Combination
Drop Fade + Textured Crop
The drop's arc follows the skull behind the ear instead of cutting a level line across it, which softens a hard jaw rather than emphasising it. The crop's forward texture keeps the top from adding the length the curve just took out.
Cut lives at guard 0-1
- Guard range
- 0-1
- Chair time
- 40-50m
- Back in
- 2-3 wks
- Instrument
- Clipper + scissors
Two decisions, not one.
Sides
Drop Fade
The fade line curves down behind the ear instead of running level around the head. It follows the skull rather than cutting across it, which softens a hard jaw and adds a little height at the crown.
Full drop fade pageTop
Textured Crop
A crop with the weight broken up through the top so it sits in separated pieces rather than one solid mass. Reads as effortless, requires the least product of anything in the textured category.
Full textured crop pageAsk for it like this.
Two decisions means two sets of instructions, and the third sentence is usually the one that decides whether they meet in the middle.
- Ask for a drop fade with the arc sitting behind the ear, and name the guard at the bottom — a 0 is skin, a 1 leaves a shadow.
- Say the top stays a textured crop with weight kept on, pushed forward.
- Ask for the corners of the fringe left slightly longer to carry the curve round.
The failure mode.
Every pairing has one specific way it goes wrong, and it is almost always at the join between the two halves rather than in either one of them.
A drop fade cut too low behind the ear reads as an accident rather than a choice. If the arc is not clearly visible from the front, it is not doing its job.