Figured out I was blending my fades backwards after 3 years

I was over at Mike's shop in Austin last month watching him work on a skin fade and realized he was going from the bottom up while I always started at the top. No wonder my blends always looked choppy near the ears no matter how many passes I made. Anybody else have that one 'oh duh' moment where a simple direction change fixed everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

zara57221d ago

My buddy from barber school had this exact same thing happen but with clipper-over-comb work. He spent like two years fighting with his blends on the crown, getting all frustrated and redoing sections three or four times, you know the struggle. Then he went to some workshop in Dallas and the instructor had him switch his hand angle by like 15 degrees or whatever, just a tiny tweak. Suddenly his crown work was smooth as butter and he felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. He still jokes about it whenever we text about tricky fades, calls it his "backwards brain phase.

kelly_nelson9521d ago

Wait, is this a universal barber thing or what? @zara572 I swear every person I know who cuts hair has that one thing they just couldn't figure out for the longest time, lol. I had the same struggle with my shears over comb work on the parietal ridge, man. Spent like a year and a half getting mad at myself, watching tutorials, buying different combs, all that noise. Then I watched some dude's instagram live and he said to drop my elbow an inch, and bam, everything just clicked. Felt like such a dope for not trying that sooner haha.

william_carter18d ago

@kelly_nelson95 man my buddy Mike had that same stupid moment with his trimmer angles lol.