THE CUTTING WORK Six words · one price · chair 02

CUTS & FADES.

Every one of them is thirty‑five dollars. What changes is the word you use when you sit down. Using the wrong one is how people end up with the wrong haircut.

Book a chair The fade vocabulary →

40
MIN— clipper to hot towel

A skin fade in progress — clippers blending the side above the ear

— The cutting work

What each one actually is.

Every one of them is thirty-five dollars. What changes is the word you use when you sit down. Use the wrong one and you get the wrong haircut. Neither of us finds out until the cape comes off.

So here is the vocabulary, plainly. Six words that cover almost everything walking through the door on Edgewood. Learn the two that apply to you and you'll never have to say "whatever you did last time" again.

6Words worth knowing

$35All of them, same price

2–4Weeks before it softens

Say it right and you'll get it right.

Six terms, used the way barbers use them.

The taper

The perimeter only: sideburns and nape shortened gradually into the length above them. The side of your head stays the length it is; the edges get clean. This is what most men want when they say "short back and sides" and it is the most forgiving cut in the shop. No hard line to keep up with. Grows out for six weeks without ever looking wrong.

The skin fade

The whole side taken to bare skin at its lowest point and blended up through the guards into the top. Zero-gapped clippers to get there, foil shaver to finish. Sharpest thing we do and the shortest-lived. You get about two weeks before the bottom fills in and the blend goes soft. Say low, mid, or high so we know where the shortest point should sit.

The drop fade

Same gradient as any fade, except the line doesn't run level around your head. It arcs down behind the ear and follows the skull toward the nape. Suits a curly or coily top and suits a low hairline at the back. Ask for it by name. A barber will not add the drop unless you do.

The burst fade

The fade radiates out from the ear in a semicircle and stops. Weight stays at the nape instead of being taken down with it. It's the shape that sits under a mohawk, a mullet, or an Edgar. If someone showed you a photo and you can still see hair at the back of the neck, this is the one.

The line-up

Also called an edge-up or a shape-up. The hairline squared off at the forehead and temples with a T-blade, and nothing else. We take out what's uneven and we stop. A barber who chases a stray hair every two weeks walks your hairline backward a quarter inch a year, and it does not come forward again. Included with every cut. Fifteen dollars if you're coming in between.

The scissor cut

No clippers at all. Cut over the comb and over the finger so the weight comes out without leaving a hard line anywhere. This is what a textured crop needs, what a grown-out fringe needs, and what anything past three inches on top needs. It takes ten minutes longer than a fade and costs the same. That's the whole point of a flat board.

TAPER ● SKIN FADE ● DROP FADE ● BURST FADE ● LINE-UP ● SCISSOR CUT ● TAPER ● SKIN FADE ● DROP FADE ● BURST FADE ● LINE-UP ● SCISSOR CUT ●

— At the chair

How to ask for it.

Say the height before you say the number. Low sits just above the ear, mid at the temple, high at the parietal ridge (the corner where the side of your head turns into the top). "Mid skin fade" tells a barber more in three words than a guard number ever will, because a #1 on one brand of clipper is not a #1 on another.

Bring a photo of the back of someone's head, not the front. Everybody brings the front. The front is the part we can already see on you.

Tell us how long it'll be before you're back in. A fade you can't maintain in three weeks is the wrong fade for you. We'd rather send you out with a taper that still looks deliberate on day twenty-five than a skin fade you're embarrassed by on day twelve.

And say it if you're growing something out. There's a version of every cut that gets you through the awkward stage, and it usually means leaving weight somewhere a barber's instinct says to take off.

A barber checking the blend on a fade in the mirror

— Ask for

MARCUS · classic taper, skin fade

RAY · skin fade, line work

OMAR · straight razor, beard

DEAN · scissor cuts, line-ups

The four chairs →

— Same price whichever one you pick

PICK A WORD.
PICK A CHAIR.

Walk in and take whoever's open, or hold a chair with the barber you already trust.

Book a chair

1842 EDGEWOOD AVE NEATLANTA, GA 30307

404.555.0188TUE–SAT 9–7 · SUN 10–5

THE BOARDALL NINE PRICES →