Classic Cuts: Return of the Temple Fade
It’s your boy, DJ Pauly D, doing his post-Jersey Shore thing circa 2013.
Photo: Eva Rinaldi | Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to Classic Cuts, an ongoing series in which we honour man’s coolest, most celebrated hairstyles from across time. De Niro’s slick back in Goodfellas. Lionel Richie’s jheri curl. Fabio’s mane. They’ll all be hallowed here.
We’ll even show you how to rock some of these yourself.
And don’t forget, if there’s a haircut you want us to talk about, let us know at info@crownshavingco.com. Don’t be shy.
You’d have never pipped us for benchmarking DJ Pauly D, and yet here we are.
Hey, in the year 2023, anything can happen.
Then again, let’s not take the piss out of the former MTV star. The guy’s done all right for himself since his headier days on Jersey Shore, everyone’s most despised/beloved reality show of the mid-2000s. Don’t look now, but those crazy Italians did a reunion show called Family Vacation back in 2018. You know, in case you need to catch up with Snooki and co.
Fast forward to today, past that alleged tax fraud committed by the Situation and those career-ending domestic v-word accusations levied on Ronnie, and one will find a rather happy DJ Pauly “D” Delvecchio spinning tracks to throngs of fans at sold-out shows across his country.
Pauly’s earned millions doing what he said he’d do, not that signing onto a 50 Cent-owned record label won’t help. And you know he’s still rocking that temple fade, the ever-so-slightly disconnected one that defines what we can only call “the Pauly D” haircut.
That’s commitment, people.
Like its distant, heart-melting cousin, the mullet, the temple fade’s having a moment.
Here’s hoping it stays, unlike many fads of years past.
The Gist
The humble, yet life-altering temple fade is distinguished by its ceiling—the top of a man’s ear. It can’t rise past that limit, which incidentally resides at your temples, hence the catchy name. And like all other fades, temple fades just gets shorter the further down you go.
How short’s up to you and, hopefully, your barber. You could go right down to the skin, or keep things subtle with a one or two. Either way, your haircut should suit your face shape (we talked about this not long ago.).
Ironically, it’s marked length on top that makes this cut, and not the actual fade itself.
In fact, a temple fade just looks weird with something, say, army-short, like a buzzcut. If you want a temple to look good, you’ll want enough weight up top to forge that sweet, sweet contrast. You know, the kind that’ll characterize and preserve balance.
When executed to precision, a good temple fade renders subtlety at its finest. Unlike a high fade or even a low fade, a temple fade’s quiet, almost elusive. If anything, it’s more of a “clean-up” around the ears than a full-on fade. And often, a temple fade forgoes sideburns altogether to keep things low-profile.
You know we’ll always look to soccer (or “footie,” if you’re British) for some of the coolest men’s cuts. There’s really no other sport that doubles as a showcase for the deftest, most stylish looks in men’s grooming.
Here’s Iranian footballer, Ali Alipour, during his early days at Persepolis in 2015. He did well enough to earn a sport on his country’s national team, but does he know how spot-on that temple fades looks against a side-part? We’d bet he does.
Plus, you can tell that fade’s about a week to two weeks old, rendering an even subtler hairstyle overall.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
