When communicating with your barber on what kind of haircut you’d like, it’s important to know the meaning of the terms that can be part of that conversation.

Two common barbering terms that often get confused by the layman are “taper” and “fade.”
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It’s easy to confuse these hairstyle descriptors because, as we’ll soon explain, all fades are tapers, but not all tapers are fades. 

To ensure you never ask for a fade, when you meant a taper, read on.

A taper haircut gradually changes your hair length, typically starting out longer at the top of the head and getting shorter as you go down to the natural hairline on the nape of the neck and sides of the head. The length of a taper can vary. You can have a really long taper (hair is longer) or a short taper (hair comes down closer to the skin).
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Unless you’re growing your flow out or you got a buzz cut, most haircuts for dudes will involve some sort of taper.

​A fade is a taper that gradually takes the hair down to the skin, so that it looks like the hairline on the sides and back of your head “fades” away before it reaches the natural hairline. 

Basically, a fade is a really short taper. Hence, all fades are tapers, but not all tapers are fades.
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Fades are a bit trendier and give your face and head a bit of an “edge” — both in terms of its literal lines as well as in the overall impression or vibe the hairstyle gives off.

Fades can start low, mid, or high. Low fades start fading closer to the ear, mid fades start fading just above the ear, and high fades can start fading way up high on the head. Which fade you choose will come down to personal preference and the look you’re going for.

The one downside with fades is that they do require regular maintenance to keep that faded-to-skin look fresh and sharp. 

There is No Such Thing as a “Taper Fade” So Quit Saying It

A lot of people ask their barber for a “taper fade.” When you tell your barber that, he’s probably going to ask you (if he’s a good barber), “So do you want a taper or do you want to fade down to skin?” Remember, a taper is longer; a fade fades to skin. 

Now that you know the distinction between a fade and taper, rather than confusedly putting the terms together, you can use them to convey your desires to your barber more clearly.

This business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back style has been around way before it was popularized by actors and rock stars in the 1980’s. According to some historians, the mullet has been around since at least Ancient Greece, where the style was as much for function as it was for fashion. Cropped hair around the face with longer locks in the back allowed for both visibility and a protective layer of hair for your neck. Homer even described a haircut that sounds eerily familiar in The Iliad: “their forelocks cropped, hair grown long at the backs.”The Greeks weren’t the only ones sporting the mullet, though. There is evidence that Neanderthals and our oldest ancestors would wear this ‘do, as well.

The relative ease of maintaining it makes it possible to keep up even without the existence of barbershops and hair salons, and the practicality makes it perhaps one of the oldest haircuts in human history.Some Native American tribes, both historically and more recently, have included the mullet with other traditional hairstyles. In many tribes, long hair is representative of a strong cultural identity. It is connected to values of family and community, and there are multiple rituals surrounding the upkeep of long hair. The preferred style for displaying long locks is most commonly braids – often two or three – but cuts closer the Mohawks and mullets have not been uncommon, either.

Mullets have been present in and out through our entire history as a species, in different parts of the world. It wasn’t until the 1970’s when the mullet starting rising to modern mainstream fame, though, reaching its peak in the 80’s when everyone from George Clooney to Metallica’s James Hetfield sported one. It tended to be popular with white dudes who played rock music or hockey, incredibly cool and trendy for a while. The hairstyle didn’t actually have the name “mullet” until 1994, though, when the Beastie Boys released a song called “Mullet Head.” Not long after the name mullet was christened, the hairdo was on its way out. 

By the time the Beastie Boys gave the style its name, it had begun to slide from the trendy mainstream position it had been sitting comfortably at to a more countercultural phenomenon.

The peak of mullets ended in the early 1990’s, but the style has never completely faded from relevance. Instead, it slipped from the good graces of the masses and became iconic in various subcultures: everyone from country music stars and lesbians, to hockey players and Native Americans. Jennifer Arnold even created a documentary about the haircut in 2002 titled American Mullet (which you can find on Amazon Prime if you’re curious). 

In more recent years, the mullet was actually banned in Iran, for being considered too much of a “western hairstyle”. No matter what you think of it, the mullet has become enough of a staple of the American aesthetic that it’s been placed in that categorization along with spiked hair, ponytails, and long hair in general. 
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Will the mullet ever rise once more the its former glory in the 80’s? Maybe not, but it has certainly cemented itself as an iconic haircut from the past, and an important style to this day for many groups of people. 

The Mullet in 2020

It’s 2020, and the question everyone must now ask is: is the mullet coming back in style? Some may argue that it was never in style, while others will insist that it never went out of style. Ask the general public or a hair stylist, though, and they will probably be inclined to tell you that yes, the mullet is coming back. In January this year, men’s fashion blogs across the internet all declared the same thing: 2020 would be the year for the mullet. Beginning as a counter-culture hair style that was just getting its footing in the world of fashion once again, this year has proved to be the perfect time for the resurgence of the mullet. 

With hair salons being closed for multiple months in the first half of 2020, many people took on the dreaded task of facing down a home-brewed haircut. For some this manifested in a mullet style: either out of appreciation for the cut, or, perhaps, out of necessity. Get the hair off your face without worrying about trimming the back of your head where you can’t see. Like our ancestors before us, we must acknowledge the mullet for what it truly is: a practical haircut. 

