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Harvey Specter’s hair is awesome.
It’s so good, that even other characters mock it (in envy).
But it hasn’t always been the same.
Throughout Suits, Harvey has sported a variety of hairstyles, all with varying degrees of formality and ‘slickness’.
In this article, I will go through Harvey Specter’s many hairstyles, and provide suggestions for the cut that you should ask for, how to style your hair, and the best products to achieve the look, if you want to style your hair in the same way.
In the show’s history, Harvey has sported three main hair styles…
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Harvey Specter’s Haircuts and Hairstyles
Overview
To summarise:
- All of Harvey Specter’s hairstyles are smart and presentable, staying in line with his usual style (which I’ve written an amazing, comprehensive article about how to emulate, if you’re interested).
- In almost every case, it looks like he uses high-hold products.
- However, the finish (matt or shiny) and the length of his hair varies greatly.
Harvey Specter’s Long Hairstyle: The Slicked Back Side-Part
- Name: Long length slicked back left sided part.
- Shine: High
- Hold: Firm/High
- Length: Long
- Formality: High
- Key Elements: The difference in length between the top and the sides, the definitive parting, the neatness of the slicked back hair, and the texture and blending of the top into the sides and back.
- Hair Type of Original Inspiration: Gabriel Macht looks to have average to thick hair.
- Essential Recommended Product: Shiny & high hold, (still testing products before recommending any)
This season 1 hairstyle is, in my opinion, absolute perfection, and best reflects Harvey’s swagger. And, if the YouTube comments from most season 1 clips are anything to go by, most people agree with me.
I would categorise this Harvey Specter haircut as a ‘classic, slicked back side part’. In line with this typical style, it assumes a medium to high shine, and a firm to high hold, which results in a high formality.
I feel Harvey’s hair is deceptively short here. In order to get the sort of volume he has on a slick back, your hair needs to be really quite long, like 3.5 – 4″+.
Contrastingly, the sides aren’t super short by any means, but are long enough to show that they haven’t been cut short by clippers (at least, fresh). Consequently, it’s highly likely that they were cut short by scissors.
This stark contrast in length between the much longer top, and shorter, but not ‘short’, sides, creates a very clean and proportional line when slicked back.
I also feel that the masterful blending of the sides, which were likely scissor cut, with the top of the hair, is a massive feature of this hair style. Often, you see slick backs like this with very short sides, that were clearly clipper cut. Though those cuts may look good in the first few days following the cut, they don’t grow out well, and don’t have an elegant blend from the sides to the top, like this.
The back of the hair, though slightly untidy in some shots, has clearly been tapered.
To finish it off, the neat hard left side part is a perfect complement to the rest of his clothing choices, and reflects his style perfectly. This is especially true when he is in his suit.
How to Get Harvey Specter’s Slick Hair
The Cut
To get this hairstyle, you will require around 3.5 – 4″ of hair on top, and around 1 – 1.5″ on the sides and back.
After growing your hair out to these levels, you will probably need a trip to the barber for a tidy up.
During this tidy up, ask the barber to:
- Cut your hair to the required length (3.5″ and 1″ aprox) with scissors, as it will help achieve the specific look and layering of the style.
- Blend the top into the sides.
- Taper the sides and back, starting shorter at the bottom, and letting the hair out gradually as it gets higher on the scalp.
- Cut around the ear.
- Clean up your split ends.
It’s crucial that they leave most of the length on top, as it will allow you achieve the volume with the slick back required for this hairstyle.
And, as always, I would recommend that you take in a photo to make it 100% clear what you are looking for.
The Styling
- Wet your hair until it’s damp.
- If you need it, apply a pre-styling product, such as Wella’s Shockwaves Volume Mousse for limp hair, or Aveda’s Thickening Tonic for fine hair, to help get your hair ready to deliver an accurate representation of the hair style. You may want to use a comb to distribute these products evenly in your hair.
- Emulsify a small amount of a good pomade into your hands, and work it into your hair, from root to tip, covering the entirety of the hair stands.
- Part your hair at a natural parting.
- Blast your hair back with a hair dryer.
- One key element of this style is volume, so grab the front of your hair with a volumizing brush, wrap it around, and pull it upwards, blasting your hair from underneath as you do. Repeat this action multiple times to set the hair into place. I personally use Osensia’s Ionic brush.
- After your hair has dried, neaten it, preferably with a comb.
If you want a similar look, but don’t enjoy the wet, shiny, slickness of a pomade, I can recommend that you look into aqua-based waxes, putties or fibres. A personal favourite of mine is Shear Revival’s Matte Paste for an alternate, looser side part, with a matte shine, and medium hold.
Recommended Products For This Look
The key product you’ll need for this hair style will leave your hair with a high shine finish, with a firm to high hold. This is a classic combination that can be achieved by a pomade. Personally, though, I thoroughly dislike traditional pomades. This may or may not come from the time I tried one out in high school, and it took 3 days to wash out! I got a lot of attention during those three days, though, not for a good reason, that’s for sure.
Anyway – since then, ‘unorthodox’ and ‘water based’ pomades have hit the shelves, which produce the classic characteristics of a pomade of a high shine and high hold without the drawbacks of being super greasy, or hard to wash out. Consequently, I only really recommend these, as I feel they’re best for most people. I personally like Goon Grease Unorthodox, however it doesn’t have enough shine for this hair style. People say that Sear Revival’s Crystal Lake, though advertised as a matte finish, has a higher shine, and from reviews, seems to perform similarly. Though, I haven’t tired it.
