Can we talk about a weird trick for fading with clipper guards?

I was struggling with a client's thick, wavy hair in my Charlotte shop, and my usual method was leaving a harsh line. On a whim, I tried using my Wahl Magic Clips with the lever half-open and a guard one size up, then went over it again with the lever closed and the correct guard. The blend came out way smoother in half the time. Has anyone else tried this specific guard-and-lever combo for tough textures?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_eric2mo ago

Oh man, that's a perfect example of how the best way to do something is often backwards from the manual. I see it all the time with tools, you get stuck on the "proper" steps and hit a wall. The real fix is almost always breaking the rules and finding your own flow through trial and error. It's like the right way is just the common way, not always the smart way.

simonh742mo ago

Yeah but did you ever think that was totally backwards from everything you learned? I used to be a stickler for doing the exact steps from barber school, like lever fully open for bulk and closed for fading. Then I tried this exact trick on a super stubborn head of hair and it worked way better than anything I'd been taught. @jana119 you're spot on about breaking the order of things, its like the manual is written for perfect hair that doesn't exist. I was honestly skeptical at first thinking it was just a gimmick but now I use it all the time for that coarse wavy stuff. The lever half open with a bigger guard catches more hair and then finishing with the correct guard and lever closed just melts the line away. Its one of those things that sounds wrong but is actually the fastest way to get a clean fade without fighting the texture.

jana1192mo ago

That's a solid hack for tricky hair. It reminds me of how the best fixes often come from breaking the "right" order of doing things. Sometimes you just have to mess with the steps to get a smoother result.