What is a drop fade?
I know its been a while since I laced you with some information on fades. Being an expert on the subject, I wanted to write a short post about what a drop fade is.
Let me go over a few things first. There are basically 2 types of fades. A skin fade, and a shadow fade. Everything else is just a variation of the 2. A skin fade also known as a bald fade is any fade that starts with zero (skin) on the sides and blends into any length on the top. A shadow fade is any fade that actually starts with hair on the sides and again blends into any length on the top.
There can be high skin fades, medium and low skin fades, and the same thing with shadow fades they can be high medium or low. Usually when a barber does a fade they make a straight line all the way around the head and fade up from there. This is typical of all fades.
The variation of fades that we are talking about today are called drop fades. They are called this because the fade actually drops as it passes behind the ear. Notice in the picture that the drop fade has a nice arc to it and reaches below the point where it started on the temples.
For barbers it's just a slight variation in what we do. I think it gives some character to a fade and helps hide that big ol' hook in the back of some of y'alls heads. Also I'd like to point out that with a drop fade it typically looks better when it is medium to low, otherwise it looks a little strange.
drop fade by @vickthebarber
This drop fade here starts extremely low with skin at the very bottom and blends up from there. notice again that the fade ends way below where it started from and also follows the natural curvature of the head.
If you are looking to try something new in the barbershop that is not too drastic, Then I recommend the drop fade. Its clean, distinguished and classic. Below are a few links to some videos I found online that will also help you to get a good idea on what a Drop fade is.
Thanks for your time.
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