ESAY Steps to a Fade: Beginners Tutorial

Welcome back guys, my name's Connor, this is Hot Heads Media and today we're doing a fade tutorial. If you're still struggling with harsh lines, uneven blending or dark patches, then this video will fix that. Today I'm showing you exactly how to create a clean smooth fade using clipper overcomb, scissor overcomb and techniques that will work on stubborn hair or different hair types. Whether you're a beginner or already cutting in the shop, watch closely. This system will instantly level up your fades and if you want more tutorials like this, hit the subscribe button. Right, let's get started. So I'm putting in my first guideline, this is the first thing I do when starting a fade. Now you can see that I'm using my mini trimmers or mini clippers as people like to call them and I'm using this because it gives me a lot more control than using my big clippers. This is the first thing I do when I'm starting a fade and I'm making sure the line is fluid along the side of the head all the way to the back. You can tell that I'm cleaning up all the hair underneath my line. This is a very important step because you want to make sure that you've got all the little hairs because the client will feel it if you haven't cleared up all the little hairs at the bottom of the neck as shown on video. You can see that I've just done a little bit of a silhouette with my finger. This will allow me to connect each side seamlessly. I've moved on to the other side now, I'm going to do the same process again using the eye as a bit of a guideline to where the first line or my guideline is going to start. I'm following it in a fluid line from front to back then I'm going to connect the back, cleaning up all the little hairs underneath as I go along. I'm pulling down the ear to make sure that I don't nick the ear as I go. This is an important step and it will help you get all the little hairs around the ear. Cleaning it down, making sure I get all the little hairs off before I start using my foil shaver. I love using my foil shaver because it makes things so clean at the end. Do you guys use a foil shaver? Please let me know in the comments. As you can tell here I'm using a bit of a flicking motion. I'll also use a slight circular motion when using my foils as this stops creating any hard lines as you can see in the video. I'm using the back of my finger to make sure I've got all the little hairs. This will tell me whether it's nice and smooth on the head or I need to go over it again. I'm not pressing too hard while using my foil shaver but pressing enough just to take all the little hairs off that I can feel on the head. Using the corner to go around the ear makes things a lot easier. Flipping it around and just making sure that I get all the little hairs towards the front and get the hairs in the hard to reach places. After completing this step I've now put my 0.5 on. You can see I'm using the gamma boosted which I really love. They make things so easy. Starting at the back, it doesn't really matter where you start. Sometimes I like to start at the front, sometimes I like to start at the back. Depending on hair type and hairstyle and the shape of head will determine where I start and also when you've got a cameraman if you stood behind you, you might as well start at the back. Makes things a little bit easier. I've gone down to now my 0.25 because a 0 and a 0.5 is blended in by a 0.25. This is just like a half measurement in between that will take out any harsh lines. As you can tell I'm working around the head just to reduce that harshness on the line. Same process. I like to do the whole thing the whole way around rather than doing one side and then the other because I can keep the fade more equal and more balanced. I'm using a flicking motion to blend in. Using the flicking motion really allows me to graduate the short 0 into the 0.5. I'll use this technique throughout the whole fade making sure I clean him down as I go. As you can tell there's still a little bit of a harsh line so I've gone back to a really sharp pair of mini clippers that I use. You can tell these are slightly different from the mini trimmers I was using earlier and I'm just now trying to reduce that hard line by just running across it flicking up and just using a bit of a circular motion to try and reduce any hard line. While I'm here I'm going to outline the front, same again on the other side. This just cuts down time in the shot. While I've got the tool in my hand I might as well do it. This is a great tip for any beginner barbers looking to speed up on their work but using little tips like this using the same tool to do different things is a really good point and a really good tip to start speeding up your cuts on the shop floor. Let me know what you guys think about this tip. Going around the outline you can see I'm just using the corner this will help me create a curve or frame the face is what I like to say. So after outlining the face or face frame in the front I put my 0.5 guard on. This basically will help me blend in a little further and it makes a little bit more intricate rather than just going straight to a one. It allows me to move through the lever quite seamlessly. So I'm still using my flicking motion this is an important thing to do when fading this is really really going to help reduce any hard lines. Continuing to use my flicking motion this is an important motion that you really learn while fading this will really help reduce any harsh lines. So I'm working on one side of the head until I really reduce all the heaviness then I'm going to switch around and do the same process on the other side. Fading is great because once you understand the process of how to do it and how to build up the layers it makes things easy and you can transition from head to head. So I'm going to do the same again like I just said and basically reduce all the heaviness and then once I've done that I'm going to move to the back of the head. I always find when I fade the sides up it's a little bit easier as there's less space to fade into whereas when I get around to the back of the head it always carries a lot more weight so I tend to find I have to do more work towards the back. This is just a different angle though that you can see me flicking up making sure I'm pulling the skin and really reducing the weight as I move around to the back. I'm working through the lever down from a 0.5 all the way up until a 1. Now I've moved on to the back you can see there's a lot more head here which means there's more hair. I have to use a flicking motion and I'm also using a bit of a circular motion as well to reduce any heaviness. Little tips like using the corner of your clipper really help reduce any hard lines. Once I've done this process this is now my favourite bit which is a bit of clipper over comb. I'm using my mini trimmers here to do the clipper over comb because again I feel like it gives me greater precision than using a big clipper to do this. This comb what I'm using is called a taper comb. I would highly recommend getting one if you haven't got one already. It really helps refine the shorter layers into the long hair at the