Hot take: fading up vs fading down for bald fades which actually looks cleaner?

I been watching a ton of barber vids on Insta lately and half the big names swear by fading up (starting with a 0 and working your way up into longer lengths) and the other half say fading down (starting with the top guard and going shorter) gives you less chance of messing up the blend. I tried both ways this week on two different clients and honestly the up fade looked smoother after one pass but took way longer to get right. The down fade was faster but left me fighting with the transition line around the parietal ridge. What's your go to and why does one work better for certain head shapes? I'm in Phoenix so I see a lot of dome shaped heads and it feels like the method matters more depending on the client.

3 comments

3 Comments

nelson.vera14d ago

Ridge fight" is the real issue here, not the direction you fade.

sagecooper15d ago

Dome shaped heads" is exactly the problem with fading down. I tried that method on a round-headed client and fought that ridge so hard I almost regretted the cut. Fading up gives me way more control to blend those hard transitions, even if it eats up an extra 5 minutes.

cooper.drew15d ago

Dragged a scooter into the shop last week with a warped rotor and thought "hey, I can fix this blindfolded," then spent 45 minutes redoing the whole front end because I skipped the test ride. @sagecooper, some of us just need those extra 5 minutes to save ourselves the pain.