How to Grow Out Your Hair Without the Awkward Phase (2026)

Growing out your hair without an awkward phase comes down to one rule that sounds backwards: you keep coming to the barber. Most guys decide to grow it out and immediately stop booking cuts — and that is exactly what creates the shaggy, flaring-at-the-ears stretch everybody dreads. The length on top is almost never the problem. The neckline, the ears, and the weight piling up on the sides are. Clean those every five to six weeks, leave the top alone, and the grow-out reads as intentional the whole way through instead of as four months of giving up.

That’s the trick. The rest of this guide is the detail: how long it actually takes from where you’re starting, what to say in the chair so a barber doesn’t quietly undo your progress, which product saves you during the worst four weeks, and how to time trims around our hours at 104 W Main St in Molalla.

Why Does Growing Out Your Hair Look Worse Before It Looks Better?

Because hair doesn’t grow evenly outward — it grows down. The hair on your crown is heading for your forehead, the hair above your ears is heading sideways and then out, and the hair at your nape is heading for your collar. Each section hits an awkward length in a different month.

The sides are the real culprit. Hair growing off the side of your head has nowhere to go but out, so somewhere around week six to ten it stops lying flat and starts to wing. That’s the flare. Meanwhile the back is creeping past your shirt collar and the top still isn’t long enough to lie down and move.

Here’s what we see in the chair constantly: a guy comes in fourteen weeks into a grow-out convinced his hair “just looks bad,” and the fix takes twelve minutes. Thin the weight out of the sides, clean the nape, tidy around the ears, don’t touch the top. He walks out looking like he meant to have longer hair — and nothing came off the part he was worried about.

How Long Does It Actually Take to Grow Your Hair Out?

Hair grows roughly half an inch a month for most people, and nothing in a bottle changes that meaningfully. What does change the timeline is where you’re starting from.

Honest ranges, not promises. Texture matters more than people expect — tight curls gain visual length far more slowly than straight hair at the same growth rate, because a curl spends most of its length coiled.

The useful part is the gap between those two columns. The first three months are the hard part. After that, length starts doing the work for you and styling gets easier every month.

Should You Stop Getting Haircuts While Growing Your Hair Out?

No — and this is the single most expensive mistake people make, because it costs them months.

A maintenance trim during a grow-out isn’t a haircut in the normal sense. Nothing comes off the length you’re protecting. What comes off is:

• The nape. A clean line at the back of the neck is most of what separates “growing it out” from “needs a haircut.” A Neck Shave in Molalla is currently $7 and takes about five minutes.

• Around the ears. Hair creeping over the top of the ear reads as unkempt faster than anything else on your head.

• Weight in the sides — not length. Point-cutting the bulk out is what stops the flare without shortening the silhouette.

• Ragged ends on top. A few millimetres off the tips keeps the shape clean and costs you almost no progress.

Our standard Haircut in Molalla is currently $33 for a 25-minute slot, and that’s the right booking for a shaping trim — you want time for a conversation, not a rushed clean-up. Check current pricing before you come in, since the list does drift.

Cadence that works for most people: every five to six weeks through the grow-out. Tighter and you risk losing ground. Much looser and you spend half the year in the flare.

What Do You Ask For So a Barber Doesn’t Undo Your Progress?

“Just a little off” is the phrase that ruins grow-outs. It has no shape to it, so a barber working fast defaults to tidying the whole head — which takes the sides down and resets your clock.

Say this instead, roughly in this order:

1. Lead with the goal, not the trim. “I’m growing it out — I want it to reach about here,” and put your hand where you mean.

2. Protect the top explicitly. “Nothing off the length on top. Ends only, if anything.”

3. Name the problem you came in with. “The sides are winging out” or “the back’s over my collar.”

4. Ask for weight removal, not length removal, on the sides.

5. Say how long until you’re back. We shape differently for six weeks than for three months.

Ask for scissors over clippers while you’re growing out. Clippers cut to a uniform length — ideal for a fade, wrong for a phase where you want the sides lighter in weight but similar in length. If you’re not sure what you’ve currently got on the sides, it’s worth knowing what separates a taper from a fade first, because the two grow out very differently.

Which Starting Cut Grows Out the Easiest?

If a grow-out is coming and you haven’t started, this is worth planning.

Easiest: a scissor cut or a soft taper. No hard line anywhere, so every week looks like a slightly longer version of the last one. You can genuinely go a year without a bad month.

Hardest: a skin fade or razor fade. A fade looks sharp precisely because of the contrast line, and that line does not resolve gracefully — it grows out as a visible band of denser hair sitting above a shorter patch, usually weeks four through nine. The fix is having a barber blur it deliberately at your first grow-out trim. Waiting it out doesn’t work.

Middle ground: a buzz cut. No lines to manage, but you’re starting from near zero, so it’s the longest timeline on the list.

None of that means skip the fade. Our Razor / Foil Fade is a 45-minute service at $40 in Molalla and one of the best-looking cuts in the shop. It just means that if a grow-out is six months out, a taper might be the smarter last cut before you commit. The full range is on our hair services page.

What Product Actually Helps During the Flare Phase?

Less than people think, and different from what they reach for.

