Beyond The Buzz: How and Where to Get YOUR Best Haircut

Episode Summary:
Join Charles and Dan on the "Mindfully Masculine" podcast as they dive into the essential considerations for choosing the right place to get your haircut. Whether you opt for a quick clip at the local barber or a luxurious styling session at a salon, this episode covers everything from the nuances of barber versus stylist services to the cultural shifts in men's grooming. Listen as they share personal experiences and offer practical advice to help you decide where and how to get the best haircut that suits your style and needs.

Key Discussion Points:
1. Understanding Barber vs. Stylist Services: Explore the distinct differences between barbers and stylists, including the types of services each offers, and what you can expect during your visit.
2. Choosing the Right Venue for Your Haircut: Whether it’s a traditional barber or a modern stylist, learn how to select the right setting based on your hair type, desired style, and grooming preferences.
3. Cultural Perceptions and Marketing in Men's Grooming: Delve into how businesses like Sport Clips have successfully tailored their services to appeal to men, blending grooming with sports to create a comfortable atmosphere.
4. Cost Considerations and Grooming Budgets: Discuss the economics of grooming, including how often to get a haircut to maintain your look without breaking the bank.
5. Personal Grooming Stories and Experiences: Charles and Dan share their personal haircut journeys, providing insights into their preferred grooming spots and what they look for in a great barber or stylist.

Featured Segment:
The episode features a segment where Charles discusses the importance of communication with your barber or stylist, advocating the use of images to ensure your haircut matches your vision. This practical tip can help listeners avoid common misunderstandings and achieve their desired outcomes.

Transcript

Charles: 0:00

Hey there, this is Charles, and welcome back to the Mindfully Masculine podcast. In this episode, dan and I will continue discussing self-care for men by Garrett Muntz, and we'll specifically get into details on how, where and when we each get our haircut and offer some tips and advice. Please follow or subscribe to the show in your chosen podcast app or check out our full video episodes available on YouTube. Just look for Mindfully Masculine. Thanks and enjoy. Hey, charles, good afternoon. Hello again, dan. How are we doing? Doing well? Good, me too. Where are you getting your haircut these days? I am?

Dan: 0:36

going to.

Charles: 0:37

Sport Clips, the one right here, lake Mary, yes, sir, okay, yeah, I've gone to that one before, off and on. It depends, really, where I'm living. Intervenient for me. Based on where I'm at, then I'll go to that one Right now. The sport clips that's closest to me is the one over in Hamlin, which is a little town outside of Winter Garden, but I've been going to, off and on for a couple years now, nick's Barbershop. He's over in the Off Conroy Road by the Universal neck of the woods and I go to him and he does a good job. I it's Nick's barbershop and I go to Nick the owner, and he's an Italian guy, so we can talk about all those deeply Italian cultural things that I'm into. What you're going to order at dinner tonight, like what I'm going to order dinner tonight. But he's also really into cruising, so we talk about that a lot. Oh nice, yeah. But he's also really into cruising, so we talk about that a lot. Oh, nice, yeah. He's a big fan of going on Royal Caribbean cruises, specifically Right around Right up my alley, so we talked about that.

Charles: 1:29

On the last haircut two days ago I got my haircut. We were talking about the single studios that are available on some Royal Caribbean ships for people who are taking cruises by themselves, which I need to figure out how to get into one of those. They're not easily searchable on Royal Caribbean's website. You gotta you gotta have access to a search engine that I think generally just the travel agents can see. So I may have to talk to.

Charles: 1:53

I've got a couple of friends in the business, so I may talk to one of them. I know we're still in February when we're recording this, but that, yeah, I got a lot of crap scheduled for the rest of this year and it's going to be tough to find a spot. So, yeah, you're going to a hairstylist right now. I'm currently going to a barber, so we can share our opinions on some of the things that we get into typically barbers. Barbers are barbers because they're trained to do shaves and beard trims as well as haircuts, whereas hairstylists have some other skills, such as coloring hair, doing perms, and I think there was one other thing besides perms and coloring that they talked about manicures actually oh interesting, yeah, so I guess they could use a, a cosmetology license, or I don't know right, yeah, yeah, they go to cosmetology school and okay gotcha.

