the short hairstyles for men that’ll work with an array of hair types but not so much face shapes. The short cut that’s done all over means no matter your hair type, the cut has got a short, uniformed length. No thinning areas on the top or noticeable curls falling into your face, the buzzcut is simple and very military inspired. If you have a round face shape, we wouldn’t recommend going for this style, but if you’ve either got a diamond, square or slightly heart shaped face, this is something to consider.
- The French Crop – To get this cut, where the sides are short and the hair on top is pushed forward, you realistically need to have straight hair and no cowlick, as styling it each day will be a hard task. This styles neat and needs to be in place to work well, so having a wavy french crop isn’t really going to work. Go for this is you have an oval or square face shape as it won’t elongate your features due to it’s short nature.
- The Pompadour – This is a classic. There are loads of ways to pull off this style because no matter your hair type you can tailor it to you. Straight hair looks good for a neat side parting pompadour whereas thick or curly hair has that casual, messy look that you can easily style. This choice is good for those of you with round or oval face shapes as it adds some volume on to the top, creating the illusion of a longer, less rounded head.
- The Long Bob – The name doesn’t sound too appealing but this is a good style if you have thick curly hair. A natural wave and nothing too straight works well for this style as with other styles, you may find it a chore to style it in place everyday. This is one of the very popular long hairstyles for men that are around at the moment due to it’s ease and effortless look. If you have an oval, heart, or diamond face shape, this will work well for you.
- The Crew Cut – This is a timeless haircut for men, it’s been around for a while but always worth checking out. Not quite as short as the buzzcut, the crew cut is short around the sides and back and faded or tapered into a longer length on top. This is good for heart shaped, square shaped and anyone with a fairly top heavy face outline. The good thing about this cut is that it works for most hair styles as the styles fairly short. The hair doesn’t have enough length to start to do its own thing allowing you to style it with ease.
On That Note
Simply asking yourself ‘what haircut suits me’ isn’t good enough. You need to know exactly what to do when you’re about to choose your next style. Now that you know your face shape, hair type and all the popular hair trends, you can work out what style will suit you and look cool at the same time. Not as hard as you initially thought, right?
