How to Cut a Faux Hawk

Co-authored by Nick Arrojo

Last Updated: April 23, 2023 References

The faux hawk is an innovation on the Mohawk hairstyle. While a Mohawk changes abruptly from a shaved head to a strip of hair in the center of the head, a faux hawk makes a smoother transition between long and short sections of the cut, resulting in a more versatile cut that can be styled down or up depending on the occasion. This article will show you how to cut a faux hawk.

Part 1

Part 1 of 5:

Preparing Your Hair

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1
Decide on the width of your faux hawk. How wide the center section (hawk) will be depends on your face shape and personal taste. Use the eyes as a gauge. Generally the center section of a faux hawk cut (i.e. the hawk/raised bit) spreads from outer eye to outer eye, or from center eye to center eye.^{[1]
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- Experiment with different widths to see what looks best on your face.
- If you have long hair, tie it back in a ponytail so that your sides look clipped, then hold the center part over your head or twist and clip it on top of your head. This should give you an idea of what you might look like.
2
Divide the hair into 3 sections. To separate the sections, use a comb and, moving from your front hairline (forehead) to the bottom-back of your head (the nape of your neck), carve out a C-shape. The C starts at your front hairline and ends at the nape of your neck.
- The exact size and shape of the side sections will depend on the width of your center section, which will run vertically from your front hairline to the nape of your neck.
- Work on keeping the center section the same width all the way down as you draw your C curve on each side of the head. The curve should come quite naturally as your comb inclines up towards your crown and then down towards the nape of your neck.
- Do this on both sides of your head to make 2 equal side sections and the 1 section on top, which will be the peak of your hawk.
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You should now have 2 C-shaped parts: 1 on either side of your head. Make sure that the lines are clean and not jagged.
To ensure that you don’t accidentally cut the center section of hair as you trim your sides, clip it down. If you don’t have hair clips, you can use elastics if your hair is long enough, or you can use hair pins.
5
Know which method you want to use for cutting the side sections. You can use scissors or clippers to cut the sides of your hair, and then you’ll want to move to scissors for the top. Clippers will generally give you a closer, less textured-looking cut than scissors.^{[2]
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- If you’re cutting a faux hawk yourself, you may be best off using the clippers method as it will be difficult to see the back of your head well enough to cut your hair with scissors— not to mention you’ll risk cutting your fingers.
- If you do use clippers and you don't want the sides of your hair to just be one length, you can use a mixture of clippers and scissors to do a blended fade. This involves using 3 levels of clipper guards and then blending the lines with scissors.
- If you're using scissors, wet your hair before you get started. Keep your hair dry if you're using clippers.

Part 2

Part 2 of 5:

Cutting the Sides and Back with Scissors

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1
Know the risks. Unless you’re accustomed to cutting your own hair, and you have good mirrors that allow you to see the back of your head as you work on it, you may want to use clippers for this.
- Even if you don’t accidentally cut your fingers, you might end up with an uneven cut if you can’t properly see what you’re doing.
- If you would prefer to use scissors to cut the side sections of your hair, consider asking a friend to help you out.
2
Know which direction to cut in. As you cut the side sections, you’ll move from the front of your hairline to the back (face to neck) in vertical strips. To get a sense of what this means, hold a comb vertically against your head — it should be parallel to your face, not perpendicular to it.
- You’ll move from one vertical strip to another until you’ve completed the entire side section, and then you’ll move to the other side.
3
Know the correct hand position. For each vertical section that you cut, you’ll hold the hair between the pointer and middle fingers of your non-dominant hand, at a 90-degree angle from your head. Pretend your two fingers are a pair of scissors, and hold the hair between them.
- Some stylists recommend positioning your non-dominant hand so that your thumb is pointing outward in the direction that you are moving (in this case, towards the back of your head).
  - For a right-handed stylist, this means your left hand’s fingers should be pointing upward on the left side of your head as you cut with your right.
4
Cut the sides depending on hair density. There are two ways to cut those vertical sections of hair as you move along the C curve towards the back of your head:
- For thin or normal hair, you can get away with cutting all of the hair at the same distance from the head. To get a sense of what this means, hold the flat side of a comb against the head and then move it outward between 1 and 2 inches, keeping the comb completely vertical — not tilting in or out. This is how you will move down a vertical section of normal hair when cutting it.
- If hair is quite thick, you may want to cut it shorter to longer moving from top to bottom. To get a sense of the direction in which you'd cut, hold the flat side of a comb next the head, pull it out from the head between 1 and 2 inches, and tilt the top of the comb slightly inward. This is how you will move down the vertical section of thick hair when cutting it.
Do the same for both sides, cutting in vertical sections moving front to back.
6
Clean up sideburns/around ears. Before moving to the back of your head, you’ll want to clean up the hair around your ears. If you don’t have sideburns, this will just involve trimming any hair that hangs over your ears so that you’ve got a clean line.
- If you have sideburns, use a comb to brush the hair in one direction and then trim it so there’s a clean line; then, brush the hair in the other direction and trim it again.
- If your sideburns are quite thick, you can brush them up with a comb and slightly trim the tops of them. Just make sure that there are no bald patches in your sideburns before doing this, otherwise you might make them more obvious.
7
Release the back center section from its clip. Once the sides are done, you can trim up the lower back section that starts at the crown of your head and goes down to the nape of your neck.
- You may need to give it a quick comb-through if it’s tangled.
8
Cut the lower back section. Hold strips of hair between the pointer and middle fingers of your non-dominant hand, pull them away from your head at 90 degrees, and then tilt them in slightly toward the center line of your head, then cut into them.
- Once again, you’ll move down the strip from top to bottom, going either shorter to longer if you have thick hair, or all one length if you have fine to normal hair.
- This time you needn’t worry as much about the strips of hair being perfectly vertical, as you’ll be texturing your hair.
Once your back and sides are done, you’re ready to cut the top center section of your hair, aka the hawk!