Dan: 2:40

So yeah, I didn't realize just because you're going to be cutting hair, you also need to learn how to give a manicure. Maybe that's not the case for every school.

Charles: 2:49

I wouldn't think so because, yeah, I doubt that people that do my nails could also do my hair. But maybe I've got a friend in the business, maybe I'll ask her. Yeah, okay. So barbers will usually be more familiar with and more practiced at short hairstyles that use clippers, and they can certainly use scissors and do use scissors, but if you're doing a clipper only cut, that's usually something you'd go to a barber for. They don't often wash the hair before cutting it. In my case they don't often wash the hair after cutting it either, and they again don't usually do color. But typically you're in and out of the chair pretty quick. I would say between 12 and 15 minutes is probably. Maybe maybe a little longer, maybe 17 or 18 minutes on the high end, but he's pretty quick, yeah, and especially when I'm getting my haircut like this, it does not take much time for him to do that. They're also usually cheaper because they're faster. So those are the features of a barber.

Charles: 3:42

With a hairstylist, yes, they do have a cosmetology license. They go to cosmetology school, color, perm and get manicures. Like you said, you would go to a stylist if you want them to spend a little bit more time on your hair. Generally, if you have a longer hairstyle or want to keep a longer hairstyle, they may have some additional skills, because I would imagine that cutting a man's hair in a long hairstyle is similar to cutting a woman's hair in a long hairstyle, and they're generally cutting more women's hair than men's hair in a hairstylist. Unless it's a hairstylist or salon for men, like Sport Clips, you would not go to one if you don't want to spend the time in the chair or possibly spend some extra money.

Charles: 4:21

It's funny when my ex-wife used to go to a stylist. It was very expensive because she would get her hair colored and cut and at first I was like, wow, that's a lot of money to spend on your hair. But then I realized I'm going when I have my hair short like this. I'm going every 10 to 14 days to get it cut. Wow, and she could go literally months, and so if you added up what I was spending over a quarter versus what she was spending over a quarter, I think I was probably more expensive than she was. That's such a princess. Look, when you have your hair this short, it grows out and stops looking the way that you want it to look. Very quickly, exactly, yeah, I mean two weeks. The hair on the side is three times as long as it is right now, and so, yeah, yeah, as long as it is right now and so, yeah, yeah, I go every five, six weeks, something like that.

Dan: 5:06

Yeah, because it grows out longer, so I'm able to do that.

Charles: 5:08

Yeah, and definitely doesn't look as good as day one or day seven, but you can, it's, it's tolerable, I can make it work yeah, I knew a guy who he would get his hair cut twice a year, whoa, and he would basically have them go no guard when he would go to the, just no guard all over with clippers. It wasn't shaved bald, but it was essentially bald, okay, and then he would let it just grow however it grew for six months and then he would get it all buzzed off again. Interesting and so yeah he was. He was putting, keeping a lot of money on the table that I do not, but I would say around month number six. He was looking like he needed a haircut that I do not, but I would say around month number six he was looking like he needed a haircut.

Dan: 5:46

That's not bad.

Charles: 5:47

That means he's got five months of where he's looking okay, right In month six, he was looking like he needed a haircut four months ago. So, yeah, that is one approach, but not one that I recommend. Oh, yeah, so let's talk about how much we pay for haircuts. We probably pay pretty close to the same, even haircuts, um, we probably pay pretty close to the same, even though you're getting a lot more services for yours that I'm getting for mine.

Dan: 6:08

Yeah, I mean, it comes out to I think it's like 35 dollars. But then you can get, like at sport clips, you can get like the double mvp, you can get right, you can get the upgrades, but you can also get a pre-buy oh yeah, ticket for three of them and then you save like 10, 20 bucks or 10, 20 gotcha is this. So you save a couple dollars that way, but, yeah, mvp, you can go back there, you get a haircut, you get a wash, you get a massage it's not ends up a little vibrating seat.

