r/Barbers

How did yall build up practice and clientele in the beginning, ive been wanting to cut hair but i’ve only cut a few peoples hair so my practice time is very low and I want to make an income with it. how do I get practice if my friends/ family doesn’t trust me yet and how do I build clientele to make money doing something I love and enjoy.

I’ve been a barber for 15 years but I always feel like I could learn more. I feel like I’m not always confident in my scissor technique on top, even after all these years. Does anyone really enjoy any YouTubers out there for cutting with shears , or any newer styles too, like the soft mullet , curtain bangs/wolf cuts stuff?

Current cosmetology student considering enrolling in barber school once I graduate. Any recommendations/advice?

obligatory this didn't happen today it's been happening since 2003 and I just had a quiet panic about it on the bus, I'm 42. when I was nineteen I walked into a barbershop for the first time as an adult, meaning my mom wasn't waiting in the car, and the guy asked me what I wanted and I had not prepared for this, in my head I assumed haircuts worked like ordering coffee where you say a word and the professional handles the rest, turns out you have to know words, numbers even, hair has a grading system. so the guy says what are we doing today man and I, a confident adult, said uh just like a two on the sides. I have no idea where I got two. I think I heard it in a movie, I think the movie was Varsity Blues, I don't know. he nodded, he cut, I tipped 15% because I had read somewhere that's what adults do, I walked out, I looked fine, I assumed I had cracked the code. for the next twenty three years in five different cities with maybe fourteen different barbers when asked what I wanted I have said with the calm authority of a man who has read a manual, "two on the sides, scissor on top." I added scissor on top around year four because I heard another guy say it and it sounded sophisticated, like ordering wine. I did not know what either of these things meant. I assumed two was a length, maybe inches, centimeters, a vibe, I never asked, you can't ask, asking would reveal that you have walked into approximately a hundred haircuts under false pretenses and that the man you became, taxes, mortgage, opinions about mattresses, was constructed on top of a single unverified guess. today my current barber who I have been seeing for three years said you want to try a 1.5 today, switch it up. and reader, I panicked, because if a 1.5 exists that means there's a SCALE, that means two is not a vibe, that means somewhere in the cosmos there is a 0 and a 3 and presumably a 7 and I have been LARPing as a man with hair opinions since the Bush administration, the first one, wait no, the second one, that's worse somehow. I said yeah let's do it like a coward, I have no idea if I look different, he's behind me, I can't tell, I just nodded at the mirror like he showed me a piece of modern art. I tipped 20% out of guilt.

TL;DR: picked a random number at 19 to seem like an adult who gets haircuts, have been repeating that number to professionals for twenty three years across multiple cities without knowing what it means, today at 42 learned there are other numbers, my whole adult identity may have been a 2.

My barber friend keeps asking me to build something so clients can see a realistic preview of a haircut on their face before you start cutting. His idea: add 2–3 minutes to the consult and charge ~$5 for it.

I'm a developer, not a barber, so I have no idea if that's smart or a waste of time.

Is miscommunication on consults a real problem for you? Would anyone pay for a preview, or would you just talk them through it and move on?

Curious what you'd actually do if a client asked for something like this

I want to share something small that helped me a lot because nobody told me this when I started barbering.

When I was new I focused only on clippers and fades. I thought better tools automatically mean better barber. But every day after work I was tired, itchy and uncomfortable and I didn’t understand why.

Problem was simple. My clothes.

I was cutting hair wearing normal cotton T shirts. By lunch time I already looked messy. Hair sticks inside cotton fabric like magnet. Tiny hairs go inside your collar and stay there whole day. You keep adjusting your neck while cutting and it breaks your focus.

Then one senior barber told me about barber shirts not fashion thing or Functional thing.

They use smooth material so hair slides off instead of staying trapped. Less static, less sweating, easier cleanup between clients. I honestly didn’t believe it would matter that much.

First shirts I bought online were a mistake though. I ordered cheap ones I saw on Alibaba because price looked amazing. Some actually came decent quality, I still use two today. But another batch felt thin and uncomfortable after washing twice. So now I check fabric weight and stitching before buying.

After switching, my day became easier. Less brushing myself every five minutes. Clients notice clean appearance too.

If you’re new, don’t ignore comfort. Good posture and good clothing help your cutting more than people think. Small upgrade, big difference.

I know this may be controversial, but hear me out. There's this narrative that old school barbers are the gold standard and new gen barbers are just hype and Instagram reels. I used to believe that too. But the more I pay attention, the more I think new-gen barbers are genuinely operating on a different level.

These guys grew up studying technique online. They're watching breakdowns of fades, brow arches, skin fades, blending stuff that used to be passed down in one shop to one apprentice is now available to thousands of barbers at once. The knowledge transfer is insane compared to what it used to be. On top of that, they actually care about the client experience. Online booking, reminders, clean setups, no more waiting 3 hours with no update. Old heads had the skill, but half of them had zero structure around the business side.

And the precision? Lineups are sharper. Fades are cleaner. They're competing publicly on social media, so the bar for quality has gone way up. You can't be average and survive as a new-gen barber right now.

Old school barbers built the foundation and deserve their respect. But acting like the craft peaked with them is just nostalgia talking.

New gen barbers are not just keeping up, they're raising the standard.

Agree or disagree?