Los Angeles Barber • Christian

I wish I realized this earlier:

To create a general fade or taper, we have to use hair to create a shade. Short to long. The transition from light to dark could be abrupt/tight or spread out/stretched. Or even a combination of both depending on our goal

to achieve this, we go short to long. A million ways to go short to long. Basically just changing the distance of the clippers of scissors from the scalp. On skin is bald. Duhhh and then you can control any length from the head. Thats wat guards are for, to control the distance the clipper is from the head. Gutters, if you will. U go from 0 to .5 to 1 to 1.5. Boom fade. Of course detailing in between but there are easier ways than using 4 diff guards.

In the video u can see me keep the heel on the skin and I just changed the angle. The more angled, the more distance, the darker the shade. Best for freehanding. B careful tho. If u keep it angled out u should be fine. The distance is far in other words safe. Close the angle little by little. chicken

U could also use a comb. If u angle it out, it’s like having a 1,2,3,4+ all in one go. angle out angle out. If you want it lighter, angle less. Hopes makes sense.

most important this is focus and attention. Look at the shade, the gradience. Not the # u using. are different on everyone

here’s y it’s simpler now:

cutting hair isn’t rocket science. I used to overcomplicate it. It’s pulling hair a certain distance away from the scalp. Here are the “rules”:

I can only control the hair in between my fingers. Wait I already messed you lol up don’t necessarily have to cut hair in between your fingers. You can cut hair at free fall no tension. No rules

it’s helps to map out into sections. Think what shape I want for each section. Work piece by piece. The goal is to only touch each hair once. Not twice, but once.

when I am working with hair in between my fingers that I’m gna cut, There is only so many things I can do. If I’m pulling hair from the root, I can pull it straight out, to the left, the right, up, down, or diagonal in all directions. Thats about it lol. The farther from the scalp the longer the hair. doiiii christian

take a step back forget about the terms. I must use my common sense. Think like a sculptor. What shape am I trying to make? Does this angle of pull make sense? I want it long here, so I’ll keep it long here. I’ll pull further from the root. I want it shorter here, cut closer to the scalp. I’ll Grab the hair and see where i want it to lay, fall, or flow. I want it there so I’ll cut it to there!

I think long hair is tougher bc hair is traveling so much further. Shapes take a little more thinking to calculate. More common inconsistencies bc it’s frickin long hair yo.

as time goes on I’m realizing fades and tapers are actually way difficult than cut men’s medium length hair. the details of fades are so much smaller. Micro. Tiny. I’m blind I’m not wearing my contacts today.

cutting til we’re old ah geezers sounds fun. but it doesn’t necessarily mean its all we have to do. juggling relationships, health, mental, spiritual, real estate, laundry, cooking, cutting, posting, present, future, tomo chan is a girl. It could b a lot.. But it’s all worth it. experience maxxing lol The beautiful thing about cutting or building any business on your own, is leveraging time. Being able to control where we put our time. I don’t think I’ve ever worked over 40hr weeks. Big respect to u ppl doing those 60sc gyming, and being present to your loved ones🫡 It’s just not what would keep me sane. I gotta see the sun, learn the craft of real estate, travel, spend time with my peoples, exercise.

Money comes back time doesn’t. It’s a balance tho. Idk what I’m saying. I just wish you spend time doing things that are important to u. I’m so guilty of scrolling too long, caring about things that don’t matter. But hey, work in progress. just realizing this seems like a blessing. I hope u have a beautiful day

my income increased after this:

don’t focus on the money!!! As a barber, or any other job, people aren’t usually willing to give you their money for no reason. Ppl give you money because they want to. You provide something. Barbers all over are so different in what they provide. I seen some barbers with excellent client service. Sociable, funny, therapist type beat. Some barbers listen to their clients, actually chop it up about real sh*te. Some barbers got headphones on, but dish a beautiful cut. And people are willing to give em $100!!! Clients are looking for different things, listen to them. What’s important to them? If you find that out, I bet you people will be willing to pay top dolla. Just listen and give your absolute best day in and day out! I swear you will grow. I’m still learning this myself

You don’t need the skills of the most goated barber, you don’t need the most amazing talking skills. All we need is to help someone out with what they need and they will be willing to pay you. It’s never one person benefits more from the service, we are both benefiting from this collaboration.

If there’s anything we should excel at in any field where a collaboration is going down. It should be focusing on how we can be of value to someone else. The focus should be on how we treat other people. Focusing on how we can help someone else! money is the byproduct

these little things helped me:

I can’t change what’s on your head. I have to work with what’s in front of me. Balding, too much hair, inconsistent hair, thin, thick, dense, not dense. Wait I could what’s on ur head. By cutting!

the only things I can control is how much hair I take off (or leave on). if someone was to start shading a picture with a pencil do you think they would press light or hard? Probably light. I think. I’m so bad I drawing. I guess it depends on what part they’re shading. What if they want to start with the dark, what if they want to figure out where the darkest will be? Then they can go heavy handed there. I’m blabbing and this is off topic but

