How to Create a Tapered Haircut using Reverse Blending Technique

Amy E: We're back with Ivan here on the Cutting Edge Hairshow. Hello Ivan. Ivan Zoot: Hello Amy, how are you? Amy E: I'm well. It's good to have you back. Ivan Zoot: Thanks for having me back. We had a whole lot of fun last time. We're going to have even more fun this time. Amy E: Okay. So here's our model. Ivan Zoot: Lloyd is our model. Let's turn right around, so everybody can see him. Lloyd is our model. What we are going to do with Lloyd today is what we call a classic tapered men's haircut. If you cut hair in the professional beauty industry for 100 years, and I hope you don't, I'm not going to, but if you do, 99% of the men's haircuts that you cut will be some variation on a classic tapered men's hair cut. Amy E: That's almost all of them. Ivan Zoot: That's almost all of them. We know that haircut. The back and sides are tapered, the top is layered and blended together. If we go down the block and around a corner over a to home depot right now, there's going to be one dude with a ponytail, there's a couple of bold guys. But, generally speaking, whether they spike it up, slick it back, comb it over, spin it around, whatever, back and sides are tapered, top is layered and blended together. If you are good at this, you can build business anywhere in America with solid hair cutting skills. This is classic barbering one-on-one. Are you ready to see this happening? Amy E: It is so important that you know how to do this. Ivan Zoot: We're going to use a technique called Reverse Blending. Reverse Blending the idea is this, instead of tapered layer and blend, three traditional steps and the toughest part of that is always the Blending. The Blending takes the greatest amount of time and it's the hardest thing to do. Clipper guy says, if blending is hard to do and blending takes a lot of time, let's skip it. Let's not blend. We're going to give you a technique for cutting this haircut that eliminates what we agree is the hardest part of the haircut. How's that? Amy E: You are all making it easy for everyone. Ivan Zoot: I want to make everybody's life easy. I'm going to make this quick. I'm going to share all the tips, tricks, and secrets. You got it. What we're going to do today is called Back-hand. We're going to turn the clipper on, with the clipper on and the clipper running, we're going to turn it backwards in our hand. Cord comes out between my thumb and forefinger and the blade sits back at the heel of my hand. I release my two bottom fingers and I insert my comb. What do I have over here now? Amy E: It looks like you have wolverine hands. Ivan Zoot: I have three hands. I have one hand to hold the clipper, one hand to hold the comb and I have one more hand over here to hold hair with. I have actually seen this technique referred to as three hand cutting. Watch what we do. I'm going to do what I do, watch what I do when I do what I do, and watch what I don't do. I'm going to take sections of hair. I'm going to comb them, I'm going to hold them, and I'm going to cut them. I'm going to comb, I'm going to hold, and I'm going to cut, I'm going to comb, I am going to hold, and I'm going to cut like that. Notice, I don't shut the clipper off, I don't set the clipper down, I don't transfer the comb from one hand to the other like I do when I cut with a pair of shear. Well, efficiency is important. Remember clipper guy does have three Guinness world records for haircutting. Amy E: The guy had most amount of haircuts in 24 hours. Ivan Zoot: Most amount of haircuts in an hour non-stop, straight though, without a break. That's right. I do have three world records for haircutting speed, but now we're focusing on accuracy. Notice, combing, holding, and cutting, combing, holding, and cutting, combing, holding, and cutting. Amy E: And I can see the hair, this is why you're using the white comb. Ivan Zoot: You can see the guide in my fingers. I don't shut the clipper off, I don't set the clipper down, I don't transfer the comb. Every time I pick up a section of hair, I've got a piece of the previously cut section in my fingers to serve as a guide. That's sort of cosmetology school one-on-one. We learn that day one. That is a rule that will serve us well our entire career. Now, the challenge is, it's time to cut this side, and this doesn't work. It's hard to cut over the top of the head, the cords hanging in the way. So we need to make two changes to our little situation here to cut, how do you know? Amy E: I knew it. I was just going to turn. Ivan Zoot: You've been hanging around this haircutting stuff quite a bit. That's right. Change number one, we turn the chair. Instead of standing behind our client and working from the hairline back as a right handed haircut around the client's opposite side or left side, I'm going to stand in front of my client since I can't stand directly in front of him, because he has got legs and a lap. I'm too far back. I'm going to turn the chair slightly. I'm going to turn his head. So now I'm functionally standing in front of my client. Change number one, the chair and the client does a 180. Change number two, same thing with the comb. Turn the chair, turn the comb. Amy E: Turn the chair, turn the comb. Ivan Zoot: By turning the chair and turning the comb, I can now stand here. I can pick up a piece of the previously cut section in my fingers to serve as a guide, combing, holding, and cutting, combing, holding, and cutting, combing, holding, and cutting. Again, working from the hairline back, top that, center down around the head form far enough that we intrude in. Let's turn this so the camera can get a good look at this. Far enough that we can intrude into the top edge of what is later to become are tapered perimeter. And you know what, even if you don't cut hair, if you're watching that from 25 feet away, you know what needs to be cut, and what needs to stay on the head. We create a guide, we follow the guide, and we don't cut the guide. Amy E: And that is the trick. Ivan Zoot: That's the trick. You got it!