Messy taper
The messy taper is a creative men’s haircut built around three visual elements: an aggressive taper line, a disconnect between the sides and the top, and a heavily textured square on top with an elongated back in the style of a short mullet. The course demonstrates how to take fine, straight hair—which the client cannot style on their own—and create a hairstyle with dynamism, movement, and a distinct, punk-skate vibe for everyday wear.
Mateusz Banaszek guides you through the entire process step by step: from the consultation and assessment of the head’s internal structure, through the deliberate simplification of the division into two areas (top + side and back), all the way to selecting the length of the memory section at the top. Work on the side is done using diagonal sections in a circular pattern, where one section connects the temple to the back, with varying lift and finger angle within the same movement, creating a circular gradation perfectly tailored to the shape of the head.
In this course, you'll learn:
- A complete step-by-step guide to building a tapper: 6 mm → 4.5 mm → 3 mm → 1.5 mm, plus a shaver for a clean zero line
- Consciously dividing the head into two areas (top + side and back) and when simplification is a choice, not a shortcut
- The "Holy Grail" rule—the single centerline of the tapper that must not be crossed without reworking the effect from scratch
- Deep quilting 2 cm deep and triangular slits to create a framework that lifts fine, straight hair
- Working with the wrist while the elbow and shoulder are locked – why this is essential for a taper to be a taper, rather than a flawed fade
- Building the mountain as a separate panel—a square horizontally and a circle vertically to create mass and dynamism
- The complete finishing touch: use a heat diffuser, matte pomade, and your fingers to tousle the hair and lock in the texture from the cut
After completing this course, you’ll be able to consciously control the tapper’s center of gravity without having to redo it, use disconnection as a compositional tool, and turn deep texturing into a technical skill on fine, straight hair—the kind clients usually consider “unmanageable.”