The way I was holding my clipper guard for fades was wrong for a decade

I was doing a skin fade on a regular, a guy named Tom, and he kept saying the back felt bumpy. I checked my work, looked fine to me. He came back the next week, same thing. On his third visit, I watched my hand in the mirror. I realized I was gripping the guard with my whole palm, pressing it flat against the head. My old mentor in Chicago taught me that. But that pressure was bending the plastic guard just enough to make the teeth sit uneven. I tried holding it with just my fingertips, letting it sit loose. The cut was smoother instantly. Tom felt it and said, 'Yeah, that's it.' I've been doing it the light way for three months now and my fades are cleaner. Has anyone else had a basic grip habit that was messing up their work?

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3 Comments

henrycooper6mo ago

Light touch is key for clipper guards.

4

cora9756mo ago

Ever try to force a comb through thick hair and just make it worse? I had to learn to let the tool do the work instead of muscling it.

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ray_miller416mo ago

My sister used to have this one wide tooth comb from a dollar store. I swear I broke three of them on my own hair before I figured it out. You just have to start from the ends and work up slowly, like you said. Fighting it only makes more knots. I learned that the hard way after a lot of snapped plastic and bad hair days.

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