Tennis and Britanka: What the Old Haircut Names Mean Now

How does a tennis differ from a poluboks or a boks?

Tennis is an old salon name for a short men's cut with the sides and back on a clipper guard and a few centimetres on top, joined by a gradual blend with no visible line. Britanka is its longer, dressier relative: short at the back and sides, with the front left long enough to comb to the side or back. Neither name has a fixed definition. Russian Wiktionary records kanadka as a men's haircut but gives no haircut sense for tennis or britanka, and barbershop guides describe both a little differently, so treat them as loose words with a shared core. One guide gives the classic tennis three to five centimetres on top and sides on a six-millimetre guard, with the join softened by point cutting; others call any medium top over short tapered sides a tennis. Its shortest versions overlap with the yozhik, or hedgehog, which English Wikipedia gives as the Russian name for the crew cut. Nobody has documented where the names came from, and the stories barbershop blogs tell about tennis players or 1950s England cite no source at all. Barbers often hear both names from parents bringing in a boy and from men who wore the cut at school, and each of them can mean a slightly different picture. If you read our piece on the boks, poluboks and kanadka, place the two new names beside them: the tennis sits next to the poluboks, the britanka next to the kanadka.

A britanka keeps a long front that a kanadka does not

A poluboks has a line: the clipper stops at a set height, by the top of the ear or under the bump at the back, and the blend runs over a narrow strip above it. A tennis has no such line. The same guide puts it plainly: cut the join abruptly and the tennis turns into a boks or a poluboks. In the words a barber uses now, a tennis is a short back and sides, which English Wikipedia files under the regular or taper cut: tapered sides, a top long enough to comb and a side part if you want one. It suits a man who would rather skip styling, curly or unruly hair kept short, and boys, since it grows out without a stripe. The kanadka lifts a short top at the forehead, three to four centimetres at its longest. A britanka keeps the front longer and the back shorter; one barbershop adds a higher line at the temples, another says the kanadka's back is clipped while the britanka's is cut with scissors. The part every description shares is the long front. Its nearest English names are a side part or comb over when the front goes across, and a quiff when it rises. The guides agree that a britanka needs styling every morning, and most warn that thin, sparse hair cannot hold that front. At 044 Barbershop in Kyiv styling, a wash and style, is on the service list, so you can see your britanka dried and finished in the chair before you try it at home.

Dry the britanka front first, then comb in the parting

Styling a britanka starts with the hairdryer. Work on clean, damp hair, dry the front in the direction you will wear it, to the side or back, and only then comb in the parting with a fine comb. Hair dried any other way springs back to where it grows. A water-based pomade gives the neat, shiny side part, matte clay holds a looser front and thick hair better, and fine hair needs a pea of either. To wear a britanka straight back, the front needs about the length our slick-back guide asks for, seven centimetres or so. Barbers often see a cowlick decide the parting: hair that turns at the forehead fights a parting placed on the wrong side, so the barber usually checks which way the front falls dry before choosing. The two also age differently. A tennis on a guard grows out as a soft shadow and forgives a long gap between visits, while a britanka front soon drops into the eyes and stops holding the parting. When you order, skip the old name and give the parts. For a tennis: a guard number for the sides, a taper with no line, and three to five centimetres on top cut with scissors. For a britanka: a taper or low fade at the back and sides, the front left long, and the side you comb it to. Sit down in the chair with the front still long, and the barber can watch which way it falls dry and set the parting where your hair already wants to go.