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DoomUK

Barber vs Salon

Where do you get your haircut?  

32 members have voted

  1. 1. Where do you get your haircut?

    • I go to a barber
      17
    • I go to a salon
      4
    • I don\'t have hair/I don\'t cut my hair/I shave my head every morning
      11


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Gentlemen of Doomworld, where do you go to get your hair cut?

I've been going to one of those inexpensive barber shops all my life. £7 for a cut, he doesn't wash your hair or anything and it's basically a "cheap and cheerful" experience. The quality of the cut varies though; sometimes he does exactly what I want and it looks good, other times it looks quite bad and I discover clumps of uneven hair that he missed and it takes a couple of weeks to look normal again. I've visited several other barber shops throughout the course of my life and the same inconsistency exists.

It's nearly time for a haircut, and I've been wondering whether it's worth spending more money and going to some posh salon. I think I'd initially feel uncomfortable surrounded by stylish, attractive people, but the main concern here is whether any of it is worth the money and whether a good haircut is guaranteed. Money isn't exactly falling from the sky for me so I really don't want to waste money and feel uncomfortable to boot.

What do?

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For several years, I let my hair grow and basically never got it cut. Pretty simple, but you end up spending more time washing it, etc. It was also slightly more trouble when swimming laps (that's how I prefer to exercise) because I'd have to tie it up before wearing swimming cap. I didn't have any problems at jobs because mostly I just did contract work from home, so didn't even need to tie it up or anything.

Then one day I got tired of it and went to a barber shop to get it cut short. They did a good job and it looked nice. But I ended up paying $15 every few months to keep it trimmed and looking decent. It never ended up exactly the same, but whatever.

Then a couple years before the economy crashed, I was making good money and trying to find ways to save as much of it as possible, and decided to cut all possible expenses. So I bought an el-cheapo pair of clippers from a "dollar store" (they actually costed about $10) and that's what I've been using since then. I cut it myself, very short. Effectively it's a military cut (high & tight, USMC style) but I only cut it when I feel it's getting too long, which is usually every 2-3 months (but a bit less in winter time). At first it felt really weird to cut my own hair, but it gets much easier with a little practice. Just make sure you have a good mirror and plenty of light if you're going to try this. :-)

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Salon for sure. Barbers are usually "no-frills" who don't understand the delicicies of hair. I'm biased because my hair is REALLY long, so it's like what doomUK said, in reverse. If I step foot in a barber shop, it becomes incredibly awkward, mostly for everyone else in there, so I haven't gone in YEARS, and no barber I've ever encountered understands what I want. Salon is no problem though, and ladies generally cut/style/etc. hair far better anyhow. Either that or all of the Barber shops here are in the ghetto and that could explain it a bit. ^__^

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I do not shave my head but I have cut my own hair for the last 10 years or so.

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I'm a man so I go to the barber and I don't cut my hair by myself (of course I shave my beardmustache but don't cut my main hair). I prefer the person to be a woman and I avoid other places than where I go usually. Prices are worth €2.2-3.3 so I'm also expected to give a tip.

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It's hard to find a barber in Melbourne any more, so unfortunately a salon is the only option for me. The barbers are not allowed to shave you with a cut-throat razor, probably due to the world going mad with safety. I always use a barber in Brazil because they don't have such hangups, thank god! Nothing better than a cut-throat shave... one barber over there plays guitar so when we're done we full on jam in the barber shop!

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When I was young and inexperienced I used to go to a salon, but as I got oldered I stopped. For years I only went to turkish barber shops (when in my hometown in Greece), then to traditional Italian or Greek barber shops (when I moved out), and finally, now that having a haircut has become an oxymoron for me, I just shave or trim them by myself.

While I look good freshly shaved or with really short hair (ranging from "macho skinhead" to "machoslav chav" look), if left to grow more than 1-2 weeks I degenerate into the "poor uncle" look, aka short hair but visibly thicker at the sides and less dense/balding at the top. I probably gotta acquire some discipline and shave them every week or more often :-/

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I find getting my haircut to be a real bore and I want the experience to be over as soon as possible which is why I go to a barber and just get a shave whilst answering their questions with one word answers until they get the message.

