- They're coming in, and they're under the impression
that we're both professional barbers.
- Why would you do that?
I like want to puke, I want to throw up.
Oh my god!
I hate this.
- Hi, I'm Aria, and I do a lot of crazy things.
I kinda basically crashed this wedding.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that pushing yourself
out of your comfort zone and trying new
and scary things gives you the courage
to experience life at its fullest,
so I'm taking some of my friends out of their comfort zones
in the hope of showing them how fun
and fantastic life can really be.
Today we've chosen one of my favorite people,
a very talented Buzzfeed producer and Harry Styles fan girl
Lindsay Webster to join me in convincing strangers
that we're professional barbers
and have the melouse to cut their hair.
So this is how it'll work.
Lindsey and I will receive an hour of training
from professional stylists before having
to cut someone's hair.
To accomplish this, we found two strangers
off of Craigslist who are both offered free haircuts
under the agreement that they'd
have no idea how it turns out.
Would you cut someone's hair?
- Um no.
Lindsay would be perfect.
I have worked with her on a number of occasions.
She was an extreme perfectionist,
she gets stressed out when she's doing something
she's not good at, and then she won't say this,
but I thinks he hates talking to people.
- She looks real stressed.
- Hi.
I'm so nervous.
- To get a proper experience as stylists today,
there are three criteria that Lindsay and I will
be competing to meet.
Firstly, we need to learn three things about our clients.
Secondly, we need to give a haircut deemed okay
by our trainers, and lastly, we need to see
if our clients would return to us.
- Yeah, I couldn't really go to sleep last night.
- That's a lie
- I'm not.
I don't wanna (beeping) up someone's hair.
- You're not gonna (beeping) up someone's hair,
you're gonna do great.
- You don't know that.
- Look at you, your hair's so nice, their hair--
- I don't do my own hair.
I (beeping) hate you so much.
I hate you so much.
- Since the start, Rudy's has always
been kind of a safe space feel.
We wanted to cater to anybody and everybody
no matter what your background was
or what you liked or who you wanted to date,
or what you wanted to look like,
that's kind of the core culture of Rudy's.
- I'm feeling nauseous.
I feel like I'm about to take a test
for a class that I haven't studied for and I'm not in.
- What would you say are some of the myths
and misconceptions associated with being a stylist?
- You definitely need to go to school.
You have to have 1600 hours.
- You hear that?
(laughing)
- Why are you looking at me?
- I don't know.
You put us here.
- I don't think I'll have any problems
convincing them that I'm a professional barber,
but I'm very nervous about the actual haircut.
- Are you a nervous talker?
I feel like maybe you're gonna be a nervous talker.
- He's a nervous talker.
(women laughing)
I'm nervous for Aria, he's very jumpy.
He doesn't think he is, but he is,
and we're giving him a blade.
What if Aria makes him bleed?
(laughing)
He would, too.
Is there a possibility that they just like me
as a person, that they're just not
gonna care what I do to their hair?
- Kinda.
- [Stylist] Totally. - Wow.
(laughing)
- You're not wrong.
- This is now a charm competition.
- Oh then we know who's gonna win that.
I'm looking forward to seeing Lindsey
interact with her client,
because I know Lindsey hates small talk.
- Small talk is my least favorite thing,
one of my top five least
favorite things in the entire world.
- When it comes to the actual haircut,
I think Lindsey is going to do a lot better
than she thinks she will.
- Do you think it's possible for someone
who's never cut hair before
to do a good haircut in the first try?
- Sure.
- Really?
- Lindsey doesn't like to put herself out there.
She doesn't like being in a place where she's vulnerable.
I think if Lindsey just gave things a chance,
if she gave life a chance, she'd find out
that she's capable of even more than she realizes.
- I think if we give you the right pointers.
- We're pretty good teachers.
- We're the education team.
- If Lindsey can confidently cut a stranger's hair
after an hour of training,
she can do anything.
Eh, to an extent.
(laughing)
- We're gonna be working with both clippers and scissors.
So a good starting point with your consultation is
asking your client, do you know what clip number
you like on the sides?
