a method is presented for fabricating a cpp read head having a cpp read head sensor and a hard bias layer which includes forming a strip of sensor material in a sensor material region , and depositing strips of fast - milling dielectric material in first and second fast - milling dielectric material regions adjacent to the sensor material region . a protective layer and a layer of masking material are deposited on the strip of sensor material and the strips of fast - milling dielectric material to provide masked areas and exposed areas . a shaping source , such as an ion milling source , is provided which shapes the exposed areas . hard bias material is then deposited on the regions of sensor material and fast - milling dielectric material to form caps on each of these regions . the caps of hard bias material and the masking material are then removed from each of these regions .