Part 3

Part 3 of 5:

Cutting the Back and Sides with Clippers

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1
Decide which guards you want to use. For a faux hawk you’ll likely want the sides of your hair to gradually go from shorter to longer until they reach the top center of your head. To achieve this, you’ll want to do a graded cut using 3 guard sizes.^{[3]
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- Unless you already know what sizes you want, consider starting with a #2 (1/4-inch) guard for the bottom, a #3 (3/8-inch) guard for the middle, and a #4 (1/2-inch) guard for the top of the side sections of your hair.
2
Use the #4 guard to cut from the bottom hairline up. As you approach the top center section of your hair (the part of your hair that will become the faux hawk), rock your hand outward and lift the clippers away from your scalp.
- Do this as slowly and smoothly as possible to avoid making any mistakes.
Use the #3 guard to cut from the bottom of your hair up, but this time stop and rock the clippers away from your scalp at roughly 1/4 of the distance from your bottom hairline to the outer edge of your hawk.
Again working from the bottom up, run the razor along your scalp and then rock it away as your reach the lower tier of where you want to be — this just depends on your own tastes.
With a #1 guard on your razor, clean up around the edges of your hairline.
6
Blend. Right now you should see clearly defined sections where you’ve clipped your hair using different guards. To blend the sections, gently comb the hair upward at the border where one section moves into another, then gently glide either scissors or clippers along the comb to remove the hair that sticks out.
- Do this around your entire head until everything looks blended.

Part 4

Part 4 of 5:

Cutting the Center Top Section

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1
Release the center top section from its clips. Comb it vertically down the center of your head, towards your face. This is the direction in which you’ll cut it.
- Again you’ll be cutting in vertical strips, but this time the up-down direction will be from your crown to your forehead.
- Make sure that you're maintaining enough length in this section as you cut.^{[4]
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  Expert Source
  
  Nick Arrojo
  Master Hair Stylist
  
  Expert Interview. 9 September 2021.}
Beginning with one side of your head, comb down the outermost strip of hair that runs from your crown to your forehead. Line it up with the the hair on the side of your head and cut along it, from the back to the front of your head.
3
Over direct each strip of hair as you cut. When working on layers of the center strip of your hair, don’t try to cut each layer the same length. You want them to go from shorter on the outside to longest at the center-top of your head, which will be the peak of your hawk.
- To ensure you’re cutting correctly, comb each layer of hair over so that it lies flat on your head, and then cut it even with the first layer you cut.
- Make sure that you’re cutting each layer as it lies flat on your head. This is different from your previous cuts, in which you held the hair out from the head.
- The hair must lie flat on your head, otherwise you’ll risk cutting all layers the same length, which you don’t want for the center part of your head.
Once you’ve cut from the outside to the center part, move to the other side of your head and do the same there — moving from the outermost strip of hair in towards the part.
5
Texturize the top. Once you’ve finished cutting both sides of your center piece, work through the top part of your hair. You can now cut into your hair randomly to suit your own tastes.
- Grab small sections of your hair between your pointer and middle fingers, and cut into them with scissors. Cut down at an angle instead of straight across; this will give you more of a textured, fun look.^{[5]
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Part 5

Part 5 of 5:

Finishing it Off

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1
Thin it out (optional). If your hair is looking chunky and thick, consider taking some sections between your fingers and cutting very lightly into them while holding the scissors vertically pointing down towards your scalp.
- When doing this, don’t cut the entire chunk of hair — just a few snips into the section of hair that you hold between your fingers will be fine.
- If the back is still quite full, you can do what is called “channel cutting”, which involves running the scissors through the hair at a diagonal angle as you cut. This can be particularly helpful at the back of your hair, particularly if you have trouble reaching back there, as you only need one hand for channel cutting (the one holding the scissors).
2
Texturize the sides and back of your hair (optional). Once you’re happy with the top, move around the sides and back and make little adjustments as you see fit.
- One way to easily add some texture is to gently twist a chunk of hair and then, holding the scissors at a diagonal angle, gently running them against the hair twist to add some texture.
- Don’t close the scissors completely over the twist, otherwise you’ll just cut the chunk of hair off instead of giving it a pointy, razored look.
3
Rub a texturizing cream, mousse or wax between your hands and then apply it to your hair. To get the faux hawk look, move your hands through the center top part of your hair swiftly and in an upward motion.
- If the sides of your hair are still a bit long, you can use the styling product to tame them down a bit by pushing them forwards or backwards.
- A common tip from stylists when applying product is to start at the back of your hair. That way if you use too much product, your hair won’t look overly greasy.

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I'm a girl, and my hair parts in the middle. If I get a faux hawk, will the part show without the use of styling products? I can't wash my hair every day, so I need to know before I get a haircut.

Community Answer

Yes. As long your stylist knows what they're doing, there should be no problem. I had the same concern, and it turned out just fine.

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Tips

This style works well with unwashed hair, as freshly washed hair might be too soft and slick to stick up, and you want a full textured look.^{[6]
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If you already have short hair, you may be able to style a faux hawk without cutting your hair just by slicking down the sides and using a texturizing cream or mousse to spike up the center part of your hair.

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Note that the shortest part of a faux hawk is usually between 1/4 of an inch 3/4 of an inch long.

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Warnings

Do not cut the hair as short as you would like it to look when the cut is finished, particularly if you’re doing a wet cut, as the hair will contract when it’s dry.

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