Charles: 6:36

Yeah, that's good yeah, the I used to go there my my style hot towel on your face. Her name was hayley, yeah, and she told me that one time a guy bought like 10 mvp upgrades where he just sat there and she like I've heard that as well, the hot towel treatment like 10 times in a row, yeah, and that seems like a lot of money to spend and a lot of time I would feel. I think I would get more out of just going to pay for a facial or a massage.

Dan: 7:03

Right, but that's the thing, though is but you're right there, yeah, because you get some of those nicer services where you get the hot towel and you get a massage, you get the hair washed and everything, but it's also sport clips, so it's not quite as quote unquote girly as into a spa, like a salon in the mall.

Charles: 7:31

How can we get men to spend money on these luxurious treatments?

Dan: 7:36

I got an idea let's put a TV in front of them and put a sports ball game on the tv, and then they'll be willing to and then they decorate the whole place and for a while I think they were wearing like referee outfits, I think, or they looked a little bit like, weren't it? A little bit like footlocker type of outfits.

Charles: 7:54

There's one I used to go to, also lake mary, called big league haircuts and it was the same kind of concepts and deal yeah where it's. We'll do all these I'm real good treatments to you and you won't feel effeminate, because we'll put sports on in the background, which it's ridiculous from a marketing standpoint.

Dan: 8:10

Hey, more power to you. Look at how successful sport clips is. It is enormous. They're like almost in all 50 states there. It is huge, like that franchise is doing very well.

Charles: 8:20

That's interesting. I wonder what are the other things you could brand a salon, as that would make men feel okay with that. Like a bar yeah, I was going to say a bar. I'm sure somebody has done like a Hooters Wing House type of thing. You know, know, you make the girls wear skimpy outfits. That would probably go over pretty well. Something outdoors or hunting related would probably go over. Just, you know all the things that Hunt clips. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's just yeah, it's just yeah. It is funny to think about all the hoops that men and people who market to men feel like they have to go through to make it okay to enjoy things that all humans would enjoy. Any reasonable human would enjoy having his face or her face covered with a hot towel and his or her scalp massage, but we have to package it as sports related so the guys can feel okay about it. Boy, when's the meteor?

Dan: 9:20

hit, he'll lower the barrier to entry, man, I guess.

Charles: 9:23

Okay, so let's. So yeah, you're paying 35-ish plus upgrade, plus tip Little bit. Yeah, plus tip, plus upgrades, plus a little bit less if you buy in bulk. The place I go to just recently went from, I think, $23 to $25. And that's pretty good. While technically one doesn't need to pay the owner of an establishment a tip, I still tip the guy anyway, just because I do feel like it might help. When there's a, they don't do appointments, so it's basically you go in and you write your name and phone number down and then they call you when it's your turn.

Dan: 9:56

Yeah.

Charles: 9:56

I do feel like being a long-term customer maybe who tips well has gotten me, it does make a difference. Bumps a little bit. Yeah, I think I may.

Dan: 10:06

I think I may have been served a little faster as a result Absolutely, you are definitely yeah, if, if push comes to shove and it's you versus somebody else, yeah, I think I mean your personality and the relationship you have, absolutely, but right, the personality back a couple of turns, but generous, you know, makes up for it.

Charles: 10:23

Um, okay, so here's some advice on haircuts Get on a schedule. I agree with that. If you want to look consistent and you have a look that you're curating, which you probably do with the way that you dress and the way that you go to the gym or don't, the way you take care of your skin, the way you take care of your hair to keep it consistent, you got to need to say okay, I'm just a guy who goes to the barber every two weeks and so you're not going to. Depending on when you run into me at the store, I might not. You know, I'm not going to look really bad or really good depending on when I got my haircut.

Dan: 10:53

So question for you do you see your hair change in terms of how quickly it grows, depending on the season?

Charles: 10:58

not that I noticed. No, I think it probably stays pretty. Mine grows a little bit slower in the winter time slower in the winter.

Dan: 11:05

Interesting, I'm outside less, I'm spending time, but I feel like things for me grow a little bit faster when it's warm out.

Charles: 11:12

Nails, hair, yeah not you if you say so. N equals one. It's to say, get Dan's Evidence's vibes yeah.

Dan: 11:22

Look up my vibes.

