The day I realized my clipper blade angle was off for 8 years

I was cutting a regular in his 40s last month and he mentioned his fade always felt heavier on the left side. I laughed it off, then checked my stance in the mirror mid cut. Somehow I've been tilting my wrist outward the whole time, all the way back to barber school in 2016. It took a customer's offhand comment and a sore forearm to finally see it. Has anyone else had a basic move get corrected by a client instead of another barber?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmajackson21d ago

Is it possible your left hand is doing more work than your right on those heavy sides, even after you fix the wrist tilt? In my experience, the grip pressure we don't notice builds up over years and can throw the whole angle off without you feeling it. Probably worth checking your other arm for tension too, that's what finally fixed it for me.

ross.sean19d ago

Ditto everything you just said. I had the same thing happen with my right hand after I fixed a similar wrist thing, turns out I was gripping the clipper like a vice and my shoulder was creeping up the whole time. It wasn't until a barber friend watched me for five minutes that I saw the tension, not a client, but I get how it can slip past you for years. You think you're doing the same move every day, but your body finds these little workarounds and you never notice until something else breaks. Good call on checking the other arm too, that's the sneaky part nobody talks about.