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The old barber at my shop said my fades looked 'rushed' and I argued with him for a week
I have been cutting for 6 years and always thought speed was my strength, so when Ray (been behind the chair 30 years) watched me do a fade last Tuesday and said 'you are rushing the blend, kid,' I got defensive about it. He told me to slow down on the transition zone and do two extra passes with the half guard before moving up, which added maybe 3 minutes to my cut. I tried it on 5 clients this week and every single one noticed the fade looked cleaner without me saying anything. Turns out my 'speed' was just skipping the part that makes the blend invisible. Any of you old school guys got other small tweaks like that, or is the extra pass thing just a Ray habit?
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jones.anna12d ago
Speed in fading is really a bunch of tiny pauses stacked together. The guys who look fast are just not wasting motion, not skipping steps. Watch a guy like Ray and he barely moves his wrist, but the clipper never leaves the head and he is checking the blend every two passes with his thumb. That is where the time goes and it actually saves time because you are not going back to fix a harsh line. Your five clients noticing is proof enough, the blend zone is where cheap fades live or die. Half guard passes feel slow in the chair but they read as clean in the mirror, and clients feel clean even when they cannot explain it.
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