The Future of the Barber Shop

It is annoying to see so many barbershops going out of business. I must have noticed five disappear in the last year around Houston. The chain discount hair cutting places are really driving them out. With the popularity of shorter styles you would think that they would be having a resurgence. I think there are tons of guys that would prefer to get haircuts in a barbershop if the shops would clean up their act a little.

The barbers in some of the old shops don't seem to want to spend a dime on the place. I don't need or want fancy décor but it might be nice to put down a new tile floor, maybe some clean capes, a little paint. It is nice for a shop to be quaint but young guys today are use to things being neat and clean. Barbershops need to put a little bit of work into image, maybe an association that could do some PR. Put a affiliation logo on the window that would indicate a standard of quality. Barbershops have a stigma of being out dated and unreliable in quality and consistency. Too many men have memories of getting scalped at a barbershop back when "styled" haircuts where popular.

This is a perfect time for shops to make an effort to come back and reestablish themselves. Otherwise the will be wiped out in the next decade and we will be left with a selection of chain store haircutting factories that are only concerned with the bottom line on the ledger. One of the biggest problems is finding young people who want to become barbers who have a knack for the work. It is just not a high enough paying job to attract very many people these days. Can someone start as a barber today and hope to be able to afford a house and car and maybe put a couple of kids through school?

These comments are very interesting and I'd like to know what you think about this. Here's what I think:

The barber shop is not dead yet, but it faces a serious threat from chain stores.

I have a real problem understanding the success of the chain haircutting stores. Their image is that they offer a consistent, low-risk cut for a reasonable price. Reasonable price? There are barber shops in the Buzztown Barber Shop Listing recommended by readers as excellent shops that charge well under $10 for a haircut. That seems more than a bargain to me - incredible actually, when you think about the skill and time that goes into a precise short cut. Is the cutting better? Again the Buzztown Barber Shop Listing would seem to disprove this. In general, you will find more experience behind the clippers in a barber shop; with short styles and clipper work, there's not much margin for error or sloppiness. (I'm not suggesting widespread incompetence in the chain stores or that you can't get a decent haircut at a chain store. I am, however, challenging the stereotype that they are lower risk, or higher quality than a barber shop.)

So what is the advantage of the chain store? In my opinion, it's just perception. We live in a chain store society. We eat in chain store restaurants, we buy our groceries, our clothes, our everything from chain stores. When we go on vacation we stay in a chain hotel. It only makes sense that we get our hair cut at a chain haircuttery. Or does it make sense? Well, ignoring the question of whether we should rethink our chain store mentality altogether, the chain haircuttery doesn't even fit well into the usual reasoning in favor of chain stores (price and quality).

The 1970s were a bad time for barbers. Before the long-hair revolution, guys kept their hair short, always got it cut at a barber shop and usually had it cut frequently. The 1970s saw the end of that, and it saw many guys leave barbers shops for salon type shops. We now have a generation of young men many of whom have never sat in a real a barber's chair. There is a stereotype out there (among non-barber shop customers) that barber shops scalp rather than style. That is very unfortunate, and if you have visited a good barber shop you will know that is wrong.

How can barber shops fight back? How can barbers encourage guys who haven't been into a barber shop for thirty years to come back? How can they attract younger guys who have never been in a barber shop? What do you think?

Back to "In the Chair..."