Anything under a number three,
means you're gonna show scalp.
I'm gonna guide your hand a little bit okay?
We're gonna make contact and just move a little bit slower.
- Oh, okay.
- So start here 'cause there's still some left there.
I think they got a really good idea
of how hard our job actually is.
- I'm (beeping) terrified.
- [Stylist] Comb the hair.
- Comb down?
- He didn't comb it first.
(laughing)
- Lindsey's gonna do great.
I think Lindsey's gonna do great.
I think Aria might throw up.
- Out of everything I've done, I've been able
to (beeping) my way through it.
This is probably the first time I won't
be able to do that at all.
You know, if I go into a wedding,
pretend to be someone else, drink, have some fun
with them, I'm not cutting anyone's (beeping) hair.
It's a goddam wedding.
Then do I snip it from there?
- No.
- So I'm doing better than Aria.
Can I try?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- I think he finally figured out
that this isn't easy, and that everything won't be okay.
I knew this from the beginning,
there's so many steps, there's so much blending,
there's so much technique that goes into this.
This is so much harder.
- You got it, you got this.
- Oo, okay breathe.
We could really mess up in this part, huh?
- [Stylist] Uh-huh, yeah.
- You hear that?
You can really mess up in this part.
If I had like another hour, I think I'd be more comfortable,
but I don't know this person,
and I don't what they're gonna want.
I don't know if I'm gonna nick their ear,
but Aria's having issues just holding the scissors,
so Aria's being kept after class.
- I'm not sure if Aria will give a good haircut.
- Or a haircut at all.
- Before I met my client, I was terrified,
but then I met him.
- What's up?
- I'm Lindsey, nice to meet you!
- Nice meeting you, I'm Rome.
- Hi, Roman?
- Rome. - Rome.
- Yeah, like the city in Italy.
- Oh my god, perfect, sit down.
And he sat down, and he was so, so nice.
- This is a new concept for me, like the bangs,
which I like actually, I'm starting to own it a little bit.
- I like it.
- Yeah, so it's a little messy.
- Honestly, messy is good.
I kind of leaned in, because I was like oh yeah,
I really like how it's longer on top
and messier, 'cause I'm like, I know how to cut that,
like I can't really mess up a messy look right?
- When Rome went over to Lindsay,
he just seemed really friendly, really jovial,
Scott on the other hand, he just seemed,
it was just very hard to get a read on him.
- How's your day going?
- Good, you?
- Oh, very well, excited, a little nervous,
all these cameras around, not used to it.
From the very beginning, I had trouble
getting the saneks out for his neck,
I think I ripped like five, six different ones
out of the box, 'cause they just kep ripping.
They don't make it easy to get those things out.
- What are you thinking of?
It all just started coming naturally to me,
because of I don't know, just all the times I've
gotten my hair cut, and I kinda knew what to ask him.
So like four you think?
- Probably a four yeah.
- Maybe like a two through here?
- I asked him what number he usually gets and he said a two,
I was like great, we didn't train with a two.
A two, yeah.
I can definitely do a two.
- When Aria first started his haircut, he just boom,
went right in and there was a bald spot,
and everyone was like (gasping) oh (beeping).
- I mean, well go ahead and do two.
I mean if you started, that's fine.
- Aria kinda got like maybe like a little warm,
he got a little red, we saw his hands start to shake
and I was like I need to go help him.
- When I saw her kind of even it out, I knew a template
from which to build off of.
The techniques they use in this country are so different.
Everything I did wrong I blamed on my training in Thailand.
I worked with a hair master
down there name Master Sumpit.
- I'm gonna hire Lindsey.
- [Stylist] Yeah.
We're gonna hire her today, she did great.
- You have great hair, by the way.
- Are you serious?
Thank you. - Yeah.
- Well thanks.
- It's so soft.
- Because she's used to having more to work with
as far as how to hold a comb and make a parting
and things like that, the physicality of it
came a little bit more natural to her than Aria.
- [Stylist] I agree with you on that.
- Watching Aria's brain process,
how to comb something, hold his scissors,
and then where to put his comb after he combed something
was probably a major challenge from the start.
