For a while now I've been struggling to separate tapers and fades (or tapering and fading? more on that in a bit). In an effort to achieve smooth blending, I kept creating gentle, taper-style graduation, and knowing I needed a fade to be "sharper" or "more dramatic" didn't really help...

Lately I've been trying speed drills when working on my long-haired mannequin heads. I've got my one-length cuts down to a tight 15-20 minutes, but my uniform layer cuts still trend longer than I'd like, often hovering around one hour.