Massive career change - becoming a barber

[EmailAddress]

TownIdiot said:

EmailAddress said:

12 quid... when did you last get your hair cut... 1995 Huddersfield.

Macclesfield last month!

Will pay a lot more in town every so often but that's about the going rate here.

And he's in west Wales.

At 15 quid a cut will you earn enough cash to get where you need to be?
If so why not go for it?

Value

[595Heaven]

Agree it could be a pretty stress free job, and if you don't need to earn much that might be enough.

I followed my favourite barber from a traditional 'walk in' place that has been run by the same family for decades when he left. His new chair was rented in another barber that does appointments and I think this is a key consideration. I now get a repeat appointment every three weeks and can turn up 2 minutes before my slot. Even better now that he's moved again as I can park literally right outside.

Builidng a client base of repeat appointments means you have a much better idea of your income, and also allows you to plan your own life better with regular days off or just blocking out a few appointments to do life stuff without thinking you're missing out.

Mine charges £17 but always gets £20. He had to up this from £15 in the first place he moved to, as he couldn't really make much of a living after the chair rent was paid. He also works part time in a barbers in a small Cotswold town as a change of scene. Seems totally unstressed and happy with his life.

You also need an incredibly good memory to know what 'the usual please' is!

Good luck!

[loskie]

EmailAddress said:

TownIdiot said:

What's the going rate for cut in west wales?

Work out how many you need to do to hit your future income target and see if it's realistic.

I'd imagine it's an awful lot of 12 quids to to get to where you need to be.

12 quid... when did you last get your hair cut... 1995 Huddersfield.

I pay £11 in Dumfries at a long, well established competent barber. Two people cutting hair (owner and Employee") both have been at it for years and always seem to be busy.

Dumfries however. I'm not sure how representative that is but suspect similar economy to west Wales.
4 haircuts an hour maybe 5 plus say £1 tip per cut. Is it that bad?

[PRO5T]

Petrus1983 said:

Hey PRO5T - this is a bit different from our usually F1 talk!

The girl I'm seeing has a very successful hair dressing company - she's going to ensure I'm more than just the '9 week' product.

It's funny you say about money laundering - I was literally just saying to my friends in the local I don't know how much my Turkish barber actually makes from barbering. His phone seems to ring a lot - but he only speaks in Turkish so who knows. Good hair cut though!

The "Turkish" (a lot look Turkish and claim to be but many aren't) are drugs money-laundering, the Chinese nail salons are Prostitution money laundering (hence why you see quite a few asian kids running about in them-they pull the brass out the knocking shops when they get pregnant and get a few years in the nail salons until the kids are old enough to be trafficked into some other game).

Quite a few CID officers were clients of one of my shops and used to give me the low down on who was who.

One other thing to note-hair like any traditional fashion is very cyclical. The "Peaky Blinders" skin fade has been in for years now and is dangerously close to being out of fashion.

Once this fad runs out (and believe me, it will in less than five years) the barbering game will be decimated. The proliferation of men getting a weekly haircut to support that style has fuelled the explosion of barber shops and when it dies a lot of them will too.

[Alickadoo]

Advice.

As a customer, if you find a good barber who really gives a good cut, get his/her mobile number from him, because if one day he/she moves on, the shop won't tell you where he/she has gone to.

[Petrus1983]

595Heaven said:

You also need an incredibly good memory to know what 'the usual please' is!

Good luck!

In my old role I'd make notes "about to go on a cruise", "looking to buy a place in Bali", "expecting first grandchild" etc etc

[loskie]

I did that when I was in sales. Kids names and ages. Wedding dates, Dog's name etc etc.

[fourstardan]

I have 4 barber shops in a square mile section of my town.

One is a "Turkish" with a (Money) washing machine I can hear them running in the back room constantly the other one is a fancy chain, they close at 4pm Saturday and I went in at 330 with one of them sat on his arse and didn't even know the time but decided he didn't want me on the seat before he finished.

Say 10 haircuts a day at 15 quid eventually comes out if you work 5 days a week all year at 36k...surely better money elsewhere?

[SydneyBridge]

Is there demand for a wet shave etc?

[h0b0]

Petrus1983 said:

h0b0 said:

Petrus1983 said:

Absolutely. Genuinely have no complaints about my precious career - it afforded me more than I'd have thought possible, but always felt like Dairylea slices vs an authentic Brie. I've never been overly money focused.

Were you not the poster who said if your earned less than £100k you were not living life and you should sacrifice everything for the dime? If it was you, I am curious about your journey and how you became enlightened. Others may benefit from your experience.

I don't think that was me buddy.

OK, worth checking.

[PRO5T]

fourstardan said:

Say 10 haircuts a day at 15 quid eventually comes out if you work 5 days a week all year at 36k...surely better money elsewhere?

You'd be doing nearly ten womens haircuts a day at vastly more than £15 per head, a decent barber would be doing ten haircuts in less than two hours at a typical buzz cut place.

[dave_s13]

PRO5T said:

The "Turkish" (a lot look Turkish and claim to be but many aren't) are drugs money-laundering, the Chinese nail salons are Prostitution money laundering (hence why you see quite a few asian kids running about in them-they pull the brass out the knocking shops when they get pregnant and get a few years in the nail salons until the kids are old enough to be trafficked into some other game).

Quite a few CID officers were clients of one of my shops and used to give me the low down on who was who.

