Are you rocking your mohawk haircut like the punk rock icon you are? This edgy cut has been the warrior look for at least 2000 years, but many a mohawk has fallen, even while the warrior who wears it is still going strong.

When it comes to styling a mohawk, how do you get that full fan or liberty spikes to stand up and strike fear into your enemies again? Or if inspiring awe isn’t on the day’s agenda, how do you tone down your edgy look for those occasions where discretion is better than visual valor?

The Origins of the Mohawk Hairstyle

Named for the indigenous Mohawk people of North America, this radical hairstyle is found among notable ancient heroes and famous celebrities all over the world. While the 2000-year-old Clonycavan Man was found with his classic mohawk propped up using pine resin and plant oils, modern men and women have much better products to keep their ‘hawk stiff and shiny, or matte and majestic. Let’s chew on the modern mohawk and how to renew its shocking style every day.

The Definition of a Mohawk

A mohawk features longer hair on the center of the head, with clipped or shaved sides. When the hair on the sides is blended into the longer center, hip folk call it a taper fade mohawk. The best face shape for a mohawk is square, but a loose flowing mohawk makes a great skater haircut and can work for round faces. Female mohawks are generally the same, sometimes adorned with detailed side cuts and patterns shaved in.

How to Do a Mohawk Hairstyle at Home

So you’ve shampooed and stepped out of the shower, and now you are standing there with a strip of hair flopping around like a mane or sticking out like a porcupine, right? Here’s three ways to get that mohawk flying high again.

1. Making a Mohawk Fan

• Work grooming or hair tonic through your towel-dried hair.
• Dry your hair completely by blow drying the long hair upward. This is best achieved with your head down so the hair hangs at a 90 degree angle from the head- GRAVITY is your best friend when it comes to styling a mohawk.
• Using concrete hold or extreme hold pomade, pull your hair straight up in sections using the comb, and bracing your fingers against your scalp to pull it firmly up.
• Apply a little more pomade or a spray of hair tonic and smooth each section of the fan from base to tip with your fingers.
• Use the same amount of holding product on both sides, make sure the fan is perfectly centered and vertical, then gently blow dry to harden the fan.

2. Styling a Mohawk Into Liberty Spikes

• After you’ve toweled dry your rowdy top mop, work some hair tonic through it, and comb out until not a knot remains.
• Blow dry upward! Again, use gravity, it’s your mohawks best friend for reaching the highest heights. Then divide your long hair into 8-9 exactly equal sections and hold them with elastic bands at the scalp.
• Work one section at a time, starting in front. Remove the elastic and hold the base and the tip of the small ponytail.
• Coat the section from base to point with fiber pomade or concrete hold pomade to make a spike shape with your fingers, always holding the tip together.
• Repeat until all sections are finished with spikes poking out straight from your scalp.
• Spikes running down the back of the skull may need additional product to hold them in place.

3. Downplaying Your Mohawk Hairstyle

• Towel dry and work grooming tonic through your damp hair.
• Comb or brush back or to one side while you blow your hair dry.
• Work pink pomade through for a greaser look, or blue pomade for a sleek shine.
• Style the hair with fingers for a messier look, which lets curly hair have its way.
• If you don’t have time to straighten a curly mohawk, comb it back and secure it in a ponytail.

Mohawk Hairstyles by Hair Type and Length

No matter what kind of hair you have, there’s a mohawk look you can wear if you’ve got the warrior juju to carry it. Here’s just a few of the mohawk and faux hawk looks that punks like you are sporting now:

Short Fade Mohawk

Short hair can shout about it in an aggressive military style mohawk, and if your day job isn’t as hip as you’d like, a faux hawk with trimmed sides, instead of fully shaved, can keep the peace while still making a serious statement. This gives you styling options to go full punk on the weekends and not shock the office during the week.

Mid Length Mohawk

Easier to style and keep upright, a mid-length mohawk can be sharply defined with a close side shave, undercut, or tapered from shaved sides into the mid length top. If you have thick hair to work with, you can do a full fan, spikes, or a brushed back mane down the middle that stands up to bike wind or storming a stronghold.

Full or Partial Long Mohawk

Long hair makes a statement, but never screams louder than when you style it into a mohawk. As you take the drum solo, ride into battle, or walk down to the corner for a cold one, nothing tops a long mohawk for an attention-grabbing and signature look. When the long hair blends into the back of the head, it's a partial mohawk, and when it extends all the way down to the neckline it's the full deal. Add color to the fan, spikes, or quiff style front cowlick just to make sure your arrival can’t go unnoticed.

Get the Products to Get the Look

You can’t be a punk without hair products that seize you by the roots and don’t let go. If you are bold enough to rock this ancient warrior visage into the streets or on stage, no lame second-rate hair styling products are going to make it through the first set, much less the encore.

Reuzel’s pomades and hair styling products are the go-to barbershop-quality tools you need to make your mohawk mighty. Concrete hold, clay matte, and high shine pomades can keep the vertical going all day. Degreasing shampoo and conditioner get rid of the aftermath, while our hair tonics protect your scalp and ends from the roughest treatment.

Medium and light hold products give the greaser glow or high shine to more relaxed mohawk styles, while the hard edge hold of our extreme pomades never lets your spikes defuse into frizz. Browse the line of badass Reuzel has to offer and keep your mohawk screaming hot and on point until your eventual and inevitable triumph over life.