All in all, my 50 years of barbering has been a pleasure. But then there was the long hair era of the mid 60s to the end of the 70s. It wasn’t 15 years of total misery for those barbers who adapted to the longer cuts of the time. I enjoyed giving the longer haircuts […]

Tapering the bottom neck hair (also called a “faded” neckline) can be done a number of ways. Some of those ways can produce a nice result (or not), but they usually take too much time to do. My recommendation gives an excellent result in the shortest time. We start with some general rules followed by […]

In my 50 year professional career, I’ve attended a number of “educational” conventions or seminars that were supposed to give me haircutting and haircare knowledge. It would have been nice if these gatherings were as advertised. I suppose I learned a thing or two by attending these get-togethers, but because the organizers of these things […]

THE PROBLEM. A customer who bought my videos emailed me about a problem he was having. On a regular tapered haircut given to a person with fine-textured straight hair, both sides were cut to the same length, but one side “puffed out” while the other side laid well. Why? ANALYZING THE PROBLEM. Like many troublesome […]

Many of your customers love that short “fresh” haircut look around the sides. An equal number of folks would drop you like a rock if their side hair is cut too short. Avoiding a freshly cut look around the sides is easy with the use of longer clipper blades like the #3 1/2 and 3 […]

You can do your customers a favor, possibly a life-saving favor, by keeping an eye out for signs of skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common cancer and early detection is the key to successful treatment. I have informed a number of customers of an abnormal looking skin condition that needed a professional look-see. […]

America is becoming “greener”. It has been a slow process since the first “Earth Day”, but the change is gaining momentum. You can see it in the organic food trend; in electric or hybrid cars; in the recycling effort, and in many other ways that affect personal and environmental health. How a person deals with […]

As you probably know, building up the number of folks coming through your door is a slow process. There are some things you can do to speed up the process, and there are things that are sure to work against you. First, the things to do. 1. Put up a nice website that includes the […]

The haircutting taught in my videos is quite safe, but there are a few things to be aware of. Tools a. Your scissors/shears should not have sharp points at the end (tips) of the blades. You want blunt points for edge cutting when the points touch the skin. b. Clipper blades need to be adjusted […]

No tool has done as much damage to hair as the thinning shear/scissor. Back in the 1960s we called it the “Saturday Shear”. Saturday was a very busy haircutting day in that decade and those “thinners” would help give fast haircuts. Precision haircutting it was not! You would run the clipper up the sides and […]

I have found my cutting efforts on “regular” tapered haircuts is easier and I believe better when I use a high stool to sit on as I work around the sides and back. With this sit-down approach my eyes are at the same level as my cutting. I feel it is easier to give the […]

Some clients describe the haircut of their dreams as: “I want my hair to look like that actor…” “Do you know the hairstyle that channel four news anchor has…” “My friend has this cool hairdo…” “I brought this picture I saw in a magazine…” Some folks have the right hair to achieve their hair schemes, […]