Getting fed up with barbershops.

I guess I'm hung up on the appointment thing because the first time I took the boys there, I called ahead and asked if I need to make an appointment. He said it would be better if I did. Which to me, leaves the door open to walk-ins. If he said, yes you need to, I would not assume I can walk in. And the place was empty! One person in the chair who was almost finished, and the next patron nowhere in sight.

I did notice the first time, that the cut seemed to take [slightly] longer than I think it should of. SO maybe that's just his sytle, to not rush the cuts.

I've been going to the same barber since I was a 5 year old boy (30 years). I've never sat waiting for more than 5 minutes and I've never sat in the chair getting a cut for longer than 10 minutes. The moral of the story? There are some really great barbers out there.

So how would you go about finding one? I'm in need and there are Barber shops all over, but how do you find the good and avoid the bad. I used to go to salons but I've had it with them, if I'm going to take the time to shave right I want to get the barber right too.

tclobaugh said:

So how would you go about finding one? I'm in need and there are Barber shops all over, but how do you find the good and avoid the bad. I used to go to salons but I've had it with them, if I'm going to take the time to shave right I want to get the barber right too.

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Yelp is a great resource and as always, Google is your friend.

KJ, I feel your pain. I live about one hundred miles from Knob Noster on the Kansas side. Our barber shop situation is going downhill here really fast. Oh, who am I kidding? It has already skidded to the bottom of the hill. We have one old school barbershop left and he long ago left shaving behind, carries no trad productst, etc. They do know how to cut hair but I wonder how long it will last? It is a father/son shop(s) and they actually reside in two adjacent shop fronts. Two separate businesses. The dad retired a few years ago at a really good age. I think he held on longer than he wanted to due to demand. I don't know what happened to his side of the business. And the son is in his mid fifties. Who knows how long he will hold out? Other than that all the others are long dead or retired to Sun City, Az.!

We have the various Supercuts, Pro Cuts, Great Clips and the like but most of these are manned by girls who hold cosmetology licenses. In Kansas there is a HUGE difference between cosmetologists and barbers. The licensing is much more intense for barbers. I go to Great Clips and I am fortunate in that the lady who cuts my hair is a licensed BARBER and is quite proud of her being one of the few girls who graduated from her school years ago. Everyone else who works there is a cosmetologist. I don't know if would help but maybe you could email or call the chain shops around your area and see if they have a licensed barber on staff. It may be worth the effort. Then again you may wind up with worse than you experienced before. It's a real crap shoot. And for the record I can assure you I have had hair cuts by a number of CRAP barbers over the years. Guys who most certainly would have been taught the right way but were just mailing it in.

Ever since Armando, my Italian Barber of many years got a case of the shakes, I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find another prince. My new barber is a female that cuts hair in a traditional barbershop. She does a great job.

IMHO, you should go back to giving your sons their haircuts. If they don't like it ... tough.

When they get old enough, they can choose whoever they want to cut their hair. Let them pay for it out of their own pockets if they get an allowance, or they can mow lawns, shovel snow, deliver newspapers or whatever it is kids do nowadays to earn money.

You can supplement the cost of their outside haircuts up to whatever it costs at the BX barbershop (around here I think its $9.80 + Tip.)

This should work until they turn 18. After that, they're on their own.

Good barbers are hit or mess. A fine man named Elon Rhodes cut my hair from the time I was 3 until I left home at the age of 22. He was a barber's barber, no finer soul have I known. Haircuts and shaves were by appointment. In the decades since only 2 other folks gave decent cuts. My wife now cuts my hair and has for many years.

I tried looking on yelp for my area. The top rated barber for my area on yelp is the one I go to when I don't cut my hair myself.

August West said:

Ever since Armando, my Italian Barber of many years got a case of the shakes, I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find another prince. My new barber is a female that cuts hair in a traditional barbershop. She does a great job.

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Replace Armando with Charlie, Italian with greek, and shakes with heart attack, and i'm in the same boat.

Found a place within WALKING distance from my house last weekend. It looks like the dive bar of barber shops.
Girl who cut my hair had multi-colored dreadlocks.
I was expecting the worst.
Walked out with the best haircut of my life.

I have 2 sons as well, ages 5 and 10, and was happy to have recently found a barber that we all like. He is about 60, looks 45 and has been a barber since he was 15 and really knows his trade. However, it seems that lots of other guys have figured out he is a great barber as well, and he stays pretty well booked. So, I need to call to make an appointment with him. I'm like you, KJ, I don't want to have to call to make an appointment either, but that's just how it is with this guy if I want to get in the chair. Sometimes I feel a little weird when a guy who was there before me has to sit because I just showed up with my appointment, but hey, when the other barber asks "Do you want to be next?", he has that option.

