Regulation Cut
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The Regulation Cut: Practical and Appropriate

A discreet style that has all the chances to become your next favourite

written by Danny Puopolo

The regulation cut is one of the longer army haircuts you might see. This haircut according to army haircut regulations involves trimming the top down. The sides are then tapered off completely, leaving it up to you to decide how much skin you want to be visible. This cut definitely has its perks: it’s low maintenance, looks good, is very practical, and works in almost every environment.

How to get it?

This haircut is particularly easy to get, like most military cuts. If you’re doing this one at home, you can enlist the help of a friend to trim your hair for you, or even attempt to do it yourself.

To begin, just have your friend trim the top hair down to at most a number 3, and then begin tapering the sides. The simplest way to do this is to also clip the sides down to a #3, and then use scissors to gradually shorten the hairs as they get progressively lower. You can even shave the lowest hairs off entirely, so as to give that true regulation cut look.

Should you be cutting your hair alone, a better option is to go for a harder ‘taper’ and just shave the sides down to whatever length you want. And as always, your barber can get you this cut with relative ease. Remember that a few photos can speak volumes.

How to style it?

With such short hair, there isn’t much styling for you to do. If you do opt for a number 3 on top, then you might be able to get away with a little bit of hair product (e.g. gel) to style the front upwards or sideways. Although this might not apply to just the hair on your head, this cut does benefit from a clean shave or at least a crisp shave.

See the gallery below for some examples of this excellent style:

Danny Puopolo is an expert that works at Rakis, a professional hairdressing salon in Melbourne. His work has been featured in a variety of publications such as OK Magazine, Vogue, and INSTYLE. He has also managed classes for Shu Uemura Australia and Loreal Professional.