"How often should I be coming in?" is the question we hear most often at the chair. The honest answer is: it depends on what's on your head. A skin fade and a long scissor cut are different timelines. Treating them the same is how good cuts grow out badly.
Here's a practical guide by style. Use it as a starting point, then adjust for how fast your hair grows (we all grow about half an inch a month, but the visual impact of that growth varies hugely).
Skin fade — every 2 weeks
The blade-zero edge of a skin fade is the most fragile part of any cut. It's the first thing to grow out and the most visible when it does. Two weeks in, it stops being a fade and starts being just "short on the sides". If you've paid for a skin fade, you want it to look like one for as much of its life as possible. Two weeks is the sweet spot.
Mid fade / taper — every 3 weeks
Mid fades are slightly more forgiving. The blend sits a little further from skin, so a few millimetres of growth doesn't kill the line. Three weeks is comfortable. Push to four if you must, but you'll feel it before week five.
Classic short / scissor cut — every 4 weeks
If your cut is all scissor work — a side part, a crop, a classic short back and sides — you've got more runway. The shape changes slowly because there's no hard line to lose. Four weeks is standard, five weeks if you can style with a little product.
A haircut is rarely "too short" the day you get it. It's almost always too long by week six.
Longer styles — every 5 to 6 weeks
If you're growing your hair out, your barber's job changes. Rather than shaping, you're maintaining the foundations — keeping the neckline clean, refining the perimeter, removing weight from the wrong places so the shape grows in correctly. Six weeks between visits is the maximum we'd recommend. Less and you slow the growth project; more and the shape drifts.
Beard, if you have one — every 4 weeks
Your beard grows on a similar cycle to your hair, but the shape work is finer. A monthly sculpt keeps the cheek line, neckline and moustache in proportion. We often combine this with the haircut visit at the four-week mark.
Signs you're overdue
If you don't want to count weeks, watch for these signs:
- You can see the line of your fade in the mirror without trying
- Your hair starts falling the way it wants to, not the way you styled it
- You stop wanting to be photographed
- Your beard itches at the neckline
- You start using more product to make it sit right
The "between cuts" tidy
If you're stretching the interval — for travel, for budget, or because the barber is fully booked — a quick neck and outline tidy will extend a haircut's life by a week or two. We offer this as a 15-minute add-on. It's not a haircut, but it keeps a haircut looking like one.
The trick to looking consistently sharp isn't getting the perfect cut once. It's getting a good cut on a sensible rhythm. Pick the interval your style needs and put it in the diary.
