Something is still bothering me...

As I watch male grooming take on a whole new life in America, I have to wonder if other barbers are noticing something that I think I have caught onto. More and more men are getting manicures again. They are spending more time and money on their skin and hair, etc. And they are being lured into the equivalent of assenbly lines owned by major conglomerates with gimmicks. Men are getting tired of gimmicks. Flashy ads, false promises. Women posing as barbers who could not give a decent haircut if their lives depended on it.

I am hearing the ads all over the radio and seeing them on television. Pro Cuts, Sports Clips, etc, are all trying to make themselves out as the place for men to go. One of them is even offering $5 gas cards with services over a certain amount. With the haircuts that I have had to fix from those places lately, $5 for gas is like a consolation prize or maybe a buffer against the $10 I charge for a haircut. Yeah, I charge ten bucks.

Before any reader gets his/her panties in a wad over that, I have to tell you that my overhead is LOW. I only pay $350/month to rent the space for my shop. That is 35 haircuts, which translates into a really busy day without lunch or two so-so days for me.

So a guy can come to me the first time, get a haircut he is satisfied with, and not have to wait for a gas card to come in the mail. He can use the extra $5 or more he saves against going into those chop shops along with another $10 spent on getting me to fix the haircut.

This whole thing got me thinking. I want to do something for men. I want to give them places they don't want their wives to go to, but are proud to share with their sons. A collection of "man caves" in cities across the nation in which men and boys can just be men and boys without the gimmicks. A place with games, music, and sports on big screens, and the only hotties in the place are the ones giving the manicures and serving the food and drinks. Haircuts and shaves are done by trained professional barbers, not some bimbo fresh out of beauty school who does not know the difference between a flat top and a crew cut, or who thinks that a hone and strop might be some sort of fashion term or catwalk term.

Any properly trained barber can do everything a beautician or stylist can do when it comes to male grooming, and then some. Beard trims that don't look like someone had a siezure while doing it, shaves, facial treatments... The list goes on.

And folks, if you are reading this. Don't ask a barber if he can cut long hair. He can. The better question to ask a barber is if he will cut long hair. Some won't. Personally, I don't call them professionals. They are either scared of long hair and feel out of practice,or they have some beef against "hippies."

Well, I don't want to give too much of the vision away, but I do want to find some investors. And I want to find some barbers. I smell a new idea that will bring the barbers back. If I am able to impliment it, I want to blog the experience daily and let people know what is going on with making something old new again. And I think I can do it for a good value that competes with the walmart-style hack shacks in the strip malls.

A sort of putting old wine into new wineskins...

So my next blog will be on something to do with the frustrations of finding investors and willing lenders, or maybe something about the headaches of starting a L.L.C. Wish me luck, God's speed, or whatever you want. And you "thtylithts," don't be hatin.