Man, I have to disagree on this one. I've been behind the chair for a while and going scissors first on the nape would slow me way down, not speed me up. Clippers knock that bulk out fast so the scissor work is just cleaning up the lines, and for me that's the whole point of saving time on a packed Saturday. Your result sounds great, no question, but I'd be careful about calling it a fix for everyone, your mileage may vary depending on the hair type and how tight the fade is. I'd also wonder if the 40 minute backup was really about clipper order or just having 14 guys with no help, because that's a lot to lay on one habit. Take this with a grain of salt since every barber works different, but I'd chalk your win up to trying something new and paying closer attention more than the order itself.

Back in 2019 my screenwriting meetup in Portland did the exact same thing with a "broken clock" card versus a "missing brother" card and I grabbed the clock because I thought oh, I can do time loops and symbolism. Two weeks later I had six pages of a guy staring at a stopped clock on a wall and one guy in the group wrote about his actual brother who left for Alaska and never called, and the whole room went quiet. The clock script got one polite nod. My theory now is that a stuck object only works if a person is connected to it, like the door needs a name carved in it or a key that belonged to somebody's mom, otherwise it's just a thing sitting there. The animal prompts force you to put a person in the scene right away because somebody has to feed it or lose it. Next time make the door belong to a specific person and give it a history and you'll probably be fine.