Is the Perfect Men’s Haircut Passé? Celebrating the Questionable Crops of The Big Short

What is a good man’s haircut these days? The question came to me catching up on awards-season movies over the holiday. There I was in The Big Short, treated to Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, and Christian Bale transformed by floppy bangs, shaggy helmets, and lacquered curls into . . . well, ordinary-looking men. Same thing in Spotlight, where Liev Schreiber is all but unrecognizable beneath an airy frizz and Mark Ruffalo’s head seems to be capped by a plastic shell. Even Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs either has too much or not enough going on up top, depending on the era in question. I understand that these are all period films of a kind—still, the parade of awkwardly shorn A-listers dominating prestige cinema made me wonder about the here and now. Do we care about a perfect cut the way we used to?

I certainly don’t. My haircut costs have plummeted in recent years. There was a time when I dropped three figures at a hard-to-pronounce salon in lower Soho. By 2008, I was venturing to a tattooed stylist with a rock star husband over on Avenue B—and paying her $60. Then came the rise of the hipster barbershop with its bar carts and hot towels and blackboard prices around $45. These days I proudly hand over $13 plus tip to an Italian guy at Astor Place Hairstylists named Valentino. He calls me “Vogue.”

You could say I’ve surrendered—or point out the inverse relationship between male age and vanity. But I’d say something more significant is going on. What standard are we reaching for anymore? Who are we trying to look like? Once upon a time, for men like me it was Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Or Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Or George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven. Or Ryan Gosling in Drive.

 

 

But the era of the male screen idol is in eclipse and male beauty is all over the place. On the runway, hair is as likely to be long and unkempt as cleanly razored and tight. On the street we’re still firmly in the beard period. (Here’s a toss-up: Have beards made men care more or less about their actual hair?) Geek culture has also wreaked havoc. No self-respecting fanboy gives a damn about his hair, cf Rami Malek’s weird undercut pompadour in Mr. Robot. (Plus, most superheroes wear helmets.)

I called Mike Sposito, all-star barber at Fellow Barber in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to help me sort things out. For the record, he believes he does know what a good man’s haircut looks like in 2016. It’s all about complementing the shape of a guy’s face and head. But when I asked him for examples of men with perfect hair, he reached way back. David Lynch. Morrissey. Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Bruce Lee. Jeff Bridges. “That’s someone who can master a wild man look but look majestic at the same time,” he said.

I pressed. But what does good hair look like right now?

“A lot of my guys are growing their hair out. It’s getting looser and longer,” Sposito told me. “I think it’s a perfect counter to where we’ve been—a pushed-over clean look. I also like a textured crew cut. Not high and tight—very, like, mid fade.”

He pointed out that the bar has simply been raised. Men know what they’re doing these days. They get their hair cut. “We’re not called metrosexuals now, just because we know how to dress ourselves,” he said. As a result, good hair is more invisible than it used to be. More ubiquitous.

What does he make of the train wreck hair in all these prestige movies? Christian Bale as investor Mike Burry who proudly says he goes to Supercuts . . .

Sposito hadn’t seen The Big Short yet. “Oh, but Leo looks awesome in that new one.” The Revenant. “I saw that. He’s got a decent-size beard, a cool wild thing going on. If you take the frontier away and put him in different clothes, that’s an awesome look.”

 

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