Haircuts for transmasculine people

(As someone who identifies as trigender) I have very short hair that is slightly longer on one side. The left side is slightly below my ear and I shave the neck hair that grows up to that point. The right side goes about halfway down my neck and flips out a little bit.

Faux-hawks all the way.

I use to have a mohawk, the typical FtM haistyle hahahah. Now I have uh, best described as David Tennant as Dr Who hair, but slightly longer. Short on the sides with a swoop in the front.

Uh something I do to make my hair look more masculine is give it a square trim in the back, sometimes just shave it, just make sure the back of your neck has a straight hairline. Also my "sideburns", as in the chunks of hair that go in front of my ears are trimmed straight across, not quite down to my earlobe. It's tempting to grow them longer to give a more "sideburn" look, but it just looks more feminine, so keep those short. General "guy" haircut rule is shorter the sides, longer on top. I have a very round face, thanks to my asian genes, so it's hard to look very masculine unfortunately.

My feminine cismale boyfriend on the other hand, has beautiful lightly wavy hair down past his collar bone. Not dirty metal kid hair, but like, super pretty boy layered styled long hair.

My boyfriend (the transmasculine one in this relatinoship) does the fauxhawk thing. Partly because it is masculine and partly because his hair grows crazy fast and the shorter he cuts it, the better. Like @butts said, my bf also trims it square in the back so that it's nice and even. Also he gets his side burns done square.

My hair is generally a clean cut, but that doesn't help because I am somewhat hypermasculine (though some people think that I am androgynous in appearance, go figure). It's not a crew or buzz cut, but it's very clean around the ears and back, and a little length up top. Very clean, but can be styled and played with a bit. Can also be ruffled for a messy look. I won't post a photo of myself because I look like a young boy (I passed for twelve years old at the movie theater once because I didn't speak that day), but if you'd like, I will send you a photo through messages.

I used to have a mohawk but I was getting addressed as 'she' about 50% of the time. Now I have the sides buzzed very smooth just a slight amount of stubble and still very short on top. I've seen quite a few marines with that haircut and it seems to have helped on me a good deal, as I haven't been called she since I got the new cut.

I find that if you try a more feminine hairstyle people are better at guessing your real age but they call you by female pronouns more often, and the more masculine the cut, you tend to get proper pronouns but addressed as a younger guy (at least in the case of me, and I'd say much of this is due to not having any facial hair).

I recently got a haircut which has seriously helped me pass (I'm FtM).

It's buzzed pretty short except in the front, and there's a little left on the sides that look like sideburns shaved down unless you squint.

I've also found that playing up a sort of stereotypically "gay" look (I'm actually panromantic myself) can help me pass, so the little gelled up quiff in the front of my hair and neat look I do with the rest of my ensemble on a day to day basis helps me pass as well.

I really enjoy having short hair, but I have a few guy friends who keep saying they can't wait till T gives them stubble so they can pass and wear their hair long.

That sort of scruffy "rocker" hair works, I think. Lolol Queen. I think it's sort of equal parts looking like you just woke up after a long night of partying and looking like you might not have bathed recently.

I did this for a while. Which really just consisted of "comb your hair straight back and let dry and then let it do whatever the next day".

And "punk" styles where you look like you attacked a fan for shits and giggles. No hate, I luv dem punx.

For short hair, you really have to be explicit about wanting a male cut. It's "sharper" on the sides, with a more abrupt transition from short sides to longer top.

But when it comes to "passing", you really have to play to society's gender cues, unfortunately. It's also important, if you're going for a more masculine look, to call more attention to your feature that are naturally more masculine and away from the feminine ones.

If I can, it works best for me to have my hair back at the top, at least exposing forehead to hairline, and not much hair around the jaw area so as not to soften it.


Also, eyebrows. They are one of the things that does more than anything else when it comes to aesthetic traits. I've found for me, at least, when I had NO eyebrows, it actually looked more masculine than little stingy girly ones - because it brought perceived browline down to my eyesockets.

And "typically female" facial hair tends to actually do more 'harm' than good to trying to pass as male. Because guys tend to either go big or just shave it off - they don't have that "peach fuzz" - they have stubble.

BUT, I want to stress, there's no wrong way to be masculine or male.


My hair is pretty short right now, but I want to grow it again. Guessing it'll be four-five more months, just in time for school, I guess. I had my hair permed for a while, so it did need to get cut off because it was crispy. I just have to enjoy life being more Oscar Wilde than Gene Wilder, I guess. So I guess the lesson is, "don't fight your hair, it will do what it wants to do or fall out from chemical abuse".

My boy has his really short in the back and the sides, with slightly longer side swept bangs in the front.