Clipper blade slipped and carved a line through a fade yesterday

I was working on a kid at my chair in Austin, almost done with a zero fade, and my clipper blade just jumped and left a deep line right through his fade. Had to stop and figure out how to fix it without buzzing the whole side off. Ended up blending it with my trimmers and a little detail work, took me 15 extra minutes but it looked clean when I finished. Anyone else have a clipper slip on them and have to salvage a cut on the fly?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_murphy1mo ago

Read an article last year from a barber supply company (I think it was Andis) that said clipper slippage is way more common when the blade tension is too loose. They did this whole study on it, found that like 30% of barbers don't check their blade tension before a cut. I used to just wing it, but now I give that screw a quarter turn every morning and it's helped a ton. Sounds like you handled it like a pro though, that detail work with the trimmers is always the save.

nina_johnson861mo ago

Oh man, did you try oiling the blade right before you crank the tension? That combo saved me more times than I can count. I had a clipper start slipping on a zero fade last month, and I just hit the screw with a tiny quarter turn and it grabbed right away. The trimmers are a lifesaver for those close calls though, I always keep my T-outliners fully charged just in case. Now I do the same morning check you mentioned, quarter turn and a drop of oil, and I barely have issues anymore.

carr.brooke28d ago

Did that article mention if tension problems get worse with certain blade types? @nina_johnson86 probably has a point about the oil combo too, that might be what's making the quarter turn work better for some people.