margaret_singh1•1mo agoProlific Poster

Tried a new method for blending fades and it worked way better than I expected

I've been struggling for months with getting a smooth blend on the sides of darker hair, especially when going from a 0 to a 2 guard. I usually do the clipper over comb thing but it always left these little lines that I had to go back and fix. Then last Wednesday, one of the older barbers at my shop said to try using a 1.5 guard on an angle and just flick out at the end instead of going straight in. I tried it on a regular client of mine, this guy Mike who's super picky about his cut, and the fade came out way cleaner with almost no touch up needed. He even said it felt smoother than usual. I'm not sure if this is some big secret but it saved me a good 10 minutes on that cut. Anybody else use a different guard angle like that or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyk101mo ago

Oh man, I heard something similar from my buddy Dave who cuts part time at a shop in the next town over. He told me he was struggling with the same issue on his darker haired clients, those little lines drove him nuts. Then he went to some barber expo last month and one of the demonstrators said the same thing about angling the guard and flicking out, not pushing straight in. Dave tried it on his cousin's kid and said the blend looked like a mirror, no joke. He's been doing it ever since and swears it saves him like fifteen minutes per cut now. I guess it's one of those little tricks that just makes everything click into place.

the_felix1mo ago

I get what you're saying about that flicking technique, @abbyk10, but I've been doing this long enough that I kind of see it the opposite way. That whole "flick out" thing never really worked for me on thick dark hair because it leaves this weird patchy texture if you don't have the exact right angle every single time. I tried it for a few weeks after watching a video online and ended up going back to just making really tiny incremental steps with the guards and overlapping them a bunch. My cuts take a little longer but I'd rather spend the extra ten minutes than deal with a client coming back pissed off about a line they can see from across the room. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I think people hype up that flicking trick more than it deserves.