One other thing to note-hair like any traditional fashion is very cyclical. The "Peaky Blinders" skin fade has been in for years now and is dangerously close to being out of fashion.

Once this fad runs out (and believe me, it will in less than five years) the barbering game will be decimated. The proliferation of men getting a weekly haircut to support that style has fuelled the explosion of barber shops and when it dies a lot of them will too.

Interesting take on what sounds like a valid reason for there being 3 multi-chair Turkish barbers within a 100m radius of where I go for my usual grade 1 back n sides (£11).

Do you really think they are supported by the current trend for a high fade and a tidy beard? Both of which look scruffy very quickly.

I'm more inclined to believe they are fronts for drug dealers, prossies and people traffickers though....much more exciting.

[PRO5T]

Petrus1983 said:

The girl I'm seeing has a very successful hair dressing company - she's going to ensure I'm more than just the '9 week' product.

I'm surprised she's not begging you to become a proper hairdresser then, a male stylist is a license to print money. Barbering always will be limited by how many bums you can get on seats. You might end up known as the best lad in town but you really can't charge that much more then Samir down the money launderers.

Whereas a proper hairdresser (which admittedly will take more like a couple of years to learn), the sky's the limit.

A hairdresser can work alone for whatever they want. A barber can too but the earning potential is massively smaller. That's why any good ones get their own place and rent out chairs not only to make ends meet but also to handle demand at peak times.

Then you've got the hassle of training them up, deal with the inevitable fk ups as they learn on the job, proving to the VAT man you don't really employ them and are all separate entities (yeah right) and then watch them become successful and fking off with half you clientele base once they fancy giving it a go themselves.

If you don't mind me asking Petrus-how old are you?

[dudleybloke]

Turkish barbers round here charge about £9 for a standard cut.
Most seen quite busy.

[Wacky Racer]

EmailAddress said:

12 quid... when did you last get your hair cut... 1995 Huddersfield.

Never paid more than £10 for a haircut in my life.

(North Manchester/Bury/Bolton/Rochdale)

£8 in Burnley.

[Wacky Racer]

"Anything for the weekend sir?"

[PRO5T]

dave_s13 said:

PRO5T said:

The "Turkish" (a lot look Turkish and claim to be but many aren't) are drugs money-laundering, the Chinese nail salons are Prostitution money laundering (hence why you see quite a few asian kids running about in them-they pull the brass out the knocking shops when they get pregnant and get a few years in the nail salons until the kids are old enough to be trafficked into some other game).

Quite a few CID officers were clients of one of my shops and used to give me the low down on who was who.

One other thing to note-hair like any traditional fashion is very cyclical. The "Peaky Blinders" skin fade has been in for years now and is dangerously close to being out of fashion.

Once this fad runs out (and believe me, it will in less than five years) the barbering game will be decimated. The proliferation of men getting a weekly haircut to support that style has fuelled the explosion of barber shops and when it dies a lot of them will too.

Interesting take on what sounds like a valid reason for there being 3 multi-chair Turkish barbers within a 100m radius of where I go for my usual grade 1 back n sides (£11).

Do you really think they are supported by the current trend for a high fade and a tidy beard? Both of which look scruffy very quickly.

I'm more inclined to believe they are fronts for drug dealers, prossies and people traffickers though....much more exciting.

Sorry, I probably should have put the above in two separate posts to make it clear. The current trend for fades has nothing to do with the money laundering side of the business-they are there to launder money pure and simple.

---

However, the current fade trend does lend itself to immigrant barbers as they have grown up cutting and wearing hair that way. The reason white caucasian need it re-doing each week is that our hair doesn't lend itself to growing it out well. Same as hair braids on white people-they go baggy as our hair doesn't curl into them as it grows.

(if your "barber" was an actual fully trained stylist they would be able to cut white caucasian hair scissor over comb and the fade would last three weeks at least)

To be clear, the money launderers will remain no matter what happens with hairstyles as they are there to simply wash money. It all looks a bit more legit if they are busy but it's not necessary.

What will happen when the fade cut is put in the fashion bin is all these modern new barbers who aren't laundering money will be out of work as men go back to getting a haircut every three to four weeks instead of their business model of every week or two maximum.

If you have your finger on any sort of pulse you'll see the change happening already. The fashionable kids are now dressing as we did in the mid to late 1990s. Combat pants, Puffa jackets and even the boot cut jean is making a comeback

If I had to make a guess, it'll be floppy hair and curtains that'll be the next hot haircut for men. Incidentally both styles that require a decent knowledge of cutting technique to achieve good results and not just firing some clippers over a comb.

[p4cks]

South Shields £10 here, paid that for years. It’s a Turkish place, run by an Iranian fella. Fair play to him he works 7 days a week and works late every night. He’s a one man band so laundering money is unlikely I reckon

[EmailAddress]

p4cks said:

South Shields £10 here, paid that for years. It’s a Turkish place, run by an Iranian fella. Fair play to him he works 7 days a week and works late every night. He’s a one man band so laundering money is unlikely I reckon

I'm sure his tax returns are fully considered though...

[loskie]

p4cks said:

South Shields £10 here, paid that for years. It’s a Turkish place, run by an Iranian fella. Fair play to him he works 7 days a week and works late every night. He’s a one man band so laundering money is unlikely I reckon

Isn't that an Iranian place?