The instinct is to grab something heavy and glue it down. That’s usually wrong — heavy pomade on hair eight weeks into a grow-out looks greasy and heavier, which emphasises the exact flare you’re hiding.

What works better:

• A matte clay or paste. Dry finish, medium hold, adds the texture that makes an in-between length look deliberate.

• Sea salt spray on damp hair. Gives the sides something to grip so they sit back instead of winging out.

• Less than you’re using. Pea-sized for short, a dime for medium. Most flare problems are a volume problem.

• Blow-dry direction. Thirty seconds drying the sides downward and back with your hand beats any product. Highest-return habit in a grow-out, full stop.

We field this question constantly at the front desk, so we broke down which product does what, and how much to use separately.

One note beyond styling: if you’re noticing real thinning, persistent shedding, or a scalp that stays itchy or irritated, that’s a conversation for a licensed medical provider or dermatologist — not a product swap, and not a barber.

Timing Your Grow-Out Trims in Molalla

A grow-out is a schedule, not one appointment, so the practical stuff matters more than usual.

Our Molalla shop at 104 W Main St runs Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m.–6 p.m., closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m.–1 p.m.

Three things worth knowing if you’ll be back every five or six weeks:

• Wednesday being closed pushes demand into Thursday. If you want an unhurried shaping trim with time to talk, Thursday afternoon isn’t the window.

• Sunday mornings are our quietest stretch on Main Street. Short window, but the easiest time to get real chair time for a conversation about where the grow-out is headed. Come early — it closes at 1.

• Saturday ends at 4 p.m., which catches people out. A Saturday afternoon walk-in is a gamble, not a plan.

Street parking along W Main is straightforward outside event weekends, and we’re in the middle of the downtown stretch rather than out on the highway. For the full week mapped out shop by shop, see when the chairs are actually open.

Growing out a kid’s or teenager’s hair works the same way with one wrinkle: school picture days and sports haircut rules tend to appear mid-grow-out. Mention the date early and we’ll shape around it. Kids 10 and under are currently $30 for a 20-minute slot in Molalla; seniors 65 and over are $27.

When Should You Give Up and Go Short Again?

Not at month two, which is when most people quit. The flare is the worst stretch, and it usually settles within four to six weeks of a proper shaping trim — quitting during it means you ate the hard part and collected none of the payoff.

When a reset is reasonable:

• You’ve had two shaping trims and the sides still won’t sit back. Some textures genuinely fight a mid-length. That’s information, not failure.

• Your crown is coming in noticeably thinner than your sides, and length is making the contrast more obvious rather than less.

• You’ve got an event inside eight weeks and you’d rather look sharp than in-progress. A Buzz Cut at $20 resets you cleanly, and you can start again after.

There’s no prize for finishing. A cut you like beats a length you were aiming for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to grow your hair out from a fade?

Typically four to six months to reach a short style you can part and move, and 14 to 20 months for collar length, assuming growth of about half an inch per month. A fade adds time compared with a taper because the contrast line has to be blurred out deliberately rather than left to resolve on its own.

Should you stop getting haircuts while growing your hair out?

No. Stopping is the most common reason grow-outs look bad. Keep coming in every five to six weeks for a maintenance trim that cleans the neckline and ears and removes weight from the sides without shortening the length on top.

What is the awkward phase and how long does it last?

It is the stretch where the sides start winging out and the back passes your collar while the top still is not long enough to lie down, usually weeks six through ten. A proper shaping trim normally brings it under control within four to six weeks, which is why it lasts far longer for people who skip the barber during it.

Does trimming your hair make it grow faster?

No. Trimming has no effect on growth rate, which happens at the follicle. What a trim does is remove split and ragged ends so the hair you are keeping holds its shape, which is why a maintained grow-out often looks longer than one that has been left alone.

What product works best while growing your hair out?

A matte clay or paste, or a sea salt spray on damp hair. Both add texture and help the sides sit back. Heavy pomades tend to make mid-length hair look greasy and heavier, which emphasises the flare. Blow-drying the sides downward and back for thirty seconds helps more than any product.

Do you take walk-ins for a trim in Molalla?

Yes, walk-ins are welcome at 104 W Main St whenever a chair is open, though booking ahead is safer for a grow-out trim because you want the full appointment length for a conversation about shape. Note that the Molalla shop is closed on Wednesdays.

How much is a haircut at Royalz Barbers in Molalla?

Our standard haircut is currently $33 for a 25-minute appointment, with seniors 65 and over at $27 and kids 10 and under at $30. A neck shave on its own is $7. Prices do change, so check the Fresha booking page for current pricing.

Can you fix a growing-out cut that already looks bad?

Usually, and usually faster than people expect. Most grow-outs that look wrong are a weight problem in the sides plus an untidy nape, both fixable in one appointment without taking length off the top. Bring a photo of where you are heading if you have one.

Book a Shaping Trim on W Main Street

If you’re somewhere in the middle of a grow-out and it isn’t going the way you pictured, that’s a conversation and a trim, not a reset. Book the standard haircut so there’s time to talk through where you’re headed, and say at the start that you’re growing it out — it changes everything we do with the scissors.

Grab a slot at the Molalla shop on Fresha, or call us at (971) 523-7433. We’re at 104 W Main St, closed Wednesdays, and open Sunday mornings until 1.