In 2022, I was fully expecting to move out of state in 2023, so I went to my barber for what I thought would be the last time, and left him a rather large tip to thank him for being a great barber for the past 8 years. One month passed, and it became clear that things likely weren’t going to happen the way I planned, so I was faced with a conundrum: do I swallow my pride and go back? Or do I just find a way to avoid going back to that barber shop?
I chickened out, and went to another barber. But in my defense, the old barber shop was a 25-30 minute drive away, and especially since the guy cut back his own hours, it was always a gamble whether people were lined out the door or not. You never knew, but there were many times when I would turn up, find five or six guys waiting, and just turn around and go back home. Ugh.
For a time, I tried a few barbers that were close to me, but they were much more expensive, and not as good. Whereas my guy charged $20, another shop nearby charged about $35, with the option to leave a tip, and I could rarely stomach not leaving a tip. One day I went there in the early afternoon and the two people on staff mentioned I was the first person to turn up that day. Oof. $35 may seem like a lot for a haircut, but it’s not so much when you are the barber and your shop is empty half the day.
But they were never all that good. After getting tired of paying $35 for a mediocre haircut, I decided to try to improve my limited hair-cutting skills that had briefly been revived during the pandemic. I’m not working after all, so it’s a great time to learn. It’s been a road with iffy progress ever since, but I have gotten much better, and just the other day learned a technique to give the front of my hair better texture, since it is otherwise so prone to that awful bowl-cut look. I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s at least a big improvement.
But all of this has left me wondering…am I depriving somebody of a living cutting hair by doing it myself? Honest to goodness, I kind of feel bad about this. My dude was the best, and he only charged $20, so it seems pretty lame to do it myself when it only saves me a token sum of money each year, and I still can’t do it all too well. I didn’t really like the other barbers, but at least they were quick and I didn’t get hair all over the bathroom, right?
I have mixed feelings, but I think it boils down to a convenience issue for me. If my old barber was a 10 minute drive away and there was a 90% chance I might only have to wait for 1 or 2 people before my turn, I think I’d still be going there. Heck, he could raise his price to $30 and it would still be worth it. But whereas I lived or traveled by there all the time in the past, this is no longer true, and the reduced hours caused a ton of congestion. This ultimately convinced me it was better to part on those favorable terms, because I really was thankful, for all those years, to have a barber who knew how to cut my hair just the way I liked without a ton of annoying questions. “Shorten ya up?” was the only question he had.
As for the others, well, I suppose it isn’t fair to expect them to know exactly how I want my hair if I can’t describe it to them, but sometimes the lines were just off, some sections badly done. Those barbers were not so bad they don’t deserve to be cutting hair, or anything like that, but it just left me unsatisfied, especially after paying so much. The very first time I went to that other place (years ago), one guy cut my hair and did it almost perfectly, and I was pretty happy, but by the time I made it back, he was long gone, probably left for better opportunities.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time researching new clippers, since I realized I could probably do a much better job with a different pair that have an adjustment bar and a wider array of guide combs, and I found myself getting pretty excited about the opportunities. Granted, the clippers only affect the lower part of my head, and I still need to learn some better techniques for the top of my head, but I keep wondering what it might be like if I could cut my hair quickly and effectively. I also like the idea of adding a bit of a fade in the lower portion, and you can do that much more easily with better clippers.
Because, here’s the deal: my old barber is not hurting for business. He had quite a loyal following, hence the people practically lined out the door when he scaled back his hours, so one person dropping off is not going to force his business into closure. As for the other place, well, they need to do a better job of attracting good talent and keeping it, although I understand that is difficult. Ultimately, one customer can’t pay even a single employee’s salary – that isn’t feasible, and moreover, it isn’t anyone’s “responsibility”. Which is not to say you can’t be a part of that, but I honestly wasn’t getting good value from those shops. They were more of a last-ditch effort to get a haircut when I was too lazy to do it myself, or wanted to see if maybe things had improved.
Not too long ago, I went to a tourist town in the mountains, to a shop I’ve been to before. It was the day before a big snow storm, and when I went into this shop, I was the only other person in there, so the owner struck up a conversation. When I said I was from Denver, she said something that really caught me off guard: “What has gotten so expensive for you all that nobody comes up here anymore?” (my bad paraphrase). I was like, “Uh…what?” I was honestly confused, but what she meant was that hardly anybody from Denver went out there anymore to buy stuff. I went to buy two small bags of spice and when she rang me up, she jokingly said the total was $10,000, to which I laughed nervously before she gave me the real price of $12. Like…I’m sorry, lady, but if you want business from people who live in Denver, you should try owning a business in Denver. It’s nobody’s responsibility to drive way out here to buy your spices. Maybe tourism is down. Sorry. I’m honestly sympathetic, but it’s kind of annoying, too. I know my $12 doesn’t even pay the rent and utilities for the day, but I don’t exactly use a lot of spice when I cook, and I mostly bought them for the novelty, so, maybe be thankful anybody turned up at all? I mean, seriously, what am I supposed to do, drop $100 on spices I’m never going to use? No!
Economics is complicated, and sometimes unforgiving, and I want to tread lightly on this subject, but jeez, your salary is not my responsibility. I hope well for people – I really do – but I only buy the things I get value from. What’s great is that people have different interests, which funds different businesses.
The day will come when I move, and for all I know, I may find a barber nearby who I really like, and if the price is fair, I will probably give up the hassle of cutting my own hair. In the meantime, I’m kind of excited at the prospect of learning how to do it quickly and well, or to try a few variations of how I like my hair and see if maybe I prefer something a little different. And I guess if I buy a really nice set of clippers, that’s money to the company where those clippers were made.
I believe in supporting small businesses you get value from, and I believe in paying for quality. Beyond that, I don’t really know what to say.