How Much Length Does a Taper Lever Add? (Clipper Lever 101)
A lot has been said about how much length does a taper lever add.
Truth be told, it’s a simple answer and one you must know if you want to avoid an embarrassing cut.
In this article, we’ll answer the question but I’ll also provide the entire process of how you can use your lever and your guards to create a seamless blend.
You may very well go from novice to pro.
With that said, let’s get into it.
How much length does a taper lever add?
To be honest, it depends on a lot of things.
This could be:
- Whether you have a tapered blade
- Whether you have a Fade blade
- Whether your clippers are zero gapped
All these factors mean your clipper lever will add varying lengths of hair.
But let’s say you had a fade blade clipper (which most of us have), they look like this:
Now if you have a taper blade that looks like this:
Below is how your clipper will look with the clipper lever open, it will cut less hair.
Below is how your clippers will look when your lever is closed, your blades cut more hair.
Notice how the guard and cutting blade are right next to each other?
It means less hair a fed through the teeth so it cuts more hair.
Expect your hair clipper to leave 0mm – 0.5mm of hair if you have a fade blade and your lever is closed, and expect to have 0.5 – 1mm of hair left if your lever is closed and you have a taper blade.
Now all the lengths above are the average lengths of hair you can expect your clippers to leave but there are exceptions…
I explain below
Zero-gapped clippers are an outlier.
Zero-gapped clippers are clippers whose cutting blades have been pushed so so close to the end of the guard blades that there is basically 0 space left between each blade.
You can read more on the benefits and negatives of this in my guide on what is zero-gapping hair clippers.
Now when your blades are zero-gapped, they cut close… very close.
If your clippers are zero-gapped, (whiled the lever is closed).
You can expect your clippers to leave 0mm of hair.
They basically turn into a lineup clipper and trimmer.
No hair is fed through, as soon as your baldes touch your hair, It’s instantly cut (while your lever is closed that is)
With your blades zero-gapped and the lever closed you can expect your clipper blades to cut to 0mm.
On the other hand, when your clipper blades are open, expect slightly more hair to be fed through.
So when the lever is open and your baldes are zero-gapped, expect about 1.25 mm of hair left.
Fade blade lever closed = 0-0.25 mm of hair left
Taper blade lever closed = 0.5- 1 mm of hair left
Fade blade lever open = 1.5-2.5mm of hair left
Taper blade lever open = 2.5 – 3mm of hair left
Closed Zero gapped blades = 0mm of hair left
Open zero-gapped fade blade = 1.2-2mm of hair left
Open zero-gapped Taper blades = 2mm – 2.5mm of hair left
Again, these are average, but your clippers should fall into these ranges.
Now knowing how much length your taper lever adds is all great but what does it mean in terms of hair cutting and producing the cuts you want?
Well, it means you can add lengths together to either find the overall cutting length of you clippers or find a guard that best matches the length you’re trying to cut to…
For example:
This gives you an overall cutting length of 4.5mm which, is basically a 1 ½ guard.
You could start at the 4.5mm of hair level and as you go down towards the 3mm guard level, slowly be closing your lever bit by bit so that by the time you reach the bottom of the 3mm level, you’d have blended the two lines together.
We’ll go more into this next.
Using a clipper lever with guards
Your blades and your taper lever are like yin and yang.
If you match a certain blade and move the clipper you can change the whole cutting length.
Let me give you an example.
Before we start I’m going to assume we have a fade blade clipper, when the lever is closed it cuts to exactly 0mm and when open it cuts to 1.5mm it’s best for you to think of the mm measurements as to how much hair will remain.
These are the guard’s lengths for wahl:
Let’s begin.
But if you had a 1 guard (3mm) with the clipper lever open (1.5mm), it now moves up to become 1 ½ guard = 4.5mm
Similarly, if you had a 1 ½ guard (4.5mm), lever open(1.5mm) it becomes a #2 guard (6mm).
But if you were to go from a 1 ½ guard (4.5mm)and the lever is closed (0mm) then you have the true cutting length of the guard which is just 1 ½ (4.5mm).
Do you see how each of these cutting lengths can merge into one another just but moving the clipper lever?
These little moments are what allow us to fade hair and take out guidelines because you can slowly decrease or increase the cutting length to match another guard.
If you are new to using hair clippers and want to get the hang of using our blades to fade hair, check out my guide on how to fade hair for beginners.
Or, if you’re a visual learner, you can watch this video on the process:
This guide has been a quick overview of understanding how your clippers work, but did you know this is only a small part of mastering your clippers?
Why not cover, cleaning, oiling, troubleshooting, and even how to use your clippers to fade using the 1-minute Clipphub cheatsheets from the New Clipper Mastery Bundle?
Fast-track your clipper mastery by grabbing them below:
Fixing Taper Lever
Now all the measurements and explain how your taper lever works will be entirely useless if your taper doesn’t move to the exact cutting length you want.
In some cases, your taper lever may be loose meaning it doesn’t stay at the length you need.
Or worse it moves as you change the cutting length or use your baldes.
This does no good for you and overall can be frustrating.
When you move your clipper lever it should stick to the exact position you set it in, not jerk up and down as it pleases.
If you notice you are doing this, check out this video on how to fix the problem.
If the problem continues, you may have to replace your clipper lever or invest in a clipper that has great durability and are built for fading.
The best fading clippers are below:
Best Clippers for Fades (Master The Art Of Fading)
Conclusion
In this article, we went over, how much length a clipper lever adds.
Fade blade lever closed = 0-0.25 mm of hair left
Taper blade lever closed = 0.5- 1 mm of hair left
Fade blade lever open = 1.5-2.5mm of hair left
Taper blade lever open = 2.5 – 3mm of hair left
Closed Zero gapped blades = 0mm of hair left
Open zero-gapped fade blade = 1.3-2mm of hair left
Open zero-gapped Taper blades = 2mm – 2.5mm of hair left
Again it depends on the guard and the state of your lever, but this is what you should expect on average.
If you found this article helpful, please check out other articles on this topic below.