- I was so scared that he was watching my every move,
but I think in reality, he wasn't, I think he was just
wanting to make conversation, so I kept
up the conversation.
- Have you ever heard of Yes Theory?
- Yes, I love them.
- I was on their episode.
Remember?
(laughing)
- Oh my god, that's wild.
- That's me, yeah.
- I learned that he lived in LA his whole life,
that he loves Japan, like he would move to Japan.
- So luckily Aria's very charming,
and I think that's what helped the process along.
Man, can he tell a story.
- Tragically, Master Sumpit died last year.
He actually was gored by a water buffalo.
- Oh my god.
- Yeah.
- It was very shocking.
- Jesus.
- Honestly, I think we did make a good connection.
He was opening up actually a fair bit.
So I actually learned a fair bit about him.
I learned he loves cheap airfare.
He got trapped in China for a little bit.
- Regardless of the haircut not being so well done,
I think the client was able to connect with Aria
on that basis of just human connection,
and I think that's what carried it through.
- I would like to extend a very sincere apology
to all Thai stylists for besmirching your name
and your talents with my very, very pour performance today.
My work really was not indicative of anyone
who trained in Thailand, or anyone
with any kind of proper training.
- More than like it, I love it.
It's fun.
- Oh my mic fell off.
- There were three criteria.
One, did we learn three things about them?
Did you learn three things about your guy?
- Yes I did, did you?
- [Aria] Yeah.
- I learned like 10 things about mine.
- Let's talk about Aria.
Do you think he gave an okay haircut?
- No.
(laughing)
- So we obviously deferred to Vera and Rachel
who said that my haircut was not okay.
- [Lindsay] Not okay.
- [Aria] But they said yours was.
- I think Lindsay gave a pretty okay haircut.
- I think with a couple of new hire classes at Rudy's,
she would be just fine.
- Lindsay, you're hired.
- Yeah.
- And then finally.
- Would they come back to us?
- Lindsey was more than fantastic.
Kind of one of my better experiences in haircutting.
Yes.
Cut you off, yes.
Yes, I would.
- I'm hesitant because quite frankly,
sometimes you get home and you see it,
and you're like oh eff, or something.
- He's not coming back to me.
- Yeah.
- I think this is the last time
that we're gonna see that man.
- Yeah, no it's gonna be one of those moments
where you're gonna see them one day walking
down the street and he's gonna turn the other direction.
And when he turns, you'll see that his haircut is botched.
(laughing)
- I really mean it sincerely, Lindsay was awesome.
- In that regard, you win three to one.
(cheering)
- Are you serious?
No.
She cut,
she knew what she was doing.
- What do you think of Aria as a person?
- No I think he's great.
He's a great personality.
- She had the confidence, but she also had a connection.
- Really what we in is customer service.
We're here to make somebody feel better
about themselves, some of my clients are with me
since my very start at Ruby's,
so that's eight years.
I've been with people when
they've met their significant other,
I've been with people when they got married
to that person or when they had kids.
- You become part of their story of their life,
and it's kind of amazing.
- Haircutting is an art form, a skill.
There's a reason not everyone does it.
- An art form that I clearly did not master today.
- No, and that's okay.
That's okay.
- Honestly, even when she beats me,
I don't really care, because this is
just an experience more for her.
- As soon as I finished my haircut
and as soon as he looks in the mirror
and has a huge smile on his face
and he was like I love this, I was like I can do anything.
I had so much confidence, I was like whoa,
I really thought I would do a terrible, terrible job,
and I didn't, so I feel like, maybe there's other things
out in the world that I could do that I just don't know.
- In many ways you won today, but I guess some people
could say that I would win too by giving you this experience
and where you've won and grown.
- That's true, you got me out of my comfort zone.
You really did.
- So in some ways you're saying thank you.
- I still hated this.
(instrumental music)
- [Stylist] So every time we cut, we create that new guide,
but you know that.
- Actually I didn't know that.
You guys do a T right, here?
In Thailand, we do a U.
Completely different technique.