Sometimes having less locks gives you more attitude. Men’s short hairstyles can be classic cruiser or modern psychobilly, but they don’t have to be the buzzed cut your Dad gave you. We’ve got men’s haircuts that rock the casbah or intimidate the cellblock, and we are also going to tell you what to do with that crop top once you take it home.

Wondering how to style your hair short and sharp like the barber did it? Let’s chew the fat on which hair products you should use for your hair type and look and how to style short hair for men to get that brooding rebel, back-room brawler, or swept-back greaser vibe going on.

The Down Low on Men’s Hair Styling Products

Hair styling products for men turn a haircut into a signature look. Maybe you’ve been using trial and error to try to find the right goop for you, but there’s a science to making it slick back, stand up, or lay down the way you want. Here’s all you need to get a short hairstyle for men back to boss:

Daily Shampoo and Conditioner

Removing the remains of hair products used the day before is essential to a clean start. Your daily shampoo should be designed to balance cleansing and degreasing. You may need a Scrub Shampoo to remove heavy-hold pomade or clay products. Conditioner detangles and moisturizes. Reuzel salon-quality daily shampoos and conditioners lay the base for the rest of your rocking style.

Grooming and Hair Tonics

A good barbershop-quality hair tonic stimulates the scalp, increases volume, and prepares hair for blow drying. Low shine and light hold formulas might be all curly hair needs for a windblown and wild style for short hair. If you have fine or thin hair, use a spray like Surf Tonic, but for thicker hair you can use a small amount of tonic on your palm and work it through damp hair with your hands.

Hair Gels and Pastes

Add shape and texture with professional quality hair gel and paste products like Fiber Gel or Matte Styling Paste. These products create spiked crew cuts, fans, ducktails, and those other stand-up-screaming styles of punk rock idols. If you want your hair on top to stand straight up, stick out, or make a vertical statement of any kind, gels and pastes make it happen.

Hair Sprays and Texture Products

Please, put down the Aquanet. A short haircut for men should have a texture other than lacquer-hard. A light hold spray is the finishing touch for light shine, but you can also add matte texture with Clay Spray and add volume with Matte Texture Powder. Boost the volume and keep your crap together with holding products that don’t let go.

Pomade in Every Shade

Pomade is a hair styling product that gives flexible hold that can be restyled on the road or between rounds. This greaser standard comes in concrete hold for rock solid shaping, all the way to medium hold for a looser, laid-back look. Some are high shine, and some are clay matte. Wondering where celebrities and movie icons get that perfect sheen? Pomade, brother. Get some.

How to Get Your Style On

You can apply hair gel and creams with your hands and use your fingers to work from the roots to the tips to style short layered hair. For a smoother surface or wave, style with a comb. Curly or wind-blown hair cuts do better with the finger-combing through, but if you want a slick clean style that stays put, style with a comb and finish with a light spray of hair tonic.

Get your hands dirty with firmer products. Putting on clay and pomade starts at the roots, massaging it in with your fingers, and then working the product out to the ends. Use a small amount and add more until you’ve got the right level of hold. Then use these trade secrets to create the shape and style that suits your outlook on life.

Relaxed Surfer

Want to look like you just don’t care while never losing the windblown glory? Add a dime-sized amount of fiber hair gel or fiber cream to your palm and work in your hands, and then apply to your damp hair from root to tips. Blow dry upward with a brush, using medium or low heat. With a little more gel if needed, run your fingers through your hair to rough up the edges, or just leave the top down and head to the pier for a beer.

Classic Greaser

To get the classic greaser going, wash and towel dry, and then apply Green Pomade to slightly damp hair. Use a comb to slick back and create a side parting if you want to draw a line in the sand. Sweep the top section to one side and pull back the longer hair toward the back. For more shine, use Blue Pomade, or try a clay matte pomade for the real scumbag swagger.

Go Big or Go Home

Turn up the volume with Matte Texture Powder, Clay Spray, or Fiber Pomade. When you want a big contrast between the longer top hair and the fade on the sides, blow dry first with some grooming tonic against the way your hair naturally lies. Then work the pomade or cream from root to tips, combing or brushing upward. Finish with texture powder to stay on top of the pack all day long.

Ride on Down the Road

When you never know where you’ll end up, you want to restyle at any pit stop along the way. Fiber cream, fiber gel, and matte styling paste stay flexible all day, so you can whip out a comb and go from laid-back to radical in the rearview mirror. Blow dry hair upward for volume with grooming tonic. Then apply the paste or gel to the roots and work upward and back. Finish with a slick back that suits the suits, and then change it up with a flick of the comb for raging roadtrips or fine dining.

Men’s Short Haircuts for Cooler Heads and Attitudes

Not every face shape fits the same badass hairstyle. There’s really no end to the short hairstyles that men like you make famous. From golden classics to the cutting edge, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s a taste of the shortest and sharpest men’s haircuts that highlight your bad attitude and show off your good side:

• The Long Crop. Shorter at the sides, with a little extra length where it counts, with just enough to brush or part, the long crop makes it easy to keep it cool. Like Steve McQueen, all you need is a fast machine.
• The English Crop. Get the heavy fringe banging in the front in a short style that’s got the punk rock edge. The back, sides, and crown are cut short, with all the weight and brooding statement right up in your face.
• Low Fade Pomp. This goes from razor tight at the neck and ear to a fade an inch above the ear. When your pompadour is a low rider, the styling is easy. Try a tapered fade if you want to blend off higher. Style straight up in the front with fiber, or grease it back and let it all hang loose.
• Scumbag Boogie. This is a high fade with a side part that is a straight-up panty-dropping classic. Use a comb to create the trademark wave with a firm hold pomade to keep the scumbag allure holding strong wherever you boogie off to.
• Executive Contour. When you want to rule the boardroom or carry off a long con, this cut makes the grade. A little longer on the sides and back than a side part pompadour, it can have a hard part shaved in, or you can comb one in with green pomade and rough it up on the weekends.

Don’t Be Short Sighted About Short Hair

If you don’t bother to style short hair with long-lasting products, your first impression can fall flat. Get your grooming into gear with the Reuzel line of styling swag that picks up where second-rate hair gel rolls over and dies. Reuzel pomades, shampoos, and tonics make up a full system that degreases and restores your signature well groomed style.

You can be a rebel without a cause, but don’t be a greaser with subpar grease. Keeping it high and tight is a way of life, but don’t sell out your short and serious haircut with cheap grooming products.

Get your hands on the best tools, tips, and styling products for men from Reuzel and keep the sheen and greasy glow going strong.