The nonlinear growth for them/n≥2 resistive tearing mode is studied in the case when the rational surfaceq(r0)=m/nfalls in a regime of weak magnetic shear,q’(r0)&bartil;0. The island width is determined self‐consistently from the nonlinear, zero‐helicity component of the perturbed magnetic flux that provides the local shear. It is found that the magnetic perturbation keeps growing exponentially in the nonlinear regime on a hybrid resistive‐Alfve´nic time scale, while the island width and the vorticity grow on a much slower time scale. Accordingly, much faster release of magnetic energy results for modes growing near minima of hollowqprofiles.