Curly Taper Crop: A Short Cut for Curly Hair

Mateusz came in with one request: keep his curls, but refresh the sides and tame a fringe that had grown too round and was weighing the whole haircut down. The whole trick of this cut is leaving the curl untouched on top while building a clean, high taper underneath and a sharp square at the crown.

Curly Taper Crop is a short men's haircut for curly hair, where the top works as a square with the curl preserved, while the sides and nape fade into a high taper fade. The top section is left with extra length so the curl can form properly, and underneath it, the clippers build a transition from a very dark area to a very light one. This cut is for people with dense, tightly curled hair who want to keep their natural curl while getting a clean, structured shape.

How Curly Taper Crop differs from a regular fade

Curly Taper Crop differs from a classic fade in that, instead of disconnection, it builds a strong connection between the long top and the short sides. Anastasiia Verbitskaya deliberately avoids cutting a sharp line. The nape is left with extra length so the transition between the dark, curly hair and the shaved bottom stays smooth rather than abrupt.

Taper fade is how the sides are finished here: a short distance between the weight line and the zero line, without fully shaving the temples. What ties the whole cut together is the discipline on top, where the curl is only brought out at the styling stage, while the sides fade down in a clean, high taper. If you're curious about other finishes from the taper family, check out how a messy taper and a mid fade are done.

Who is Curly Taper Crop for

Curly Taper Crop works best on dense, tightly curled, fairly short hair, on people who love their curl but struggle with excess volume on top. Mateusz had exactly this problem: curls he wanted to keep, and a fringe that had grown too round and was weighing down his face.

Hair color plays a role too. Very dark hair allows you to work on a short distance between the weight line and the zero line, because the contrast between the light and dark areas builds the depth of the taper on its own. The effect is that a raised, shortened fringe frames the face: on Mateusz it made his features more angular, and the square top added verticality and structure on top of that.

Curly hair shows off every shape we create really nicely once it's dry. If we created a circle, you'd see a circle.

Anastasiia Verbitskaya

How Curly Taper Crop is done, step by step

Curly Taper Crop is cut in graduation on the nape and sides, with the top shaped into a square using horizontal sections, and only at the end does the clippers fade the sides into a taper. Anastasiia bases the whole parting on how the hair falls naturally, since the length is too short to section it off the way you would with longer haircuts.

1. Parting based on the crown whorl: one part combed forward, the other into the upper occipital section, with the temple sections separated and clipped away.
2. The nape is cut in graduation, radially, with sections radiating out from a single point, length carried from section to section with no redirection, and a constant elevation angle.
3. The sides are cut the same way in graduation, forming a slight trapezoid, with the length combed diagonally toward the face.
4. The top is shaped into a square using horizontal sections, with the sections pulled toward each other up to the crown, and one section combed away from the rest.
5. Taper fade with clippers: weight line set high, at fringe level, zero line at the top of the line-up, with the shadow spread across a short distance.

The most interesting part is shaping the square. With short, curly hair, Anastasiia doesn't bother with vertical sections — she works horizontally instead, keeping the direction of tension aligned with the curve of the skull. Watch how she guides the tension on each section to keep the top square:

Every section up to the crown is pulled upward, meaning more toward itself, and only the last one is combed away from the rest, because that's where the skull curves sharply toward the face. This is what makes the square work both horizontally and vertically, and the process is faster than with classic vertical sections.

Weight line connected to the fringe

In this cut, the weight line at the temples sits at the same height where the fringe ends. That's a deliberate decision, not a coincidence. Anastasiia first finishes drying and pre-styles the top, trims the fringe dry, and only then marks out the taper, so the fade lines up perfectly with the rest of the haircut.

Watch Anastasiia explain why she adjusts the styling first, before working on the fade:

This order of work gives a cohesive silhouette: the fringe, the weight line and the fade read as one whole, not three separate elements. The zero line sits at the top of the line-up, and at the nape Anastasiia runs it along the jawline, with the weight line roughly at the middle of the ear.

Styling Curly Taper Crop

Curly Taper Crop is styled with curl cream, applied in stages and built up in layers, while the top is dried with a diffuser on a low, hot setting. Anastasiia applies the product starting right at the roots, since that's the only way it actually works, and she deliberately builds it up in layers instead of loading it all on at once. Too much product from the start gives a greasy, clumped-together look, and that's exactly what we want to avoid.

The second layer of cream is matte and brings out the hair's natural texture. Watch how Anastasiia layers the product and shapes the curls without disturbing the fringe:

The cream is scrunched into the hair with an upward motion to shape the little curls, while the fringe is combed out and defined more sharply so it frames the face. The diffuser runs on a low, gentle airflow so the curl has time to set instead of getting blown out. The second layer of product is used to knock down any frizz left over from drying and combing.

How long Curly Taper Crop lasts

Curly Taper Crop grows out well, because guard number three builds a transitional length that bridges the top and the shaved bottom. Anastasiia deliberately works the area above and behind the ear with an open blade, so excess weight doesn't build up there too quickly as the hair grows out.

With curly hair, this reserve of length under the taper matters: it lets the haircut grow out evenly, without the bottom looking like it's falling apart faster than the top. A clean line behind the ear and at the nape plays a big role here, since that's what keeps the whole taper readable as the hair starts to grow out.