Sort Your Lockdown Trim, thanks to the Lions’ Barbers Collective
MAN v FAT is delighted to be working with The Lions Barbers Collective in 2021, helping spread the word on their great work around men’s mental health.
The Lions Barber Collective is an international collection of top barbers which have come together to help raise awareness for the prevention of suicide.
In a short time through The Lions Barber Collective’s huge reach on social media, they have managed to create huge awareness to the cause, with that awareness ever growing and more events being planned all the time.
If you’re interested in taking advantage of their support, you can find the closest barber to you on their website!
Now, onto your haircut and how to keep you handsome at home in 10 easy steps!
We all know we feel better after a good haircut, and how bad we can feel before we get to sit in the barbers chair. So with the third lockdown well underway and no way to sort out the lockdown locks professionally, here is a step by step by a pro barber and educator to help guide you through a simple textured look to get you through until you can return your beloved barber again and be in their trusty hands.
This is NOT a skin fade, so please don’t try that at home!
We suggest a housemate, partner, lover or mother should take up this role of Honorary Barber in the meantime as its difficult to see the back of your own head! We hope this will help you stay handsome at home.
You’ll need:-
Something to wash and dry your hair. Some Clippers with grade combs of different lengths. Some smaller detailer/beard trimmers for edges (not essential), a comb, scissors, a hairdryer (or you can wait…) and some styling product.
1. Shampoo and Condition hair to ensure that your hair is thoroughly clean, product free and sitting at natural fall, creating the best conditions for cutting those lockdown locks. You can also add a little gel into the hair wet as that will help keep hair in place and stay wetter for longer. Let’s face it, we need this to be as easy as possible.
2. Comb all the hair above the recession areas up isolate the top of the head.
3. Using a grade 4 (13mm or 1/2inch) on your clippers starting at at the front hairline remove the bulk of the hair. Starting at the bottom of the hairline, below the ear and moving up the head in a slow steady long movement. When you feel that curve in the head the clippers will come away from the scalp and continue straight up. THIS WILL KEEP LENGTH AND SQUARE MASCULINE SHAPE. AVOIDING THE ‘Tennis Ball” LOOK!
4. Repeat all the way around the head and check balance on both sides.
5. This will create a guide which you can connect to the top.
6. Release the top and create a parting right down the middle and then another from top of the ear to top of the ear, Creating a ‘CROSS’ on top of the head.
7. Take one section, comb all the hair in that section down to the side you previously cut and use that as a guide to bled top and sides. Hold hair in your fingers and cut with scissors. REPEAT THIS IN EACH QUARTER.
8. Starting at the back (crown) of the head comb up sections of hair about an inch thick straight up and cut with scissors. YOU SHOULD HAVE A GUIDE ON EACH SIDE OF THE HEAD, CONNECT THESE TWO SHORTEST POINTS. Repeat this moving forward until you run out of hair. (If you want to keep more hair at the front, pull each section toward the back of the head/previous section of hair cut)
9. DRY THE HAIR
10. Get the clippers back out! This time with a grade 3 (10mm/3/8inch) just run the clippers in a scooping action about an inch up in front of the ears and an inch at the back of the neck to give a little taper/shape to the hairline.
11. If you have them you can now use small trimmers/detailers to remove any stray hair on the neck, hairline or ears. Get that product and style away! TIP – APPLY THE PRODUCT TO YOUR HANDS AND REALLY RUB THEM TOGETHER FIRST BEFORE APPLYING TO THE HEAD. MAKE SURE YOU COAT ALL THE HAIR IN PRODUCT BEFORE YOU TRY TO CREATE THE FINISHED LOOK.
If this all goes to plan and you are feeling a little braver next time, then you can always use a grade 3 and 2 or even a 2 and 1. But the shorter it goes the less forgiving it is and the harder it is to blend…
Be sure to send us pictures of your new locks on social media – we’d love to see them!
