A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head comprises a PMR pole having at least one side, a bottom, and a top wider than the bottom, a first portion of the at least one side being substantially vertical, a second portion of the at least one side being nonvertical, the top portion having a width not greater than one hundred fifty nanometers. The PRM head further comprises a nonmagnetic layer surrounding the bottom and the at least one side of the PMR pole, an intermediate layer substantially surrounding at least the second portion of the at least one side of the PMR pole, and a hard mask layer adjacent to the first portion of the at least one side of the PMR pole.