Compare where the graduation stops on a longer-blended cut.
Face Form Finder
Faux Hawk: Short Sides, and the Line Where It Stops Being Faux
The reviewed guidance gives the shortest honest definition: a more subtle variation on the classic mohawk, with short sides, a longer top, and endless ways to customise it. The reviewed guidance, working from the barber's side of the chair, reduces the whole thing to one request — a curved fade that hugs the ear, with a balanced length through the centre.
Short answer first
A faux hawk is a mohawk for people who are not shaving their sides. The sides are short, the centre is left longer, and the height is created with product rather than cut in. That is the entire meaning of the "faux" — and it is also the thing the gallery pages in this set keep quietly crossing, because a faux hawk with a skin fade is not a faux hawk.
The two lengths that matter
Only two numbers decide this cut, and the set is generous with one and vague with the other.
The centre is the one with a figure attached. The reviewed guidance suggests two to three inches generally works well through the middle, and adds the reason: you want to keep the top at a medium length so there is something to sculpt. Shorter than that and the style has nothing to lift.
The sides are where the language falls apart. The reviewed guidance asks for tapered sides or a low or mid fade to frame the design, and notes that a fade sharpens everything by giving better contrast at the sides and more volume up top. The reviewed guidance says short sides and stops there. But the gallery pages in the same set show shaved sides, skin fades, and a fully shaved back and sides with a small section blended on top — which is a mohawk with extra steps, not a faux version of one.
No page in the ten draws that line, and it is the line that decides what you walk out with.
The guard ladder, the one place the set gets specific
The reviewed guidance is the only page that says how the sides are actually built, and it works in a three-step ladder.
Start with a #2 (1/4-inch) guard for the bottom of the side sections, a #3 (3/8-inch) for the middle, and a #4 (1/2-inch) for the top of those same sections. The cutting motion is the important part: work each guard from the bottom hairline upward, then rock the clippers away from the scalp and lift them before you reach the centre. On the #3 pass, break away at roughly a quarter of the distance from the bottom hairline to the outer edge of the hawk. Finish with a #1 guard to clean up the edges and the hairline itself.
If you want a blended fade rather than a stepped one, the same page says to cut with three guard levels and then blend the lines with scissors — clippers alone will leave the tiers visible.
Two to four weeks, plus a weekly neckline
The reviewed guidance gives the cycle: book tidy-ups every two to four weeks to keep both the silhouette and the edges crisp, and maintain a weekly tidy of the neckline between appointments. They also cover the daily side of it — shampoo between two and four times a week, use conditioner regularly, add a hydrating mask weekly if you are maintaining a blond, and expect a purple shampoo somewhere in the routine.
That is a more honest picture than most cuts on this site get, because the neckline is doing as much work here as the fade. On a faux hawk the eye goes to the contrast at the sides, and the contrast is a line — one that a week of growth visibly softens.
Product is not optional
This is the one cut where the appointment is only half the job.
The reviewed guidance is direct about it: to keep a faux hawk looking right after the cut, you need to get comfortable with a bit of product — pomade, gel, or hairspray — to hold the style in place, and your barber should be the one helping you pick the right one for longevity and hold. The reviewed guidance uses a small amount of matte clay for definition without shine.
The other page in the set that covers this does it from the opposite end of the length range. The reviewed guidance points out that you can fake a faux hawk on even the shortest strands — using a pomade to slick sections of hair upward, so the height is entirely a styling result rather than a cut. That is the same principle as the guard ladder above, taken to its limit: the shorter the centre, the more the style lives in the product.
What a gallery will not tell you
The styling galleries in this set are worth reading for range and nothing else. One shows a 1980s rat tail grown back out, with the back left long and cut into a tail, the top spiked, and the sides shaved. Another shows a skin fade with a shaved part on the side. A third shows the back and sides completely shaved with a small portion blended into the skin fade on top. Several of them are technically mohawks wearing the softer name.
The useful thing they teach is the range of the middle: spiky, textured, curly, blown out, or slicked flat, all over the same short-sided base. The unhelpful thing is that not one of them states a side length, so the name they are filed under does not describe the haircut on the page.
What nobody in these results covered
The first gap is the boundary, and it is the one a reader most needs. The reviewed guidance defines the faux hawk by contrast with the mohawk — more subtle, sides short rather than shaved. Then the same search results show skin fades and fully shaved sides. Nothing in the set says how short the sides can go before the cut becomes the thing it is named against, which means the difference between the two cuts is currently a coin flip at the chair.
The second gap is the technique of the height itself. Every page agrees a faux hawk needs product. The reviewed guidance shows you can build one on hair that is barely an inch long. But nobody in the set explains how the height is constructed — where the blow-dryer goes, which direction the hair is pushed, or how the centre is made to stand instead of fall — which is the actual skill the style demands.
Match the centre lift to your starting condition
| Your starting condition | Faux-hawk direction to test | What to ask the barber to preserve | Check before leaving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wants no shaved sides | Scissor-cut or tapered faux hawk | Side length and a longer centre | The shape relaxes into a normal cut without product |
| Thick straight hair | Textured centre with short sides | Weight removal through the centre, not the perimeter | The ridge lifts without separating into spikes |
| Curly hair | Wider natural ridge | Complete curls through the centre | The ridge is visible after drying |
| Long face | Lower ridge with more side weight | Width at the temples and modest top height | The profile does not become taller |
| Wants a stronger version | Faded faux hawk | Enough side length to remain distinct from a mohawk | The fade does not erase the “faux” boundary |
What to say in the chair
Say the number for the centre first — two to three inches, or whatever length you can actually style. Then the sides, and be specific about whether you mean a taper, a low fade, or skin, because that word is the whole difference between a faux hawk and a mohawk.
Then ask the two questions the set leaves open: how much product will this need every morning, and what does the neckline look like in a week. The reviewed guidance's answer is already the honest one — comfortable with product, or this is not the cut.
Related Men's Cut and Fade Guides
This is one entry in the men's haircuts and fades index — start there if you are still choosing a family.