Where a high fade actually starts
Put a finger on the corner of your eyebrow and run it straight up until you feel the side of your skull turn the corner towards the top of your head. That ridge is your temple, and a high fade is one where the shaved section reaches it or passes it.
Below that you are in mid fade territory; a long way below it and you are at a low fade. There is no official measurement and no two shops mean quite the same thing by the word, which is why pointing at your own head is worth more than any of the three terms.
The one thing to be clear about: a high fade is still a fade. The length climbs gradually from bare skin to the top. If the sides are shaved and the top simply sits on them with no blend at all, that is a disconnected undercut — a different haircut, grown out differently, and easy to end up with by accident if you only say "high and tight".
What it does to the shape of your head
This is the part worth thinking about before you book, because it is the part a photograph of somebody else will not tell you.
A high fade strips visual width from the sides at the widest point of your skull and leaves the weight on top. The head reads narrower and taller. That is an improvement if your face is round or square, and it is why the cut is so common on people who feel their head looks wide in photographs.
Run the same logic the other way. If your face is already long, or narrow, or your hairline has gone back at the corners, a high fade exaggerates all three — it takes away the sides that were balancing the length. That does not make it wrong, but it is the case where a mid usually looks better, and a decent barber will say so if you ask the question directly.
Height on top amplifies whatever the fade is doing. A high fade with a quiff is a very tall silhouette. A high fade with a flat crop is sharp without being tall.
The fortnight problem
Hair grows roughly a millimetre every other day, and a high fade puts the top of the gradient on the widest, most visible part of your head. Everywhere that was skin is stubble inside a week.
So the honest schedule is every two weeks, and you will see it going at about ten days. People who get a high fade and then come back monthly are not wearing a high fade for most of that month; they are wearing an overgrown one, which has none of the contrast that made it worth getting.
The usual answer is a cheaper line-up between full cuts. Work out that running cost before you commit to the height, not after.
If a fortnight is not realistic, this is the wrong height for you and a low skin fade is the same haircut on a schedule you will actually keep.
What goes on top
- Crop or buzz. The cleanest version. Nothing competes with the fade, and it is as close to zero-effort as a haircut gets.
- Textured crop with a fringe. The fringe gives the forehead a line, which softens the severity of a high fade. The most forgiving combination if you are nervous about going high.
- Quiff or pompadour. Maximum height. It needs product and five minutes with a dryer, every day, or it falls and the proportions go.
- Curls or an Afro left full. Excellent — the contrast between bare skin and dense curl is the whole point. Consider a burst fade instead, which is shaped to keep more weight behind the ear.
- Anything you part and comb over. The weakest pairing. A side part wants some length at the side to sit against, and a high fade has taken it away, so the part tends to float.
A hard part — a line shaved where the parting falls — is the usual fix.
How to ask without getting it wrong
- Say skin or bald, then high. Both words, in that order. "High fade" alone can still be a fade to a guard.
- Touch the spot where you want the skin to end. If you are unsure, ask for it a centimetre lower than you think — it takes two minutes to take a fade up and three weeks to bring it down.
- Say whether you want it blended into the top or disconnected. If you do not say, you will get blended, which is almost always what you wanted.
- Say what the top is doing, in a length or a style.
- Say when you can come back. A barber cutting for a fortnight cuts differently from one cutting for a month.
What it costs
Most shops do not price a high fade separately from any other fade.
| Service | Time | Price |
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What does change the cost is the frequency, which is the whole argument of the upkeep section above.
Common questions
How high is too high?
Once the shaved section passes the widest point of your skull and keeps going, you are heading for a disconnect rather than a fade, and the top starts to look like a separate object sitting on your head. If you can see bare skin above the temple from straight on in a mirror, that is about the ceiling.
What is the difference between a high fade and an undercut?
A high fade blends: the length climbs gradually from skin to the top. An undercut does not: the sides are one short length and the top drops over them with a hard edge. They look similar in a photograph taken from the front and nothing alike from the side.
Does a high skin fade suit a long face?
Usually less well than a mid. A high fade takes width off the sides and leaves height on top, which makes a long face read longer. It can be made to work by keeping the top short and flat rather than tall.
How often does a high skin fade need redoing?
Every two weeks. It starts losing the contrast at about ten days, because the shaved part is on the most visible area of your head and a week of growth is plainly stubble against skin.
Can a high fade be a taper?
No — those words describe different things. Height is how far up the shaved section goes; a taper is a cut where only the corners and the neckline come down at all. A high taper is a contradiction in most shops, and if you ask for one you will be asked to point.