James’s bald fade! by Joe caleb

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It had been 10 weeks since a haircut, James’s mop was growing out of control. The fringe came below the eyes, the sides over the ears and the thick mess of brown hair was in desperate need of cutting. To quote James "I need this haircut so bad, it all needs cut off"

It was a Monday afternoon so James and I strolled down to the barbershop together, we had back to back bookings so it made sense to go at the same time. We got there a little early so sat and waited. And marvelled at James’s tremendous mop for a final time before it got the chop.

Eventually, James was called up and seated in the barber’s chair, all wrapped up in a cape ready for the cut to begin.

"What are we doing today then?" The barber asked
"I’ve got a lot of hair at the moment, skin on the sides and a good bit of length off the top"
"Don’t normally get a skin fade, do you?" Asked the barber
"No, but I want to go as short as possible" James replied

The barber started by brushing James’s fringe out of the way and combing it up so he could get on with sorting out the sides.

The clippers were turned on and a brief bit of clipper over comb was done to remove the excess bulk and length from the sides. Starting from James’s left temple working the way round the back and the other side, the clippers were run over the comb just to take away the extra length before the proper shaving and balding out could begin.

Once the bulk was tamed, the guard was removed from the clippers and the barber proceeded to shave in the first bald guideline, just above James’s left sideburn. The guideline was traced around the back of James’s head and right the way round to the other side of the head. The 0 clippers were then used to shave away all of the hair below this line. Starting at the bottom of James’s neck, the clippers were pulled up to the bald line set earlier, removing all of the hair in their tracks. The bare metal clipper blades were repeatedly placed just at the bottom of James’s hair growth and slowly shaved the hair away down to the skin. This was continued right around the circumference of James’s head until he’d been fully balded out. The whirring stopped and the clippers were placed down, a quick brush of the sides to remove the loose hairs was next on the agenda.

Despite only the sides being chopped so far, the pile of hair on the ground was pretty magnificent, and it was only going to get bigger. The barber reached for the foil shaver, probably one of the loudest bits of barbering equipment out there. The device was switched on and the loud whirring and buzzing commenced. Starting at James’s left sideburn, the barber began repeatedly passing the shaver over the bald sides with sweep after sweep of the device removing any remaining pesky hairs. The bald shaver was used all over the sides, so many passes over in some areas that James’s skin was starting to go red. The foil shaver was brought round the back of James’s head and the barber indicated that James should pop his head forward to allow him to shave the back properly. The bald shaving action continued around James’s right side until all of the sides had been neatly shaved down right to the skin. The whirring stopped and the shaver was put down. A quick brush of the sides then removed the cut hairs.

Now the sides were sorted, the bald sections needed to be blended into the longer hair up top. The barber reached for the clippers and a comb, and section by section, combed areas of hair and passed the clippers over the comb to remove any hair that was too long.

Once the blending was complete, it was time to prep the top of James’s hair. Water was sprayed all over and the top combed up out of the eyes.

"How much length are we taking off" the barber asked as he held a section of James’s fringe up

"Not much, just bring it back to the eyebrows" he responded.

The barber took the scissors and trimmed the fringe, taking it back to the eyebrows. In just a few quick snips the excess length had all been cut off and the fringe sat nicely on the eyebrows. Next the barber began thinning out and tidying up the top of James’s hair. Sections were combed up and meticulously snipped away at getting rid of the bulk and extra weight.

Once the top be been neatened up, the clippers were unleashed once again, the now cleaned up top was given a final blend with the bald sides. The barber was frequently switching between clipper guards and carefully making sure that the drastic change from bald sides to a longer top looked as clean as possible.

The cape was then loosened, and the barber reached for the mini edging clipper. A tidy up of the nape area and round the ears, and the transformation would be complete. James’s neck would always grow loads of stray sprouting hairs, so the barber instructed him to keep his head forwards and he used the mini clippers to shave off all the hair off the neck. Several sweeps were needed, cleaning up the stray hairs. The barber progressed around the ear area shaving away and remaining hair before putting the clippers down, giving the area a quick brush down and removing the cape.

Finally the barber ran his hands through James’s fringe, just styling it somewhat and adding some texture, and just like that the haircut was complete. Seriously long haired, well overdue of a haircut James had been revived with freshly skin faded sides, a nice fade all round and a good bit of length and weight off the fringe!

Home, a shower to remove the cut hairs, and job done!

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