We think the undercut trend is slowly on it’s way out and quite frankly does not suit everyone. As well as the fact there are better suited, shaped (more balanced) haircuts you can go for that will grow out better and last you longer.
However, varying on the hairstyle and length – the undercut often cannot just be changed into any style in your next visit to the barbershop, especially to go from an undercut (no blending into the top), to a blended haircut. You may not be able to get the exact style you are looking to change to straightway and the hair may not be able to blend in yet – it may take a couple of haircuts, and that is another disadvantage of the undercut. It can be a pain to grow out into a new style!
That’s why in this edition of #BarberTalk by New York Barbers, we are going to explain step by step how to go about growing out an undercut and working towards a new style.
Step 1: What Type of Undercut do you have right now?
This will tell you what areas you need to grow out in order to get rid of the disconnection.
Full Undercut: A Full Undercut is where the sides are disconnected from the top all the way around the head.
To blend it in, this means you have to allow the length on the sides to grow and get long enough to connect/blend into the top hair.
Undercut One Side, Blended On The Other: Another popular style, is having one side of the head disconnected (and some guys get a line shaved in) and the other side is blended in.
If this is what you have, you only need to worry about letting the side that is disconnected get more length so it can be connected/blended into the top. This is because the other side is blended in already.
If you do have a line shaved in, it will take a little while for that line to grow out and match the length, so you will see a slight ‘gap’ in the blended portion of the haircut until it catches up!
Step 2: Understanding how changing from an undercut into a blended hairstyle works.
When you get an undercut, the section of hair at the round of the head (top area on the sides and back) gets cut off. In a blended haircut, this is the area where a barber will use to blend the sides of the haircut into the top.
This is why when an undercut grows out, that top area at the round of the head sticks out so much and you find yourself needing to get a haircut again before you know it.
With a blended haircut, the part that sticks out is hidden in the haircut as it grows out because it gradually fades from the sides into the top.
Due to having that section of hair cut off with an undercut, you need to let it grow to a length long enough to connect/blend into the top. Usually, when you can hold the hair in your fingers it means it is long enough to allow your barber to blend it into the top, but this all depends on what style you want to go for and how short you are willing to go on top – which brings us to our next step.
Step 3: Choose Your New Style
The first step is to have a rough idea or choose a particular hairstyle that you want to go for. This will be able to determine how long you may have to wait to allow your hair to blend back in again.
Buzz Cut: There is 1 way to get rid of an undercut INSTANTLY, and that is by cutting everything off to an even length and starting again. It is definitely the quickest way, but obviously not ideal if you’re not willing to wait for it to grow back or go that short on top. If you don’t care to buzz it off, well, there’s your answer! You can just stop reading – and get it buzzed off!
Step 4: Wait and let it grow!
Like we have mentioned in the steps above, the longer you allow your hair to grow out on the sides, (as painful as it may be) the easier it will be for your barber to blend in the haircut and get rid of the disconnection.
If you absolutely have to get your haircut before allowing the sides to grow out enough to blend in, you can always just get your barber to trim your neckline to make it look neater.
We hope you now understand how to go about growing out an undercut and we possibly may have deterred you from getting one (if you haven’t already) as it really is a pain to grow it out into a different style!
But after all it is your hair, so it’s your choice!
Here is a short, 2 minute helpful video that explains it in a more visual form! (via The Salon Guy)