Also, you may want to pick up pre-stylers, and additional styling tools to help give your hair the look.
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Harvey Specter’s Short Haircut: The Short, Spiked Faux Hawk-Crew Cut
- Name: Spiked Faux Hawk
- Shine: Matte
- Hold: Medium/High
- Length: Short/Medium
- Formality: Low/Medium
- Key Elements: The length of the sides are not as short as they may appear.
- Hair Type of Original Inspiration: Gabriel Macht looks to have average to thick hair.
- Essential Recommended Product: Matt & medium to high hold, such as Da Wax (Links to Amazon)
In the later seasons, Harvey sports this short spiked up, lengthened, crew cut, or ‘faux hawk’. It has a medium to high hold, to stay in place all day, and a low shine.
Due to its neat nature, it is still appropriate to be worn in all the situations that he encounters.
There are many advantages of this hair style compared to the aforementioned slick-back, such as it being much easier to obtain and maintain, and being a lot quicker to style.
Furthermore, it may be something that those of us with fine hair will gravitate towards, as Harvey’s slick hair may not be easily achievable.
However, like with the slick back, though the sides appear short, they still look scissor cut, as you can’t see the characteristic ‘spiked’ edges of a clipper cut, and they look to be masterfully blended in with the slightly longer hair at the top. This helps the hair on the top and sides work well together.
How to Get Harvey’s Short Hair
Haircut
You will need to grow your hair out on top to about 1 – 1.5″, and ask your barber to take down the sides and back as short as possible with scissors.
The hair from the back and sides will also have to be blended gracefully into the top, and should feature a taper at the back (as you can clearly see on the rightmost image below, the hair is very short at the bottom, but gets longer up top – they will need to use clippers for this).
Ensure they leave your hair longer on the top then the sides, which will allow you to spike it forwards, and clearly show that the sides and top are of different lengths.
Again, I would recommend that you take a photo of this style with you to make it clear what you are asking for.
Styling
- Dampen your hair, and comb it, to reset you hair.
- If required, apply a pre-styling product to help improve the performance of you hair.
- Heat up a matt product between your hands and run it through your dry hair, pushing up and coating the whole follicles as you do.
- Blow dry your hair upwards to lock in the volume and structure for the style, pulling your hair up gently with your fingers.
- Your hair should now stay in place all day.
Recommended Products For This Look
As this is a much simpler and shorter look, it really requires only a matt styling product, and a hair dryer. However, those with fine or limp hair may enjoy a pre-styler, to assist their hair into getting the correct shape, texture and thickness.
I’ve previously used Da Dude’s Da Wax to achieve a pretty close replica of this hair style. Yes, the price is probably higher than what you were expecting, but for the amount you get in the jar, and the quality of the product, in my opinion, I feel it’s worth the investment.
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heroandvillainstyle.com may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post via affiliate partnerships.
Harvey Specter’s Medium Haircut: The Soft Side Part
- Name: Soft side part.
- Shine: Matte to low.
- Hold: Medium
- Length: Short/Medium
- Formality: Medium/High
- Key Elements: Overall, the hair is pretty short.
- Hair Type of Original Inspiration: Gabriel Macht looks to have average to thick hair.
- Essential Recommended Product: Matt & medium to high hold, such as Da Wax (Links to Amazon)
As stated before, Harvey Specter’s hair is always evolving.
This ‘medium’ soft side part haircut is seen in many of the his flashback scenes after Harvey’s hair changed to the Faux Hawk, and is an intermediary in formality and finish between the slicked long hair, and the spiky short hair, with a medium to high formality, a low shine, and a medium hold.
I think this was necessary and forced, because, as they had already established young Harvey slicked his hair back, they needed to produce a similar look with the shorter hair length of the Faux Hawk that he’d switched to in the regular series (assuming they didn’t want to use extensions).
The result is a more natural and less refined hairstyle, as the shorter length doesn’t allow a super slick slick back. However, it retains professionalism and neatness. As a consequence of this, it works to soften his face for a more youthful appearance (probably another reason why the wardrobe department went for it).
However, due to the lack of structure and product, I would argue it makes Harvey look less intimidating and more approachable.
How to Get Harvey Specter’s Medium Hair
The Cut
As the flashback scenes are shot at the same time as the rest of the season, where he has his hair cut in the Faux Hawk, the method for cutting this style is the same as his ‘short haircut’.
But, as a quick recap:
- 1.5″ on the top.
- Short on the sides and back, with a tapered neck, and blending from the sides and back into the top.
The Styling
Like with Harvey’s short hair style, the sides and back are short enough that they should stay down by themselves.
As for the top, it doesn’t look like there’s much product in his hair at all.
However, I certainly know that my hair isn’t capable of being that neat without product.
If your hair is like mine, then I would recommend purchasing a medium/high hold matt product, and:
- If required, wet your hair to make it malleable, straighten it out with a comb, and pat dry it until it’s damp.
- Heat your chosen hair styling product up by rubbing it together in your hands, and apply it to your damp hair, coating all of the hairs, as usual.
- Blow dry the hair until it’s dry.
- Sweep your dry hair up and to the side.
- Create a soft parting on one side of the head with your fingers, or a comb.
Recommended Products For This Look
I would personally recommend the same products as for the Faux Hawk.
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heroandvillainstyle.com may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post via affiliate partnerships.
The Low Down…
Having ‘Harvey Specter hair’ will certainly turn heads.
But it’s not the only element of Harvey’s badass prowess. For this, I’d recommend to check out my article on how to be like Harvey Specter, to cover all of the bases!
