My old shop lead swore fades should always be cut dry, but a guy in Phoenix showed me the opposite
I spent two years doing skin fades with no clipper guard and no spray, because my lead at the time in Columbus kept saying water makes the clippers drag and dulls the blade faster. Last spring I moved to a shop in Phoenix and the owner there, Ray, watched me do one dry fade on a walk-in and just shook his head. He handed me a spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of water and a little leave-in conditioner and had me do the same fade on the next guy. The blend line disappeared in half the passes. I have been cutting wet ever since and my blades honestly last about the same. Ray's reasoning was that wet hair lays flat and shows you the actual shape instead of the poof. Any of you cut fades wet and have trouble with clipper rust, or am I just not drying my tools right?