My point is:
my cuts started getting more blurry when I’d pay attention to my pressure. I’m naturally heavy handed and press to hard but once I started being aware of how light handed I should be, me fades changed. Let the clipper do the work!!! Once you make contact with the head, that should be enough pressure. If u want bald, use the foil. No point in digging clippers to get a bald line out. Imagine trying to take a #1 line out with a #2. U just can’t. Unless u push into the skin so hard u take out the 1 lol. *stay light handed*

Something else that leveled up my fades was learning how pay attention to shades rather than the # guard im using. Try fading only using 1 guard. You notice guards are just gutters and you don’t really need them. It forces to pay attention to the shades. left right up n down. u can create a #1 with no guard, u can create a 3 with no guard. I’ll show in ma next video a way to keep it consistent to so stay tuned in

read for the hack:

why have I been spraying my clippers the whole time? If I spray my clients head before I start, my clippers will never get dirty. it makes so much more sense to just spray the chemicals on their skin. It’s so much more efficient than cleaning my clippers.

if you’ve been struggling with keeping your clippers clean I highly recommend trying this out. I’m glad I finally found this out after 6 years of cutting. work smarter not harder

here how:

sum ppl use diagonal forward on da sides to set up for taper. Me used da six guard here. En garde.

My six guard is the top of my taper bottom of my top. 6 is the bottom of my top. So when I pull the top down, I pull to the 6. I find the line I made w the 6. Then I can choose my elevation using the 6. If I pull toward my nuts, it’ll b more bulky. If I pull to my chesticles, it’ll be square. If I pull to mine eyes, I’ll prolly take off a lot of bulk. I choose my elevation but I’m still connecting to the 6. Dats how it makes sense in ma head

At the end I texture texture texture. But only where I see phit. Some areas need keep heavy for structure. But this cut honestly a structureless cut so I textured everywhere lol I hope this helps. If u have any q’s feel free to dm and ask. Open book i am

cutting got fun after this:

Sometimes I feel I’m not ready to teach. How much do u really need to know to teach? I won’t teach but I guess I can show how I like doing things. Wait that’s teaching lol. Everytime I learn something new with cutting, it actually engraves the fact: “There’s no right way to cut”

the more I learn, the more I learn that not everything else is wrong but everything else is right. Once I realized that, cutting got so fun. I could do whatever I want however I want. Whatever is comfy. I can try using other techniques I can try mimicking someone I can create my own way

We are sculptors. I swear if u put ur heart into your sculpting, if you give it your full attention, day in and day out, you will eventually love what comes from your own hands. Whether it’s razor work, shears, fades. All we need to put is our best forward and growth will b inevitable

I used a feather razor for most of this cut. We were aiming for layered but also messy. Started layering the back visually as if I was a non experienced barber. Like the homies was cutting the homie. How do I want the fair to fall. I still think like this while I’m cutting. Cut as if u didn’t know anything about cutting. Try to use my reasoning, my eyes, my fingers, my common sense.

it’s lowkey easy to make textured and wavy hair look flowy. U could kind of do alright with that textured European hair and it will naturally flowy. But azn hair. O Asian hair. That shi stick up, out, and around town. or the exact opposite, so flat. It can be stubborn and every mistake shows. Same with fading. Here’s how I got to enlightenment:

things that now help me achieve flowy hair now

Realizing where I want to keep hair. In order to flow I need to keep hair long enough in certain areas. I used to cut too short or too high and have nothing to work with. Kinda obvious this one

Breaking down the hair into digestible sections. It’s easier to see my layers, my relationship between each section. Cutting in sections lets u see how each sections actually flows into one another. If u brush a section into another section, there should be FLOW. it should really cover the whole section next to it. Idk if that makes sense

using a feather razor instead of shears all da time. Soft ends.

thinning and texturing (a lot!!!!! I mean a lot) and the end of the cut. Do whatever it takes to dechunk that thicc ahh hair. Lighter hair will result in more movement woohoo. This might be the most important

I cut ma finger dammit. B careful

here are my steps to this fringe longer at the bottom mullet high layered messy idk what to call it.

I pull the bottom all the way up so it stays long but I match it to ma highest layer to make it layer shaggy. Idk what I’m doin sometimes. I just feel like I makes sense. The other hardest bout this typa cut to me used to be connecting the fringe to the sides. Like angling down. The fingers I mean. From side to fringe. If this doesn’t makes sense I’m so sick rn I haven’t been sick in so long. It sucks getting sock sore throat I can’t cut right now I don’t get pto aw man. This is ur sign to get some vitamin c

y fade down¿

hmmm does it even matter. Technically no bc u get get a low taper done however u want. Butt fading down could help me out in certain situations

It allows me to set the top of my fade. It assists in keeping low fades low, low tapers low. It allows you to keep the top of ur fade dark.

I go 2 open, work my notches down to 2 closed, same with 1.5, then 1, then half, then no lever. Most important thing is to never pass my previous guard. U aren’t making distinct guidelines so you have to imagine the fade. See the fade before you actually create it. How light do I want it here vs there vs there.

The hardest part about fading down is realizing how high up to actually… hold on imma post this rn but imma add more after this cut