The sudden lack of access to salons isn’t the only reason mullets are coming back, though. There have been whispers of the style in the mainstream over the last few years, and this was simply the boil-over point. In the second half of the past decade, we’d seen a steady increase of mullet action once again amongst the most famous of us. Ironically, a lot of the most notable celebrities actively rocking mullets today are women. Female singers especially. Everyone from Kesha and Miley Cyrus to Billy Eilish and even Zendaya have been seen sporting the look. What may have been considered a trashy style by many even just a few years ago has become a chic look sported by those of us who have a tendency to look coolest. 

When it comes to less famous women wearing the look, just as many have been sporting the ‘do as the pop stars and celebrities of the world. Especially amongst women in the LGBT+ community, the mullet is becoming as big of a fashion statement as it is amongst guys. Combine this cut with absurdly large earrings and colorful pants, and you’re ready to tell the world “Hello ladies! I, too, am gay.” 
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Is the mullet resurging in popularity along with 80’s nostalgia-themed media, like It and Stranger Things? Perhaps. Like media and clothing, hair styles tend to move in cycles. Men’s hairstyles have been typically short-on-the-sides, longer-on-top for a while, now, and maybe the mullet is a shift out of those restrictions. Recent women’s fashion has involved a lot of things that were at one point, not long ago, considered tacky (looking at you, mom jeans and scrunchies). Maybe the mullet is the next step in this resurgence, allowing men to embrace the tackier sides of our previous societal fashion faux pas, as well. 

Back when the pandemic started heating up in the United States several months ago and local shelter-in-place orders were instituted which closed down barbershops, I decided I’d let my hair grow out for the indefinite future. Instead of seeing the shutdown as an inconvenience, I reframed it as an opportunity to achieve some sweet, sweet, 1980s Sam Elliott hair. I had tried to achieve this worthy goal before, gotten close, but abandoned the idea when it didn’t seem to be coming together. I wanted to give the idea another go round; maybe it would somehow work out better this time. 

I was optimistic about the project, but by the middle of July, I’d reached my head-mop breaking point. Just as I had concluded on my first attempt, my hair is just too thick, wavy, and vertically-oriented in its growth to pull off the 80s flow. Instead of looking like Sam Elliott in Mask, I looked like Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. What’s more, all that hair on top of my head was making me overheat during the hot and humid Oklahoma summer.

So I had my mother-in-law buzz it off (she buzzes my father-in-law’s head each week, so she’s a seasoned pro). I officially joined the pandemic buzz cut club. 

The clippings lumped together on the floor looked like the pelt of a dead varmint. My head felt a few pounds lighter and a lot cooler. I’m enjoying my buzz cut. It’s a breeze to maintain. Washing my hair takes significantly less time and there’s no need to style or even comb it.

But I plan on returning to my typical side-part hairstyle for the fall, which presents a minor issue: a buzz cut can look a little awkward — fuzzy and round — while it grows out. The last time I grew out a summer buzz cut a few years ago, I remember I looked vaguely like a Chia-Head. 

To avoid looking like a potted indoor novelty plant, I reached out to Thad Forrester, barber and co-owner of Hudson / Hawk Barber & Shop for his advice on growing out a buzz cut.

If you can visit a barber . . . keep the back and sides short, and let the hair grow out on top.

“I like the strategy of keeping the sides and back short until the top starts to get longer,” Thad told me. It helps push more visual strength into the top of your head and “prevents the Chia Pet look from happening.”

Ask your barber for a taper at the temple and neck. If you don’t mind showing some skin as the hair gets closer to the hairline on the sides and neck, you can also ask for a medium fade along the sides and back. This will give your hair some dimension, making it look more like an actual haircut and less like a uniformly round tennis ball. Continue to let the hair on top grow out, until it too is in need of a trim. 

If you’re wanting to eventually grow the sides and back of your hair out rather than keeping them trimmed close to the head with a taper or fade, start this process once the hair on top of your head is long enough to comb. 

You’ll need to visit your barber a little more often — perhaps every two weeks — to keep your style looking sharp during this grow-out period. 

If you can’t/don’t want to visit a barber . . . let your buzz grow while keeping your hairline trimmed.

If you don’t think you’ll be visiting a barbershop anytime soon, you can of course keep buzzing your head. If you don’t have a mother-in-law handy, here’s a guide on how to do it yourself.

What if you can’t visit a barbershop now, but think you will in a couple months or so, and want to start growing out your hair now? Giving yourself a taper isn’t impossible, but it’s pretty tricky. Even having someone else do it for you is iffy.

You’ll thus probably need to content yourself with letting your buzzed fuzz get puffy, but you can still keep it from looking too unruly by doing a DIY clean-up along your hairline. This means trimming your sideburns along with the two trails of hair that run down your neck. We’ve got a guide on how to take care of this job here.

How long will it take my buzz cut to grow out?

Genetics will influence how quickly your hair grows, but on average, humans grow about ½ inch of hair a month. Depending on how long your hair was pre-buzz cut, expect it to take 3 to 4 months to grow out to its original length.

There you go. How to grow out your buzz cut, and banish Mr. Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia Head to 1990s commercial breaks.

These grow out tips are from Art of Manliness