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As a kid I often went to the sort of cheap salons that will still cut a guy's hair for $8. They'll do more stuff if you want, but wanting more stuff isn't for me. Anyway, they suck. My hair is too hard for them to get right, so it's easier to get mom to do it. The bonus there is I can have beer and chat about whatever we were going to chat about anyway.

My brother's wife is hairdresser. She's stupidly good at what she does, but we've never bothered to have her cut my hair despite talking about it sometimes.

My other brother has taken to shaving his own head on a regular basis. He seems to hate having any more than the hint that he can grow hair.

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Aliotroph? said:

My hair is too hard for them to get right

This is part of the problem with me. I look at other guys walking out of there with good haircuts, so it's not like they're bad barbers as such. But my hair is difficult to cut and it's like people are sometimes too lazy to cut it in any kind of stylish way. I'm wondering whether I'm going to get a lazy barber no matter how much I pay.

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i was a swimmer, so my haircut decisions used to be just picking a head for the hair clipper from a 3 to 12 mm range. now i haven't touched it for... uh, 9 years or so. it's a living evil organism that has to be tied in a braid so it doesn't invade several neighbouring countries at once. i'm not sure why i still keep it, i should sell it to a circus.

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Answering the OP, unless you give two shits about looking stylish and whatnot, don't bother going to a salon, while even a barber might be somewhat of a frill, depending on what you actually have to cut.

If you look your best with a buzzcut or a shaved head (not unlikely, if you have even a hint of balding), then why pay a barber, let alone a salon to do it? It's the simplest "haircut" one can do himself (usually, after screwing up something else).

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Yeah, you could even give yourself a Mr. T hairdo and if that doesn't work out, then just shave it all off. :-)

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The salons I've gone to have been no better than a regular barber in terms of results. They charge me more, that seems to be the only real difference. My last haircut I got at a salon was horrible and I ended up just giving myself a buzz cut when it started growing back in a few weeks later, revealing just how uneven it was.

For what it's worth, the salons definitely do a better job with long hair than a barber will, but once I went back to short hair there was really no difference between the two. I think most barbers "get" what I do with my hair (absolutely nothing) better than salons.

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Oh hey, I was expecting a thread about some (probably media-related) dispute between a person named Mr. or Ms. Barber and Salon.com!

I actually trim the tips of my hair myself, mainly to get rid of broken hairs, so I can't help you with your dilemma. I started doing so when I lived in the country years ago (up to just before DOOM came out or so) and going to town to get a haircut seemed like a hassle and an expense in times of economic need.

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Barber for me. Every few months I get a buzz cut, can't really go wrong with that. (I really don't give a crap what my hair looks like, as long as it doesn't annoy me/get too hot)

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Self-shaved head here, have been for several years. Long hair in combination with hair loss does not look good, and it's now cleaner, cheaper to maintain and better looking than before.

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I like cutting my hair. Why would I want to pay someone else to do it. It's the opposite, if someone wanted to cut my hair, he/she should pay me.

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I started going to a barber several years ago because I was sick of having to nearly $20 for a simple haircut. Will probably never go back to a hair salon. I can actually tip the barber now and not go bankrupt.

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EarthQuake said:

I started going to a barber several years ago because I was sick of having to nearly $20 for a simple haircut. Will probably never go back to a hair salon. I can actually tip the barber now and not go bankrupt.


Is tipping the Barber a big thing in America? I'd never heard of that before and I've never met someone who does that here in the UK

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Jodwin said:

What's wrong with long hair? Cutting it is for pussies.


This nigga's got it right. My hair is down to my lower spine and i love it.

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Jodwin said:

What's wrong with long hair? Cutting it is for pussies.

Too much maintenance. Short hair's like being bald with all the benefits of having hair.

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