Notes from the chair

Written for men in Hallandale Beach, FL who want to know what they're asking for before they sit down. Every piece is built on what a barber here actually says in the chair — not on what the internet repeats.

Being written now

Questions you ask before the chair

  • Shape-up, haircut, lineup: what you're actually asking for
  • Taper against fade, and the difference most guys get wrong
  • Skin, low, mid or high: which fade is yours
  • Pomade, clay or paste: picking by your hair rather than by the jar

Things people would rather not ask out loud

  • Grey blending against coloring, and why one of them reads as dye
  • Hair that won't hold a style past lunchtime
  • Cowlicks, and why cutting against the growth never wins
  • Hair on the pillow: what worries and what does not

No promised dates. A piece goes up when the barbers have signed off on every claim in it, and not a day before. Until then the answers live in person — the first minutes of a visit cover most of this list, and it costs nothing to ask.

The first ten minutes answer most of this list

Ten minutes of the first visit are questions, not cutting. Bring the thing you've never been able to explain to a barber and start there.