Why did you decide to become a barber?
– I have two trainings: first is landscape designer, second is project management manager. When I received my first diploma, I immediately got a job in a private company, where for two years I filled pots with earth for 25 thousand rubles a month. I didn’t see growth for a few more years. I went to retraining, and after graduating from college, they took me nowhere without managerial experience. I decided to spit on everything and learn barbering from a familiar master, one of the best in Moscow. Now I earn at least 100k a month. And that takes into account the fact that I’m a beginner – I’ve only been studying for a year. Before that, I worked the same amount and got my hands on models.
What is the difference between barber and hairdresser?
– Barbers specialize in men’s haircuts, and hairdressers are universal experts. Also, we have different techniques. For example, when a hairdresser cuts hair, she works with the entire brush: the upper four fingers and the lower thumb. The barber works only with the lower part of the brush – this is responsible for the clarity of the cut.
Due to the fact that the technique is different, often universal masters take female haircuts for men.
Therefore, I still recommend contacting highly specialized specialists. Barbers are sharpened to choose a haircut based on face type, head shape and hair growth. And this choice is sharpened especially for men. Here, the errors of the hairstyle and the female form are strictly excluded. But hairdressers are by no means worse, it is important to find a competent specialist, as elsewhere.
– Why are prices higher in barbers than in hairdressing salons, if universal specialists are not worse?
– First, at the client’s barbershop, a highly qualified specialist will definitely cut his hair. Most stores have very high requirements, ranging from appearance to information. Also, I don’t know about hairdressers, but every barber should know the basics of trichology (science of hair and scalp) and also go through a long training. For example, during a probationary period, a barber’s fate is determined by whether the client returns to a specialist. If no one returns, the probation has failed.
Second, barber shops always have very expensive, high-quality equipment. For example, a hair clipper in our salon is 30 thousand, and the average price in the market is 1 thousand.
Third, service plays a big role. Customers in all good lounges receive complimentary beer, whiskey, gin or champagne, desserts and coffee beans from the coffee machine.
– There is an opinion that barber workers do not like when girls come to them as customers. This is true?
– Customers don’t like them.
Girls spoil the “boy atmosphere”. Like the men’s and women’s locker rooms. When a guy goes to the barbershop, he goes for the decor too – they don’t give manicures to anyone nearby, and no one talks about new dresses on the next seat. You drink whiskey and relax, now you can talk about your “man problems” no matter how misogynistic it may seem.
Staff treat girls well, although some customers frown on “women come in”. And of course, we have regulars among girls who need a man-shaped haircut. For example, there is a girl who cuts her hair every month, leaves 1 cm of hair and tattoos hair all over her head in this centimeter. There is a great demand for the women’s crop (long strands in the crown and forehead area, as well as shaved sides and back of the head).
Is it possible to get infected while visiting a barber? After all, they often use dangerous razors, and if you don’t treat the blade, you could cut one customer and injure another and cause an infection.
– All instruments in the shops are sterilized in dry heat. It is first wiped with alcohol, then immersed in dry heat, and then again treated with alcohol in front of the customer. Further, the device is immersed in a special solution once a week. And of course, the tools are not piecemeal, but change after each customer, if there is a flow.
By the way, instead of dangerous razors we have long used shavetka – these are the same razors, only with a replaceable blade. Even if by chance it turns out that he injured the customer, the blade changes immediately.
Also, for the sake of safety, every barber has a separate comb for clients with problematic scalps like dandruff or even psoriasis.
– Scandalous customers often come?
They rarely come across. Not so long ago a man with alopecia (baldness) came, he said, 3 mm, make one and a half from the sides, and then they say “no”. I understand that “no” is bald. As any master will understand. Usually at some point “why don’t you leave your hair down?” says. I explain that he said so himself, and it seems that he wants a little from the bottom, but less than a half. As a result, they called another master, he began to cut his hair, then I began to cut it, but the man could not clearly explain what he wanted. He was shaken by three of his hairs and then freaked out, took the machine himself and cut his own hair. It turned out disgusting. But even though we gave him a big discount, he paid and left. Probably, in the end, he realized that it was not our fault, but that he could not explain.
There was also a case when the client was not scandalous, but small. I cut a capricious six-year-old boy. She cried all the time, tried to tear off her dressing gown, wanted to go home.
I reassured him, they say, be patient, it’s almost time and he started throwing up at my words. The hall was then aired for four hours and clients had to be rescheduled.
The boy, as I understand it, was poisoned by something, and his mother did not even think that it was better to leave the child at home, who was very naughty and did not want to go.
But such difficult situations are rare. Often the problem customers are the ones who like everything after a haircut and then call and complain and say their friends are bad. But like this, everything is easier, we invite them to cut their hair for free.
To be honest, we rarely encounter objections in principle, but if we do, we quickly eliminate them.