Dear newtothegame-

Welcome the BTC Talk Back Boards!  Please take a few moments to read over the board rules above in the green box.  The post you were posting about was from 2004, I hope you will find that the boards are much more encouraging now and that all experience levels are welcome here to share and grow together.

Cindy Farr Hester  Asst Moderator

I tend to use a fade comb to blend and carve my shapes into my buzz cuts. There are several kinds. I find a thinner comb helps me blend my shorter fades. I use clippers over comb on almost all mens short haircuts, some haircuts thats all I use. I use the guards when I am looking for a crew, or looking to fade from a 2 to 000 down the nape. Carving a haircut in with clipper over comb can really expand your creativity and give you results you couldn't get from any other technique. Practice on the hairline along the ears and nape, then slowly start working your way up.

As far as blending with guards attached when you reach your line, working from long to short, you slightly angle the clippers out and off the head. Never stop abrupt, with a straight edged line, it will make blending so much more difficult.

Thinning with the shears works for me with some of my clients where the buzz cut and the scissor cut come together.

Good luck on the search for the perfect blending technique.... enjoy all the different ones.

AMirage

Wow read the thread, and responded to it without ever looking at the dates. Old thread lol. Shrugs, oh well. Where is my coffee?

Oh I remember my first clipper cut, it was horrible, lol

But after about a week or so practicing I found they were the easiest haircuts to do. I had somebody show me a sure fire way to blend with my messing up.

Say if you were to be doing a #1 fade I would first

1. Take the 1 and do as you did before with your 2 but in the back I wouldn't go up past the round of the head, be sure to keep your clippers straight up do not go with the round of the head (at least not until you get more comfortable)

2. Take your #2 and go about a 1/2 inch or so above the line  you made with the 1

3. Then take you #3 and do the same thing as with your 2.

4. You will see a line where you had done your #1 and #2. Where that line is you would but your #1 back on and raise your 1/2 bar up and just go back through that line with the #1 1/2.

5. I always do all my dry work first, so I lined my guys out before cutting the top.

6. Now you start cutting the top

Good luck hope it helps :0)

Don't we all remember the first times with any short cuts, men's/women's?

Great advice "britboy"- get rid of those flat toppers and develop your own skills!

If you think of your first blade/guard as your main GUIDELINE, then you spend the rest of your time ERASING that guideline, and the blending will come.  Never go more than 1/2" above the previous line - with the next largest blade.

Have made great money over the years perfecting these skills and I was always the one with my hand up when someone wanted a short/miltary cut, everyone else always backed away from it.  I realised that if no-one else could do it, I'D make all the money with these clients!