Jack Grealish is back at Everton for a second season-long loan, placing one of football’s most recognizable silhouettes in royal blue again. During his first Everton loan, the loose hair associated with Aston Villa, England and Manchester City had become a slick ponytail or compact bun.
It can look like Grealish has changed his haircut constantly. Most versions begin with the same adaptable foundation: closely clipped or faded sides, a pronounced disconnect and several inches of layered hair left on top. Change the parting, add highlights, introduce a headband or tie the length back, and the outline changes without requiring a complete reset.
Ahmed Alsanawi and A Star Barbers have documented many of the modern variations, including the highlights, skin fades and carefully styled finish. Alsanawi has also connected Grealish’s floppy look to Leonardo DiCaprio’s center-parted hair as Jack Dawson in Titanic.
Like Héctor Bellerín’s hairstyle transformation, Grealish’s changing hair can date a photograph almost as quickly as the shirt he’s wearing. The tower quiff belongs to Notts County. The slick-back belongs to his Aston Villa breakthrough. The curtains and Alice band are inseparable from Euro 2020.
The ranking rewards recognizability, execution, distinctiveness and the strength of each style’s connection to a particular football era. Some entries are genuinely different cuts. Others show how Grealish kept reinventing the long-top undercut that became his signature.
Jack Grealish’s haircuts ranked
12. The childhood mop-top
Before the fades and styling products, Grealish wore a heavy, rounded mop with a full fringe. His own 10-year challenge post provides the clearest before-and-after, pairing the schoolboy cut with the sculpted Aston Villa version that later made him instantly recognizable.
11. The gelled schoolboy spikes
The next stage pushed everything upward. Shorter, separated spikes replaced the soft fringe, producing the kind of heavily gelled look that filled school corridors and academy photographs during the 2000s. It’s the earliest hint that Grealish wouldn’t keep his hair quiet for long.
10. The Notts County tower quiff
Grealish’s 2013-14 loan introduced the first truly extravagant senior-career cut. The sides were short, while the center rose almost vertically into a narrow tower. It framed an 18-year-old still finding his professional game and his visual identity at the same time.
9. The 2015 Wembley slick-back
By Aston Villa’s FA Cup run, the height had been redirected backward. The shaved sides remained, but the longer top was combed into a glossy sweep with a pronounced disconnect. It’s the original senior Grealish haircut, equal parts Birmingham footballer and period-drama undercut.
8. The high-volume Villa side sweep
As Grealish became Villa’s captain and creative reference point, the top grew longer and looser. He moved away from the rigid slick-back toward a textured side sweep with visible movement. This was the bridge between his early undercut and the curtains that later defined him for England.
7. The Villa top knot
Longer hair eventually needed another solution. Grealish tied the upper section into a small top knot while leaving the shaved lower section exposed, years before Kevin De Bruyne’s top-knot experiment. It was practical, sharp and slightly unexpected.
6. The 2022 blonde fade
At Manchester City, Grealish brightened the long top with blonde highlights and tightened the fade around it. The extra color made the layers more visible, especially when the hair was swept backward. A Star Barbers’ transformation reel captures the cut before it was softened by match-day movement.
5. The close skin fade
This close modern version reduced the weight around the sides and brought the fade nearer to the scalp. Grealish kept enough length on top to preserve his familiar sweep, but the cleaner perimeter made the entire style feel sharper and less floppy than the Euro-era look.
4. The back-brushed blonde undercut
Grealish later moved the highlighted length away from the center part and brushed it straight back. The result revived his early Villa silhouette with softer layering, brighter color and a more controlled finish. It’s one of the clearest examples of an old idea returning in a refined form.
3. The Everton ponytail and man bun
Everton produced the biggest structural change since the curtains. Grealish pulled the full length tightly backward into a low ponytail or compact bun, leaving the undercut clearly visible. The blue hair tie made the new style feel immediately connected to his first season on Merseyside.
2. The signature Alice-band undercut
The black Alice band became Grealish’s match-day trademark because it solved a practical problem without hiding the haircut. It held the long top away from his eyes while preserving the volume and movement that made him easy to identify from the highest camera angle.
1. The Euro 2020 highlighted curtains
The definitive Jack Grealish hairstyle combined every successful element: tight sides, a long disconnected top, blonde dimension, a center part and enough volume for the curtains to move naturally. England’s run to the final turned an already distinctive haircut into a football-culture reference point.
Grealish’s best looks have never depended on constant reinvention. Their appeal comes from continuity. One flexible undercut followed him from Solihull to Notts County, Villa Park, Wembley, Manchester and Merseyside, changing just enough to preserve each stage of the journey.
