🤔Nothing confirms the statistic that most white Americans have zero Black friends more than seeing whole newspaper articles call a "fade," by far the most common, most generic, simplest haircut that's worn by most Black US citizens, a "Travis Kelce."🤦🏿♂️
Even with fancier Black men's haircuts, most start with a basic fade, and get more complicated from there.
The fade is so common and so foundational that it's how Black barbers are judged. It's like asking an artist to draw a perfect circle.
If you want a "Travis Kelce haircut," just do what millions of white lesbians that aren't afraid of Black people have been doing for the past 30+ years: walk into any Black barber shop, and ask for a bald fade, or a Caeser.👍🏿
The bald fade is a linear gradient from bald on the sides of your head, to low hair on top. It sounds simple. But the goal is to let the average length of the hairs gradually increase from bald to 1/8th of an inch so subtly, that no harsh line is detected in the gradient.
@mekkaokereke as white lesbian with this haircut since 2015, I know that faded sides were created by Black barbers because the first time a white barber tried to fade to the skin… let’s just say it was clear they had no idea how to accomplish it
Reporters out there Christopher Columbusing hair, like, this style isn’t exactly “new” 🥲 have they never seen a Black man in their lives?
If you want to get fancy with it, you can change from a linear gradient to a circular or curved gradient! Bald below the line, to 1/8th of an inch above the line, with the gradient so smooth that there is no detectable harsh line.
This is really hard to get right! If done correctly, it creates a mohawk effect.
It's also hard because everyone's head shape and hair direction is unique. Some people's hair direction and pattern is ideal for fades, eg Devin Booker. Some are are harder, eg OBJ
To me, it's not that serious. I'm more like every 2 months, unless I'm trying to be arm candy for the wife, or if I'm going to a place with more than 3 Black people (NYC, Atlanta, etc). 🤷🏿♂️
@mekkaokereke@Torjas Yeah I had an undercut with a fade and every 2 months was generally OK for me! Just depends on how your hair grows. (And also how hot it is outside, tbh, because a fade is like free AC)
@mekkaokereke I once went to a conference in Savannah and I didn't have time to get the haircut I needed before going. I asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation and he sent me to his brother's shop.
Fade was one of the few named cuts I recognized on his website. The guy also did competitive styling and I'm walking in with my bland texture like, "Yeah, just make it shorter"
Even a doofus like me knows what the hell a fade is.
@mekkaokereke I love getting a good skin fade every few months. Very few dedicated black barber shops anywhere near me, but there's a few places that know what they're doing. A good one grows out beautifully too.
Back around the year 2000, my 9-year-old son asked the barber for a “Scottie Pippen” haircut. I think it was similar to the fade. (I was kind of glad he didn’t ask for the “Michael Jordan.”)
@mekkaokereke When I saw the Charlottesville torch march I called that haircut the "fash fade" and had a panic when my boss got one a month later. He said it was unrelated to the white supremacist horsefuckers, and white barbers call it "high and tight"
Yeah, a "high and tight" can be faded, blended or it can have no fade or blend and just have a harsh line. Jake Gyllenhaal had a faded high and tight in the movie "Jarhead." These days, many marines have high bald fade. That's allowed by the military, but still looks kind of civilian-ish.
A high and tight, with no fade, and a coiff (longer hair on top) is very nazi coded. Basically the haircut Cillian Murphy has in Peaky blinders.
@mekkaokereke@LinuxAndYarn I've heard it called both a fade and a high-and-tight ... I go to a queer barbershop where the fade is also a true art. My barber does an amazing job doing the perfect gradient between almost-bald to slightly floofy top.
@mekkaokereke on the Submarine when under way, I used to make $5 a head giving fades back into the 90s. Of course the white guys asked for high-n-tights, but it was basically the same haircut. Used my haircut earnings to play Tonk, usually broke even. That article is such an embarrassment.
@pseudoramble@mekkaokereke every US marine, regardless of race, is very familiar with this hairstyle. Length on top can vary (a little), but the sides do not.
@mekkaokereke My husband goes to a Black barbershop and they give him the gray fade and laugh about how much of his gray temples they can fade until he’s practically shaved clean above his ears. This was never anything but a Black barbers’ technique that goes back to the beginning of Black barbers. Because they serve a lot of white male customers too, they keep Black history shows running on the TV nonstop to “educate their clientele.”
lol when I saw this referenced on a news broadcast, I complained to my wife that now I couldn't go get myself a bald fade without people thinking I was trying to emulate this guy. I've been getting bald fades off and on since I was in the Army. About time to get another one, perhaps.
Like there aren't a zillion videos out there of suburban white dudes walking into Black barbershops looking like King of the Hill and walking out like they are 100% down with the swirl and late to the cookout.
@kimschulz Please note the difference between "a white guy getting a fade" and "white people trying to rename the fade after a white guy". @DeliaChristina@mekkaokereke
@mekkaokereke like 95% of white soccer players in the uk have this haircut. Many of the black guys do, too, although I think a maybe smaller percentage. But it seems completely pervasive there. Weird it’s not better known here.
Like, it’s so common someone went viral making fun of the subset of fade + north face jacket:
@mekkaokereke Having grown up as an American in Germany, I have only a miniscule amount of experience with Black American culture -- yet even I know that the fade originated as a distinctly Black haircut.
@mekkaokereke my mom was a barber. I learned this stuff at her knee. She’d take my little brothers & me to barber college (single mom). It was where I first really met ppl of different colors/gender expressions. To this day, I keep black sesame oil w/lavender in my purse, bc there have been days when a Black woman needs help w flyaways when touching up her hair in the ladies bathroom.
@paul_ipv6@mekkaokereke And the "new" strategy for television shows where they release just one episode a week for multiple weeks, rather than just dropping the whole series at once. Genius move to build up excitement and anticipation and to get people to make it a point of watching on a particular night!
@mekkaokereke oops. I always thought that was a "high and tight" from the Marines or other military hair cuts. I had to go look up the difference between that and a fade... TIL!! (not like I discuss hair cut styles, like, ever. But I see your point, that calling it a Travis Kelce is just blind.)
@bgannin@mekkaokereke I explicitly disavow those mindless white folks. Hopefully, criticism by other white folks will have a better chance of sinking in.
I was waiting for an another brother to pick up that gauntlet! In the 70s, I don’t recall seeing too many fades. ‘Fros, naturals, and braids mostly, at least where I was.
@davidhmccoy I have to admit my father had been in the Navy and the fade was the ONLY haircut allowed through my HIGH SCHOOL years. An Afro? Not a chance. 😂
Now I wish I wasn’t sporting the “reverse fade,” you know ... naturally faded on top and longer near my ears and neck. LOL!
@mekkaokereke This is just embarrassing. It's ridiculous how disconnected some of these people are from reality. It's still racism, even if they wear a naive grin as they engage in the foolhardy absurdity. They are the embodiment of cringe.
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