Charles: 11:23

Yeah, dansvibescom, we're going to start tracking everything. Name cheap, hold on Okay. So yeah, get on schedule. This is a big one. Use pictures, not words.

Dan: 11:33

You've always had given that advice and I think that's solid.

Charles: 11:36

Yeah, I don't speak. Me trying to explain it in words. They don't understand. Or me trying to use their words and using them incorrectly.

Dan: 11:49

I don't know the difference between a paper and a fade yeah and so right, and it goes to show I think it makes sense in any respect is if you're going to professional, you don't tell them how to bake the cake or make the sausage. You say I just want the result, I want this, I want the cake to look like this, I want this kind of sausage, I want this haircut right. You don't necessarily need to tell them okay, use this and everything. If they ask you specifically what kind of length of a razor should I be using? That's different.

Charles: 12:16

Yeah, like my barber will ask me because he sees.

Dan: 12:19

Again, it's the end result that you're going for.

Charles: 12:21

With anything as quick as he is. He sees a lot of people, so I don't expect him to remember the details, but he'll say we do a number two on the side and I'll have to say no, actually, nick, we do, let's do a one on the side. And I remember stuff like that. Now, sport clips, haley would like, whenever we change this, you put it in the database and whenever, like I checked in, it would print out of the thing and whoever was cutting my hair would say, okay, last time we did this and this, and so that's good. So if you're going to a place that has that kind of tech, good for you. Mine, I have to remember. I like a one on the sides and the back, yeah, and that's.

Charles: 12:57

But for the most part, if I'm doing anything different that he hasn't done before or I haven't had done before, then I go on Pinterest, I find some pictures and I have it on my phone and say let's do this. And then sometimes Nick will roast me, cause I showed him a picture of I think it's the actor charlie hunnam at like a film premiere or something. I was like I'd like something like what he's, what he's got going, something like that, and nick's. That guy's got a lot more hair than you. I said to him I was like, is this a roast?

Charles: 13:22

Come on, just do what you can do and yeah, be ready for that, especially if you go to an old italian barber. Oh yeah, but yeah, always be ready with pictures. And yeah, the last thing is they're the experts, your hairstylist. Oh, here's one huge thing I'm glad I didn't forget. I will offer a caution do not, if you go to a young man, man who is a barber, you better like his haircut because in my experience, young men who are barbers, they're giving you their haircut. It's going to be some version of their haircut. Where older guys and women, I've not ever had that problem with them, but with young men who cut hair, I always end up getting some version of their haircut instead of cutting their own hair.

Charles: 14:14

No, I don't think they are okay, so I think they just have a. They have such a. They see haircuts and they're around barbers so much that they have very strong biases of the kinds of things that look good. Okay, and I've asked some of them before. I don't like when they do razor work around my hairline For some hairstyles. You get out the razor and you make very sharp lines for where the hairline is and I don't like that. I don't think it looks good on me, and so I've said no razor work on the hairline please. And they've gotten close to doing it.

Dan: 14:46

I was like whoa, no, is it just they're in their own world and just don't pay attention.

Charles: 14:49

I think it's you know they do 40 haircuts a day and 30 of them. Yeah but People don't voice of preference, they're just in the zone. Yeah, I think so. Okay. And again, they're new to the job. Yeah, they're gaining experience. Them and all of their friends have the same haircut.

Dan: 15:14

And so it's just okay. You put a guy in the seat and you're going to. Has that ever happened to you, when you're going for a massage, where you said, hey, this specific area is painful, or I need you to work on this, or I need you to avoid that, and they do or they don't.

Charles: 15:23

I've had a lot of. They've pretty much do exactly what I tell them to. The only and the only directive I usually give is either here's where it hurts or I'm a little ticklish on my knees and my feet mostly my feet. So massage my feet, but be firm with it. Don't be just brushing against the bottoms of my feet, otherwise I'm going to kick you, and they generally take that pretty seriously, yeah.

