7 hair styles that will never go out of style

From a buzz cut to a side parting, these are the haircuts that you can always rely on - no matter what the style or season

Sitting in the barber’s chair, the possibilities are endless. But, before you jump in and opt for an alternative cut or style – something that’ll fall from favour within the week – take a read of these: the 7 hairstyles that will never go out of fashion. We turned to expert barber Oran Lasocki from Ruffians Marylebone for his wisdom.

The buzz cut can thank Nikola Bizumic the Serbian inventor for its popularity, with his creation of the manual hair clippers in the late 19th Century.

This particular cut is typically done using clippers taking the hair to a very short length. The length can vary depending on the individual’s preference, with clipper guards providing more choice with lengths. When you see your barber and ask for this style, they commonly ask you which size of guard you normally opt for.

This can go from #0 to #5, with any longer being achieved with scissors. You can ask for a particular numbered guard all over or you can choose one for the top of the head, moving down to another to fade it out on the back and sides, for example you may ask for a #2 all over or a #2 on top faded down to a #1. Due to the short length of this style there is very little to style, you’ll only ever have to towel dry or you can use the hairdryer to save time and then hey presto, you’re done.

The side part is a timeless hairstyle, it can be created with any hair length, ensuring you maintain the parting. This hairstyle is normally known as a clean, professional and classic look. You will want to ensure you have some length on top, allowing you to brush it over to the side to create the parting. This is typically from the side point of your recession, working with the direction of your hair.

When asking for this style you have various options such as, short back and sides, a medium scissor cut or a long tucked behind the ear style. Using the short back and sides as an example, you would ask for the particular guard length you want on the back and sides, maintaining length on the side where your parting is – this will help emphasise the clean look of the parting. Make sure to keep length on top to bring over so it doesn’t stick up, you want it to flow flawlessly from one side to the other.

Similar to the side part, this is another classic style, which is also versatile with the options of having it with medium or long hair. The slick back is a style that is traditionally completed with a high shine product such as pomade to help bring it closer to the scalp, ensuring it can be properly slicked back. This style has been used in many films such as The Great Gatsby, Fury and Lawless given it’s vintage timeless appeal.

When at your barbers, you should say you want to slick the hair back, so you want to maintain length on top and some on the back and sides, but still ensuring the clippers connect to the scissor work. They will suggest if you want to keep the length longer all round, a low fade or scissor cut.

To style this, you want to apply a pomade or paste into the hair when it is towel dry/damp, blow dry it with a Denman brush or barrel brush to make sure it’s either got plenty of volume or closer to the head, then when you’ve got the desired shape apply your pomade or paste to complete the look.

Normally this style is a scissor cut, maintaining roughly a medium length all over to create texture and definition.

This style is for someone who likes to keep a relaxed but tidy appearance. When you’re going in for this style, you will normally ask to reduce the hair length to approximately a centimeter longer than you want it and then ask to have the whole haircut heavily cut into, to add extra texture.

To continue the effect of the cut with the styling, you want to apply sea salt spray or a matt clay into the towel dry/damp hair and then blow dry using your hands to rough it up all over until your hair is dry, finishing off by adding more matt clay for extra hold.

This style can sometimes be labelled as ideal for someone lazy, however this style needs a fair amount of time to maintain due to the various hair types. A ponytail is designed for long hair, so you will typically tie it up with a hair band either high, centered or low on the back of the head.

Normally when you see your barber for this style, they will see that you have long hair and will ask you if you want to keep the length. You’ll just ask to take off the ends which are normally split ends to make sure it is at its best condition. To style this you can tie it up just after a shower when it is towel dry/damp or you can apply sea salt spray and blow dry it back, closer to the scalp working with the shape of your head and then tie it up.

This is a style that has picked up popularity since 2016, you can bring this into any length of hair and it’ll look great. The taper is a style where you blend/fade out either the nape, sideburns or both from the original length into a very short length, this makes sure that any length you have it still looks sharp.

When you ask for this at your barber, you will just ask for a taper either nape, sideburns or both, they will ask what length you want it to be brought down to, either clipper guards or as close as possible with scissors. Styling it you can blow dry with towel dry/damp hair or you can towel dry depending on the desired effect, you want to make sure to work with the direction of the hair, this will maintain the overall look and keep the blend/fade of the taper sharp.

The skin fade became very popular around 2011/2012, with lots of models such as Ricki Hall bringing it to the fore in fashion. A skin fade is a fade that can be low, medium or high starting from a #0 to typically a #2 or #3 giving you a great transition from very short to a longer length.

So when you ask for this style, the barber will normally ask you how you want it, low, medium or high and may advise what’s best for your hair type and head shape. To maintain the crispness of the fade and style, you’ll want to start off by applying some sea salt spray to the hair when it is towel dry/damp after a shower and blow dry with the direction of the hair so it doesn’t stick out or disrupt the sharpness of the fade.

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