Shoutout to the older barber in Philly who told me 'the fade is in the mirror, not the clipper'

He said it while I was stressing over a tricky taper last month, and it completely shifted how I check my work. Anyone else have a simple phrase that changed their technique?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron7081mo ago

That barber's advice sounds nice but my clippers are what pay my bills.

the_pat1mo ago

My first year cutting hair I would have agreed with that clipper comment. Then I watched a guy in my shop spend ten minutes just looking at a cut from every angle before he even turned his machine on. He told me the tools just follow the map you see. That old barber is right, you know? The mirror shows you the real shape, the clipper just gets you there. It made me slow down and actually see what I was doing instead of just running the blade.

phoenix6251mo ago

I mean, you see that in a lot of jobs now. Everyone's so focused on the tech or the tool, they skip the part where you just have to look at the thing first. My mechanic buddy says the same stuff about scan tools versus just listening to the engine.