"Low Taper Fade" Art Trend

About

The "Low Taper Fade" Art Trend, also known as the "Imagine If X Got a Low Taper Fade" Art Trend, refers to a series of redraws on Twitter / X showing different characters giving and receiving low taper fade haircuts, referencing the Imagine If Ninja Got a Low Taper Fade meme. Characters from video games, anime and cartoons, among other subcultures, were shown in the barber shop setting. The trend started in February 2024.

Origin

On August 17th, 2021, X^[1] user @HayaSe44mi posted a tweet (since-deleted) that attached an original artwork that showed Jujutsu Kaisen character Choso giving fellow JJK character Aoi Todo a hair cut resembling a low taper fade (shown below). The tweet gained an unknown amount of likes. The same artwork was posted to the artist's Pixiv^[2] account in July 2022.

Years later, on February 7th, 2024, X^[3] user @GearlessScarab posted the photo, captioned, "Can someone redraw this but with Andy and Victor," as in the two personalities of the same character in the manga series Undead Unluck. The tweet received over 640 likes in five days (shown below, left).

Then, later on February 7th, 2024, X^[4] user @kurrrto quoted the tweet with the suggested redraw, writing, "i tried." Over five days, the post received roughly 4,500 likes, inspiring the "Low Taper Fade" art trend (shown below, right).

The redraw became further associated with the term "low taper fade" when X^[5] user @AleksLeVO tweeted, "imagine if junpei got a low taper fade," on February 8th, 2024, gaining over 12,000 likes in four days. X^[6] user @Solid_Skullz replied to the tweet by attaching the Choso and Todo art, writing, "This image but with junpei and the protagonist," gaining over 1,000 likes in four days (shown below, left).

Then, on February 9th, 2024, X^[7] user @Zetoraxe quoted @AleksLeVO's tweet with a redraw of Persona character Makoto Yuki (Protagonist) giving fellow Persona character Junpei Iori a low taper fade, receiving over 50,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Spread

The redraws were reposted to Instagram^[8] soon after.

Going into February 2024, more artists on X added to the trend, using the phrasal template, "Imagine if X got a low taper fade." For instance, on February 10th, 2024, X^[9] user @Rit_CHILL posted a redraw of Sonic giving Shadow a low taper fade with the so-called "Chaos clippers," earning over 142,000 likes in two days (shown below, left).

On Febuary 11th, 2024, X^[10] user @dieujuu posted an Adventure Time iteration, captioned, "Imagine if Finn got a LOW TAPER FADE🗣️‼️" receiving over 67,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

The trend spread across multiple fandoms by mid-February 2024. Also, non-viral reposts and original artwork was uploaded to Tumblr^[11][12] during the same timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References