Meaning & use
skin fade
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Meanings
nouncountable
A men's haircut in which the hair at the back and sides is shaved down to the skin and blended gradually into longer hair above.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a skin fade' or 'two skin fades'.
Patterns
- get a skin fade
- ask for a skin fade
- a skin fade with a line-up
He asked the barber for a skin fade with a little length left on top.
A skin fade looks sharp but grows out quickly, so he books a cut every two weeks.
She watched the barber shave the sides right down to the skin to finish the skin fade.
nouncountabletechnical
A style of fading in which a color or image dissolves completely until nothing of it remains.
Grammar: Countable and used mainly in technical talk about video or design.
Patterns
- a skin fade to black
- use a skin fade
The editor ended the scene with a slow skin fade to black.
In the tutorial she shows how to add a skin fade between two photos.
Word forms
| plural | skin fades |
|---|
Common combinations
- a skin fade haircut
- He showed the barber a photo of a skin fade haircut.
- a low skin fade
- A low skin fade starts near the ear and stays neat for longer.
- a high skin fade
- He went for a high skin fade that left almost no hair on the sides.
- a skin fade with a hard part
- The barber gave him a skin fade with a hard part on the left.
- grow out a skin fade
- It takes about three weeks to grow out a skin fade.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bald fade
- Very close in meaning, but 'bald fade' stresses that the shortest part is completely bald, while a skin fade may stop just at the skin line.
- taper fade
- A taper fade only shortens the hair gradually and never reaches the skin, so it is a gentler, less extreme cut.
Word family
Commonly confused: skin fade or skinhead? skin fade or shaved head?
skin fade vs skinhead
A skinhead is a person, often linked to a particular youth subculture, while a skin fade is only a haircut.
skin fade vs shaved head
A shaved head means all the hair is removed; a skin fade keeps longer hair on top and only shaves the sides and back.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'skin fade' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A skin fade is a haircut, so it is something you get at a barber's. The other options describe a tattoo, a cosmetic product, or clothing, none of which fits this noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “skin fade”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.