How To Tell Your Barber Exactly What You Want

How To Tell Your Barber Exactly What You Want:Do your research

Perfect planning prevents poor performance! Guess what? What works in life also works in your local barber shop. So, with a few minutes spent doing your homework you’ll be in a great place to be able to decide what sort of hairstyle will work for you.
What to check?

Hair type;Not all hair types were created equal, the key is getting the balance right between what you want and what your hair can do!

Head Shape: If you work with the concept that your face is the painting and your hair is the frame then making sure the frame fits is equally as important as the painting itself.

Play to your strengths and pick hairstyles that accentuate your best features.my advice would be to ask your barber what hairstyle would work best with your head shape and hair type.

Know your barbering terminology now you need to ensure you at least speak a little of your barber’s language.

Guard numbering

Questions like “3 ok on the sides?” or “ok with 1/2 inch off?” Not to worry. It’s just a little maths.

Generally, each haircut number represents 1/8 of an inch of length. As the numbers increase so does the amount of length of the haircut.

Fade

A fade is a gradient haircut, that gives the impression of the hair “fading” into the skin.

Not to be confused with the taper, the fade is usually a shorter length, very detailed and with a very smooth transition between hair lengths.

It appears all the way around your head and ends at or above your natural hairline.

In fact, the type of fade you request is also important information for your barber.

“it’s great when a client can let you know where they would like to have the change of the fade – low, mid, or high”.

With most barbers operating on this “high fade” to “low fade” pendulum its quite easy to select the one that best suits your look.

A Low Fade ends very close to your hairline whereas a High Fade comes to a stop above the ears.

Taper

A Taper is, as the name suggests, another form of achieving a gradient to the hair length.Typically, longer in length than the fade and normally applied only to the side and back of head. the taper is a less exact science than the fade.

The gradient,
Starts with longer hair at the top and leads to shorter hair closer to the hairlines.
It is used in most men’s haircuts in some form, either with scissors or clippers or a combination of both and allows for easy management and symmetry of different hairstyles.
So, try to make sure to cover these basic points:

A brief description of the basic overall style you are looking for.
Any specific details you can give about:
The length of hair you want on top, side, back of head.
The type of gradient you want to achieve e.g., Fade or Taper
How you want your hair on top and fringe styled
How you want your neckline cut e.g., squared or tapered.
Questions are always welcome when it comes to a haircut, this way the barber and the client can work out what style they’ll get along with and what will suit them .