Hi! I'm Kyle Ingham from The Distilled Man.
I want to talk to you about barber shops.
You probably noticed in the last few years
there's been a kind of resurgence in all these new things for men,
help us take better care of ourselves.
There's bespoke suit companies springing up everywhere.
There's new men skincare products.
And we've also seen the return of some traditional things like the classic barber shop.
Although the funny thing is, guys are really used to being the drivers when it comes to our appearance.
Take the barber shop for instance.
You're not really used to specifying what you want, you know.
It's like, "Hey Jack, why don't you do what you usually do and I'll just kind of zone out,
until you put that white powdery stuff on my neck and then I'll have to pay you."
You know it doesn't have to be that way.
The more you know about the classic barber shop the better experience you can have.
I actually was really lucky that I was able to sit down
with one of the greatest master barbers here in San Francisco,
Shorty Maniace, who own J.P. Kempt Barber & Social.
So Shorty shares his perspective on barber shops
and gives some great tips on how you can get the most out of the experience.
Don't forget if you like this video please hit like below,
and subscribe to The Distilled Man YouTube channel if you want to see more videos like this.
Alright, without any further ado, take it away Shorty.
I'm Shorty Maniace, I'm master barber and the owner of J.P. Kempt Barber & Social.
What I like to get across to people is that they kinda do know what they want.
I'll have somebody sit on my chair they'll say, "I don't know what I want, you do what you want."
And I'm like, "Okay let's shave it."
And they're like, "No, that's not what I want!"
Exactly!
Or they'll say, "Hey, do you think that's the best thing?"
I'm like, "No, this is the easiest thing."
It's like, we'll work with him and talk to him
about what we think might look good on them and so on and so forth.
But for the most part, they have an idea of what, how difficult their hair is,
to style in the morning.
What they want, do they want wash and go,
do they want something they could take some time on combing, things like that.
We look at their clothing and the way they hold themselves, what they do for a living.
You an come in and say, "Hey, I like it a little bit tighter on the side,
try to remember what you had done last time."
Unfortunately, everything is by the numbers now.
So, you can come in and say, "Hey, the last barber did a three,
it's been like 4 weeks since my last haircut."
We have an idea of how fast hair grows.
You know, an average.
So that's gonna help us out.
Try to remember what they used on the sides.
Know that you like to part your hair or that you don't part your hair.
And you know your difficult areas, "Hey my hair pokes up back here."
Most people's do
"Hey, my hair wants to stick out through here."
Also, know what products you use.
What is it that you are achieving? Are you looking for a chiseled look?
Are you looking for a rounder jaw? Are you looking for a tighter mustache?
These things being prepared when you come to the barber shop,
saves the time, you do more time to actually have the service provided to you.
Say, I want a two fade, that means it's going 2 to fading into longer to the top.
Taper, taper on the neckline, means no neckline whatsoever.
It's just faded into the neck, so that there's no line whatsoever.
Squared back, round back,
over the ears,
medium side burn, right? Or where you want your sideburns.
Bring in a picture, we love pictures because it makes our jobs easier.
We get an idea of what you're wanting to look like
and we know that you know that you're not going to look like Brad Pitt.
But you're gonna have kinda the same style.
If there is a comfort zone to get out of, and you want to try something different,
it's as easy as looking at the television or looking at movies
or looking at magazines and going, "Wow, I like the way this guy's hair looks.
I like the way this guy's beard looks."
But we gotta gain their trust first, there's nothing that I can do,
have you come in and you say, "Hey, I'm ready for a change."
I don't know who you are. I gotta get to know you first.
You know, we gotta sort of understand each other.
Give your barber two or three cuts because by the third cut they know your head, they know your patterns,
the hair patterns the bumps, the lumps, the everything about,
well the most about you and then they can actually give you one of the better haircuts you ever had.
I like to use a straight razor and the safety razor as well,
because it allows me to just slow down and kind of like chill out and take my time.
And be with me, you know what I'm saying?
Lock my door, my wife knows not to come into my bathroom.
It's like, this is Shorty time.
With the shaving, having somebody else shave you,
yeah sure, it can be intimidating.
But today, it's like I said, not a necessity, it's a luxury.
So, if it's something that you've always wanted to try, trust that we're able to do okay.
It's okay to ask who's better with a straight razor blade.
A lot of barber shops these days, there are hair dressers and there are barbers.
Barbers are trained and licensed to use straight razors.
There usually is a master barber on board, which is usually the owner, usually.
Don't come in thinking that it's going to be as painless
as a Mach 4, 3 or whatever they're called, going over your skin.
It's not going to be painful, but it's not going to be a glide of a quadruple razor.
It's a single blade.
What's great about it is that we pay more attention to your hair growth.
Which way does is it grow?
Our hair grows in many different directions on our face, I don't care who you are.
Barber gets in there and looks at that and gets every single little hair.
There will be something that I kinda don't like in a haircut at all.
If you ask most people they're going to say, "I always feel better with my haircut."
If my haircut's a guarantee for you to get laid or get a job.
That's it.
Because that exact thing, it's a confidence booster.
One of my clients I used to have that little saying of that my haircut's a guarantee to get you laid.
Okay, this kid.
He went to another city. He met a girl.
They hooked up.
Right after the haircut, like a couple days after.
They hooked up.
Stayed the night.
Went to breakfast.
And she told him, "The reason I even noticed you was your haircut.
But I've had people come back and say, "Hey, your haircut helped me get a job."
Things like that.
And I'll play along with it going like, "Yeah, of course. Right, it's me."
Just let me touch you and you'll get a job or you'll get laid, right.
But the reality is that you just feel better about yourself.
You feel a little bit cleaner.
You feel like, whatever, it's like given a new suit.
You see somebody walking on the street.
He's got a great haircut. Say, "Hey where did you get your hair cut? I really like your haircut.
I'm looking for a barber, do you recommend this guy? Do you recommend the place?"
Ask him of the place.
Just look at who's cutting whose hair.
How it looks, how clean is the place.
How friendly is the front desk.
Did the barber seem stressed out? Do they seem to be doing okay?
Do people seem to be leaving there with a smile on their face?
And now that we're actually starting to show more and more,
we're getting off the couch, we're taking our hands off our pants,
we're showing our fashion.
Also, we have to be something other than.
A man who's taking care of themselves.
We have to be metrosexual.
Or straight or homosexual, we're men man, that's it.
We're taking care of ourselves and we care about ourselves.
I've said this before, I've seen businesses go down.
I've seen vast friendships happen.
I've seen ? in between ? going on.
Just talking to each other.
In the past and in all foreign countries now, too. It's a place where guys can come and just chill out.
Just get away for a second and just like hey we're dudes we're hanging out.
It's a place to just come and be social, man.
It's like come in sit down and stay off your fucking iPhone.
Talk to somebody.
Alright, as you can see, Shorty was a fun guy to interview.
Hope you got a lot out of that video.
If you like this video, please hit like below.
And if you want to see more videos like this
please subscribe to The Distilled Man YouTube channel by hitting this button, right here.
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you can click on screen right now and get a free copy of my ebook,
"48-Hour Gentleman: Your One-Weekend Plan to More Confidence, Poise and Manly Know-How."
Alright, well thanks again for watching and until next time.