Charles: 15:45

But speaking of massages, I have the time for it today. I may skip going to dinner with my men's group and hit the mall and get a chair massage. It's been a few weeks since I've gotten one, yeah, and I am such a fan that I'd never done one until you told me about it. But geez, a 20 or 30 minute chair massage, it's amazing what it'll do. Yeah, and again, in some ways and you disagreed with me on this, but in some ways I like it better than a regular massage because I don't have to get undressed, I don't have to have all the oil on my body, I don't have to feel like, even with the hot towel they give you it's, I still feel like I need a shower, where with the chair massage, it's definitely a quicker.

Dan: 16:19

Yeah that's right. Exactly, it makes sense. Be a nice place. I want to be able to relax and I want the music.

Charles: 16:30

Yeah, I may I've said before I may re-up my membership at a place like Hand and Stone or something like that, where I can, because the best would. What I love the most I got the most relaxation out of was when I would wait a month and then book a back-to-back facial and a massage. Yeah, and make it a whole two and a half hour thing of okay, that's it. I'm taking the afternoon off and I'm going to do a facial followed by a massage, and, man, that's a good way to spend an afternoon.

Dan: 16:55

The best thing I've ever done was I've gotten over the resistance to making an appointment before I'm leaving and I actually make that appointment for them. Yeah, we talked about that. I can't do it. Here's the thing, though, is the best thing in the world is you forget you make it, and then you look at the calendar and then, all of a sudden, it pops up. You got a reminder hey, you got a massage on tuesday and oh my god, that's, yeah, it's the greatest surprise, actually I love it.

Charles: 17:18

Yeah, yeah, I get that okay. So that covers again. Dan's a hairstylist guy right now. I'm a barber guy. I may switch back eventually, but yeah, there's pluses and minuses to both do what works for you. And again, I would say, if you're doing easy short haircuts and the time and the money is a factor, as it is for most of us that a barber is probably going to be able to do everything you need, but once your hair gets to Dan's length or a little bit longer, then there may be some value in somebody who spends most of their day using scissors instead of clippers.

Dan: 17:49

The other thing that you mentioned, and I do as well, is when you're going to a new place. I would lean towards trying to get an appointment with either the owner or the manager of the place.

Dan: 17:59

Oh yeah, they're going to have the most experience and I feel like you're going to get the best experience also from that person. So if it's's possible, I would pay, even if it costs a couple extra bucks. Yeah, I would do that. If you're going to a new place, you move to a new town or you're out of town, for whatever reason, you get a haircut just a little piece of.

Charles: 18:17

And the other thing, if they're the owner or the manager, you could say something to them along the lines of hey, I, I have to squeeze in haircuts when I can squeeze them in. I can't really schedule them that far in advance. If you're not available, who else do you think would be good, based on my kind of hair and the cut and the way I like you to cut it? Great question who's next? Who's the next best person after you to cut my hair? And because they care about the whole place making money, not just ourselves, and they're going to, they're going to give you the best hair dryers, hair product and hair cuts who would have thunk. So, yeah, we knocked through all three of them pretty quickly. You guys will have to wait weeks to hear these all at the same time.

Charles: 18:57

Got a nice little backlog? Yeah, absolutely, as we gear up for our new special secret project that you and I start recording on Sunday. Yeah, it'll be a completely separate podcast from Mindfully Masculine. We will probably we'll probably share the first episode on the Mindfully Masculine feed, so you'll get the first episode of it with your, with your normal subscribe download. Hopefully you subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast app and then you'll get it automatically. But yeah, then the other, the remaining episodes, we'll just have on their own feed and you can find those and listen to them when you need them. I think would be the favorite teaser super excited for this.

Dan: 19:34

You put a lot of hard work into this and I still am every day sweating tears, so he, charles, has definitely put a lot of tlc into this and I think it's going to pay off. Yeah, I hope, a lot of value for a lot of people, I hope so.

Charles: 19:47

We'll see I've got hopes. I think we are all set. Dan, thanks very much, and you and I are going to have a few weeks of not recording episodes for this podcast and focusing on the other one. So hopefully a lot. We'll have a big long intro to our next episode. Sounds good, all right, talk to you later. Bye-bye, wow, you made it through the whole thing, so you must like us at least a little bit, in which case you should definitely follow or subscribe to our show in your chosen podcast app. Thanks, we'll talk to you next time.