I go to a Mother & Daughter Barber shop that old school , The Mom cut her teeth at the Air Base Shop in Fort Worth. She cuts a flat top as fast as anybody I been too and it is always table top FLAT! Good Barbers are hard to find. GOOD HUNTING! I been with the Dillars now for over 10 years.

http://www.dallas.com/dillers-barber-shop-b29189182

I had a hard time finding a good barber too. I have avoided stylists ever since I was in high school. Every time a woman has cut my hair, they messed up really bad. I remember one time when I had long hair, I just asked for a trim, and the lady faded one side too short and uneven, so she had to cut it down really short to fix it. I was p.o'd about that and almost walked out without paying.

Since I've been in the military, I've had my hair cut usually to a number 1 on the sides and the top varies. I pay for fades because I know they're not as simple as shaving my own head. If my hair is anywhere between a number 2 or 3 on top, I ask the barber to line me up all the way around. If I have longer hair, I just have them line up the edges of the sides lined up.

Another time, I was going to get my haircut by some lady who didn't know what lining up meant or what a fade was. I got up out of the chair and walked out and didn't say a word. In my experience, women don't know how to cut short hair. But maybe I have been unlucky EVERY SINGLE TIME I visited a salon for a haircut.

Now I go to a Hispanic barbershop here in North Tampa called Who's Next?. My cut costs $15 and I usually give a $2 tip if the cut is good. These guys really know how to cut hair, do fades, and they are awesome at lining up.

MegaBullfrog09 said:

I pay for fades because I know they're not as simple as shaving my own head.

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It really is easy though.

We have Joe. He is a good barber but he is not doing too well. He got in a car accident 2 years ago and is only there on Saturdays. His friend is their on weekdays.

I had a barber shop here when I moved west 6 years ago.

Haircuts were 18.00. I basically have my head shaved anyway, so after it closed, I just bought clippers. I miss hanging out in a real barber shop.

i wouldn't even consider super cut...how in the heck can you mess up a clipper cut? Yet they did twice.

Barbershop culture has changed so much. From a place to hear the latest news, funny story, "who is the last one?" to waiting rooms and appointments. The human side of it is disappearing too, too many feel like you are in a stockade and next to be branded.

Maybe the late '60s - '70s caused it. Smart barbers learned to do longer styles, others wouldn't and drove guys to women who were more than willing to have new customers. That resulted in the unisex shops. But that suffered later too as it become more about the money than quality. Plus if you look at how few shops are in malls now you know that mall rents have forced many out. The amount of people cutting their hair at home is probably at an all time high. It used to be only the kids who got the home haircuts but now more adults are doing it too.

Sanity Removed said:

Barbershop culture has changed so much. From a place to hear the latest news, funny story, "who is the last one?" to waiting rooms and appointments. The human side of it is disappearing too, too many feel like you are in a stockade and next to be branded.

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I've noticed this, too. When I'm sitting and waiting for my turn in the chair, I don't talk to anyone. In fact, nobody talks to anyone else, except if they are a family group.

Even the conversation with the barber has gotten to a minimum. The last barber I went to, she didn't say much, but at least she asked me where I worked. That was about it.

Back in the '80s, I went to an old-school shop where the barber really knew what he was doing. He wasn't that old, maybe about 40 at the time, but he came from several generations of haircutters. He let you put whatever you wanted on the TV or the radio. He kept an assortment of magazines in the rack. PopSci, NatGeo, Local newspapers (though usually out-of-date by a week or so,) Hard and Soft Porn. And his shop was the social-media center of the neighborhood. If you needed to catch up on gossip, talk sports, compare girlfriends, get advice on how to fix your car, this was the place. Likewise, if you wanted to place some bets or score some illicit recreational materials, you'd be hooked up here in a flash.

This guy was a great barber, but a lousy businessman. His shop closed after a few years because he couldn't pay his rent (among other things.) I followed him from shop to shop to shop when he rented a chair at other establishments, but eventually, he'd get fired from those places too, because he'd show up drunk or not show up at all, he'd take "advances" from the drawer, and other non-professional behavior. Eventually, word got around and nobody would hire him, but everybody agreed, he really knew how to cut hair. When he got banned from all the shops in town, I would go out to his house and he'd cut my hair in the basement. We'd get some drinks, order in a pizza, watch some TV. It was a fun night, and I always came home with a great haircut.

dpm802 said:

When he got banned from all the shops in town, I would go out to his house and he'd cut my hair in the basement. We'd get some drinks, order in a pizza, watch some TV. It was a fun night, and I always came home with a great haircut.

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Is it just me, or does that sound really creepy?!

TheVez2 said:

Is it just me, or does that sound really creepy?!

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Not one bit. Sounds like buds hanging out to me.