Recreating Will Smith’s 90s Flat Top Fade from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

[upbeat music]

Hey GQ.

I'm Art Williams, celebrity barber.

[camera clicking]

Today, we're gonna give my man, Julian,

a high top fade inspired by Will Smith,

Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.

What's up, man? How you doing? 'Sup? [hands clapping]

[chair creaking]

Man, when's the last time you got a haircut, bro?

Man, it's been, it's been a few months.

I can see how we can take this,

and give you something real fresh, man.

I'm gonna make you look like the Fresh Prince.

We're gonna take a look at his hair evolution,

throughout the seasons of Fresh Prince.

So this season one right here,

he has a high top fade right there.

Look, his sides are not bald,

but more like a shadow fade.

Season two, we see the evolution of like,

almost like a slope,

kind of goes up a little higher in the front.

Season three, [Julian chuckling]

I don't even, I don't know what that is.

I think he was on his crisscross thing back then.

[Julian] Yeah.

This is more like it right here.

This is the Will Smith,

the Fresh Prince that I remember.

I think this look right here would be perfect for you.

I like how clean it is. It looks sharp.

Yeah. Not too low.

Yeah. You know, I've been wanting to do something different.

I think I wanna go with this one, right here.

You're probably the closest young looking Will Smith

I ever seen so,

we'll make that happen for you.

Your hair texture's not the same texture

as Will's is in this photo right here,

but we can still make it happen.

Here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna first spray it down a little bit with water,

kind of pick it out.

See how high his hair really is.

I'm gonna grab the sides.

I'm gonna start cutting the sides, build a guideline,

so I have a vision of where I wanna go with this fade,

how high I wanna go, how low I wanna go.

And then we're just gonna keep moving

through his haircut as smoothly as possible.

Clean up his beard.

Make sure we line up his mustache nice and smooth.

So let's get started.

[rhythmic music]

But you don't wanna comb dry hair

because it'll cause a lot of breakage

so I'm just gonna wet it down a little bit

and then pick it out.

You always wanna start up at the end of the hair

and then work your way down to the root

because you don't wanna end up breaking hair

or knotting hair.

You good? Yeah.

Because we have this kind of like a mushroom shape

for his head right now, I'm gonna start with

these sides that are spilling over first.

[rhythmic music]

You can't see the name on here

because I use it all the time.

But this is a Wahl Magic Clipper.

I'm gonna start with this clipper

and I'm gonna have it, keep it closed all the way.

So I'm gonna close it just to kind of get a shape

to start to shape this, the top of his head.

And I am going to use my flat top comb.

I just envision myself as a painter

and then just stroking,

like a paint brush just stroking the hair.

It's kind of going out a little bit,

but eventually as we get through this haircut,

I'll do more shaping.

[rhythmic music]

So what I'm gonna do now is,

I'm gonna take my flat top comb

and I'm gonna start to make his sides a little bit short.

These sides that I have kept long,

I can make shorter without actually digging into the haircut

and making it short too fast.

I'm gonna take my number one guard

and I'm gonna start to just kind of,

lightly blend the line out.

The guideline that I have.

[clipper buzzing]

Grab my seven inch comb again.

I'm gonna go a little bit smaller with the fade guard.

[camera clicking]

We haven't cut the top yet.

We just kind of cut the sides,

but we're already at healthier hair on the sides

of your head right now.

I'm gonna work my way through transitioning this into this.

We'll start to see the hair come together a little bit more

and we'll start to see the hair actually stand as a box.

Now that we got him looking like,

looks more like Kid from Kid 'n Play,

we're gonna begin to just kind of lower this down.

I might follow it up with my Andis T-liners.

[clipper buzzing]

So what led to you becoming a barber?

Oh man.

Short story is I would go,

my stepdad would drop me off

at the barber shop every Saturday morning,

and I would just sweep the floor all day long

and sometimes they'd tip me out.

They'd give me a tip.

And sometimes they'd just give me a free haircut.

We thought the barbers was the richest people on the planet,

at that point. Oh, okay.

I mean,

[Art laughing]

I probably fell in love with the money first

and then as I got into it,

that's when the artistry of it started

to come into fruition.

I'm gonna pick it out

and we're gonna see,

even though it is kind of starting to get a nice shape

to it,

when I pick it out,

you're gonna see like longer hair underneath here again.

You want it to be able to keep its shape

for when he has to maintain it himself.

[clipper buzzing]

I leave it, one area just almost completely undone.

As much as it's a reveal for the client,

it's a reveal for the barber too.

[clipper buzzing]

So with 18 years of being a barber,

how many times you think you've given

this cut? Once.

[record scratching] [heart beating]

Nah, I'm joking.

[Julian laughing]

Being that I live in Portland-

Mm-hmm. Portland, Oregon,

the young people in Portland

are getting this haircut all the time.

Believe it or not.

[clipper buzzing]

So what I'm gonna do now is take my outliners

and I'm gonna give him a nice sharp line or cool line.

Later in the Fresh Princes,

in the seasons,

you can see his line progressively got a little sharper

and sharper.

And so we're gonna go with that sharper line.

[rhythmic music]

This might be the most important part of the haircut.

I usually like to keep the line as natural as possible.

So when I do the front line,

this front line of a hairline,

I usually like to just,

start right in the middle,

just, meh,

put a line right in the middle

and then bring the corners to meet that line.

Usually you get a straight line that way.

So now that I can kind of see

what I'm working with more clearly now,

I just wanna begin to

[clipper buzzing]

fine detail.

[rhythmic music]

So now I'm just gonna shave the excess hair

off his face.

His got a baby beard going here

and then- Yeah, I just hope you know,

it took me 17 years to grow that.

[Art laughing]

So...

[rhythmic music] [clipper buzzing]

I'm gonna use a brush this time.

Little softer on face than a comb.

[clipper buzzing]

You got a good mustache though.

I think I was 27 before I got a mustache.

I feel very lucky.

[art laughing]

[rhythmic music]

What I have here is just a little small bottle of

astringent for the skin.

The name of this formula is called Cool Player.

So it might sting a little bit.

Yeah. That's definitely a sting on there.

You know, you've been to the barbershop

when you get that sting.

So I'm gonna spray some Oribe hair spray on him,

just a little sheen and holding spray basically

to kind of hold this in place.

But it smells good as well, so.

[hairspray hissing]

And just like that, we're done.

You ready for this?

Man, I'm real excited.

Man, I'm excited for you. I'm excited.

All right. Show them what you got.

[drum rolling]

Oh yeah.

Yeah, this is Fresh Prince.

Oh, that fade is so,

man and you got the mustache?

Man, you got it spot on.

[rhythmic music]

Thank you man.

Yeah man. I have to say that.

Yeah. Yeah, this thing is spot on.

The good thing about this though,

is that you don't got to stay the Fresh Prince.

Mm-hmm.

You can take your leave in conditioner.

Yeah.

And put it in there and curl your hair up and you'll be,

basically the new Fresh Prince.

[Julian] New and improved. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah.

[Art laughing]

How you feeling, Jay?

No, I'm feeling good,

I'm feeling good. Ooh!

You looking good too, boy.

You like that inner Fresh Prince.

Let me hear you,

let me hear that inner Fresh Prince come out of you.

[record scratching]

♪ Now this is a story all about ♪

[beat boxing]

♪ My life got flipped turned upside down ♪

♪ And I'd like to take a minute ♪

♪ Just sit right there ♪

♪ I'll tell you I became the prince of town called Bel-Air ♪

[Producer] Yeah!

[people chattering]

Thanks man.

Hey, no problem bud.

Pssh. Pssh.

[upbeat music outro]