top. Once I've finished one side move on to the other. Again it's the same process from side to side and then the back. You can see here on a closer angle that the comb is angled out and away from the head so you're still trying to replicate that flicking motion in and out but now you're just doing it with a clipper over comb. I've had to flick my comb around to get the smaller hairs and be a bit more finer on the detail. Moving from the wide end to the finer end really helps me refine the whole fade. So as you can tell I'm doing my clipper over comb in a up motion up and out rather than going sideways with the hair in the comb. The reason I do this is because it gives me greater control. Okay now I've moved to my scissor over comb. I'm using the home scissors here which I really really like. If you head over to the One Minute Barber YouTube channel you can find a link for these scissors in the description. Honestly I really really love these scissors. These are a six inch scissor and they just make things so much easier for me to do scissor over comb. I'm basically doing the same process as I would clipper over comb up and out but I'm just softening it now with the scissor. This allows me to get a bit of a softer blend into the long hair. Refining any harsh lines that I feel may be left. The reason I love this scissor is because it's such a great price for the quality of the tool. I'd be lost without using my home cutting scissors now. I've switched it around so instead of coming to the side I'm now using a bit more of a point cut method. It's still the same process I'm just being more precise on the area that I'm combing it down after so I make sure I can see how the hair naturally lays. Working on the area just to reduce any weight or any heavy lines. This hair is really coming together now. The reason I would cut with a straight scissor rather than a thinning scissor at this point as you see many barbers do this is because when it grows out it will grow out a lot more even rather than using a thinning scissor. Okay great now we've done all the side in the back we're going to move on to the top. So starting with the fringe I'm going to set my length. As you can tell here I'm only just taking a little bit off and instead of club cutting it which is a hard line across the top I'm using a little bit of a point cut method which will soften the overall look at the end. Working across the top of the head setting my guideline at the front. As I move back I make sure I'm using clean sections because this will really help me create an even haircut. Now after setting my guideline at the front I'm going to use something which is called a traveling guideline. This is where I keep the same length from front to back and I'm moving from the front using my guideline taking section by section moving towards the crown. Again taking clean sections pulling everything back to the section that I just created this is what I would call a traveling guideline. Again making sure my fingers are straight chipping into the top you can see that we're not taking much off here because my client really and he comes in every two weeks so it's a little bit of a maintenance trim really. I've slightly taken a little bit of a curve to the side this will help the whole haircut flow as it does have a bit of a pattern so it's not really rounding the edges but I'm just pulling it off at a 90 degree angle straight out of the head rather than over directing it to keep the weight. Again just traveling with my guideline the whole way back to the crown taking about an inch section each time nice and easy. I'm loving using this orange cone because it shows up great on camera. Now I always wear my rings when cutting is this something you guys do because my cameraman or Michael he was asking me if I get on while cutting and using my rings while I cut but it's just something I get used to now. I like to wear my jewelry when I'm in the shop because it's such a creative industry that I just find having something that allows me to stand out on the shop floor and it's something about my own personal vibe that I just love wearing my rings while I cut and you get used to it. Again working towards the crown finding my guideline nice and simple in these clips you can see I've changed my scissor so I've gone to my quartered steel scissor the only reason I do this is because it's slightly shorter blade this is a five inch scissor from quartered steel and it just allows me to be a bit more precise. I have a scissor for scissor over comb which is the home and I have a scissor for point cutting and cutting the top or club cutting which is my QS 5 inch. All the way to the back of the crown checking the length nearly done. Guys are you enjoying these tutorials? If you do please like share and subscribe it really helps me build the community here at Hot Heads Media and allows me to keep putting out tutorials like this for you on a constant basis. As you can see here I'm just really pulling the front guideline in all the way to the back point cutting any little bits off that I feel are long moving my hands through the top working it seeing how it sits feeling if there's any longer bits or there's any heavy weight you can see how now it's really coming together working through the side here just chopping any long bits off pulling everything out at a 90 degree angle working with the shape of the head not loads to come off again like we say it's a bit of a maintenance trim so it's all good pulling everything down to the side connect it at the side as you can see here using inside finger rather than over the finger connecting the short bit to the long bit and this will help me keep a square shape at the side rather than rounding the edges which you see a lot of people do this tends to be a technique used by a lot of hairdressers but in barbering if you keep the square shape it makes the overall haircut a lot more masculine you can see here in this bit the shorter bit to the longer bit is what we need to take off this creates that square shape combing everything making sure we like the look of it in the mirror perfect really coming together just finessing it with a little bit of point cutting now we've gone on to our razor this is helping me soften the edges and making things flow just that little bit easier you can purchase this razor again from the one minute barber youtube channel i love the shape of this razor it really stands out i really enjoy using a razor it's a really underrated technique but it's really coming in in 2026 get your hands on one of these texture razors today head to the one minute barber youtube channel you can see it makes things so easy to use it's just breaking up that heaviness towards the end i'm pushing my thumb towards the blade with the hair in the middle and slightly pulling it's a great technique and a great way to use the blade see there perfect nice and easy looking at the mirror making sure it's sitting really well this will help reduce a little bit of length and a little bit of weight now unfortunately my camera did stop at this point but you can see the overall style and how the fade process works thanks for watching i'll see you in the next one