The Opinion of a Young Barber

A young barber, just starting out in his profession, has written this excellent article giving his opinions on the future of the barber shop, and responding to the comments from the graduate student in the December 8th article.

I read with interest the essay from the graduate student regarding the future of the barbershop. I happen to be a young barber working in a military town. Once I get some experience behind me I plan on relocating to Dallas and opening an old style barbershop that offers the traditional services.

Anyway, I would like to comment on some points the student made. I haven't quite decided yet whether this is an issue of barbershops or an attack on so called conservatives. The writer stated he was a fairly liberal student then went into old men with conservative views. The other barber I work with is in his sixties and when a young person comes in with long hair, we do not think we are making a man out of anybody. We just think they look better with shorter hair. The funny part is they always come back and have decided to keep their hair shorter. I guess I should state that I am a conservative, prior military, work in a military town, college educated, listen to country music and talk radio and enjoy sports; awful lot of strikes against me!! I have looked at Spin magazine and will take Field and Stream or Sports Illustrated any day.

Back to the barbershop issues. Granted, barbers are not the most marketing savvy people in the world. Going to barber school with other younger people I can say that that will change in the future. We all understand today's economy. I disagree that we have a limited appeal. In the small local shop that I work in, I have picked up a few customers from supercutteries. Mostly, they were frustrated with getting bad haircuts (they all wear short hair). Also, we do a fair share of longer haired customers. Barbers are pretty versatile; we can cut pretty much everything. The barber school I attended taught longer hair styles and razor cutting. Anyone that thinks barbers can't cut longer hair is practicing their own closed minded philosphy. As far as the supercutteries go, I had a friend that went through one of their training programs. All he was taught was women's haircutting and how to get customers in and out in twenty minutes or less. He has since quit that place.

Are barbers preservers of cultural values that now have only limited appeal? I think not. If anything we are perservers of a cultural institution. To imply that all barbers are narrowminded in their views is discrimination in itself. I am not denying though that some can be set in their ways.

Let's move on to the "hip" issue. Personally, I am more concerned with how well a person can cut hair as opposed to how cool he or she is. Granted, we are a society of perceptions and the cooler something looks the better it must be. This works if the quality is there, but I can't imagine people going back for a bad haircut because they like the music. I do agree though that barbershops need to update their shops to attract those customers that are wary of barbershops. I would like someone to tell me what is threatening about a barbershop.

Finally, the future of the barbershop. In my view, the goal of any barbershop is to give a good haircut to anybody that walks in so they will be a repeat customer. Short hair is in and more men are willing to try barbershops. They get a good haircut for the price. And while we are an affluent society, we still want good value for our money. Give us young barbers a chance; we are learning how to market ourselves and want our shops to be successful businesses. There are opportunites in the barber field for the simple fact that there are not a lot of young people learning this trade but the demand for a barbershop haircut remains. I plan on capitalizing on the shortage of barbers and creating one successful shop.

Chris

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