Thinking of a new career..

Today I was thinking about a new career, one with openings, be my own boss, control my hours, etc.

A barber!

I know I wouldnt make a fortune, but all the barbers around here are all older and pushing retirement. Anybody know if it would be worthwhile, or would I most likely regret it after all the school bs.

certainly hope you are the talkative type

That's not a bad idea. My barber has been working alone since his father passed away. He said that almost noone is going into barbering right now.

Interesting. I think you hit it on the head. You wont be a 911 driver on your earnings but I'm sure you'll make enough to live modestly and be happy. But yeah, you gotsta be a people person.

I rent part of my shop to our town barber. We're a small town, only 1400-people, so he's not getting rich, but his overhead is low - I only charge him $200/month rent, then he has his supplies & insurance. He also has a "Coffee Club" as he calls it. He brews the coffee & picks up some donuts, and old-timers hang out all morning. He earns another $50-$100 per-month with that.

Just estimating, I'd say on a good month he does $2500 in business, on a bad one probably closer to $1800. Property & cost of living is pretty cheap here, plus his wife works, so they live comfortably.

If you aren't uncomfortable with the idea, become an actual stylist. Learn how to do the colors/cut/new style stuff.

My wife is a stylist and makes a KILLING. I make decent money and her salary puts mine to shame.

z31maniac wrote: If you aren't uncomfortable with the idea, become an actual stylist. Learn how to do the colors/cut/new style stuff. My wife is a stylist and makes a KILLING. I make decent money and her salary puts mine to shame.

One of my friends is a stylist near Fort Bragg and makes a killing. My wife cuts my hair now, but my barber growing up did ok. He had a truck and boat and seemed happy...

A good choice if it suits you. As the OP said, most barbers are old guys set to retire. I need to find myself a new barber. The one guy I was going to died, and the next one retired. There's a young lady running a small shop close to my house, but she just doesn't seem to get it right.

Unless we make a return to the hairstyles of the 60's, the demand is gonna be there!

Most of the barbers I've met end up doing it when they retire from something else.

My father-in-law is a barber. He makes a good living at it in a small town. The things he sometimes complains about is that his shoulders hurt from keeping his arms upright all day. There have been times he has to kick people out because they come in tipsy/high/or just run their mouth. And yeah, you have to listen to alot of opinions/politics I'm sure. Sometimes you'll have kids who start crying. I thought about it too, but passed.

I have never gone to a barber. My Aunt cut my hair for the first 22 years of my life. Now I make my girlfriend cut it. Never paid for a haircut.

Like many things, I bet that its all about location. Can you set up a shop in a pricy neighborhood like in the Hamptons? Somewhere that a lot of suit-wearing rich guys pay others to do everything? Wall-street types like to get a trim weekly along with their dry-cleaning. They pay a pretty penny, and tip well and they are not interested in a fancy salon.

I miss old school barbers. Granted, I haven't had a haircut in nearly 3 years, so i'm not one to talk, but they're a dying trend, and that's kinda sad.

What IS making a comeback is the old school haberdashery. a good pipe, a beard trim, all that. I'm into it. I bet the barbers will come back too.

^to that end, my wife works in a small college town here in OK.

It's more about being good at what you do and being "likeable" I think.

i think there's real money -- and social opportunity wink wink nudge nudge -- for dude hair stylists. we used to hurl serious abuse at my friend Joey when he was in cosmetology school, until he started making good money and pulling ridiculous hot chix from the salon.

FWIW, i wasn't really old enough to hang out at the barber shop when i started wearing a buzz cut, so i got my own clippers and have been DIY since about 1997.

and now we've got Lady Jane's, which is pretty much a lingerie barber shop with flat-screen TVs and $10 haircuts. how you gonna compete with that?

Not a bad idea, but I think that the key would have to be the goal of owning your own shop with multiple chairs. As a single barber, your earning potential is limited by time; you can only do so many haircuts in a single work day. You need to get other people working for you as well.

There may be certain, uh...."tax advantages" to cutting hair for a living.

I don't think barbers have to be talkers so much as listeners.

In reply to Otto Maddox:

I think you are confusing barbers with bartenders.

My old barber went through 2 or 3 shoulder surgeries before he retired about 8 yrs ago.

He was a cool guy. He had a 32 Ford 5 window pickup street rod. Then just before he retired, he was building a fat fendered something for his wife. I think it was supposedly a 39 Chevy.

I really like my barber and he seems to do okay for himself. He supports a kid (I don't think it's single income though) and has money for a few toys. He's got a nicely set up Toyota FJ that he goes off roading with regularly. He seems to enjoy it and has commented that it's a pretty recession resistant job.

Unlike other guys mentioned, he's not retirement age. I'd say he's probably in his late thirties. He does have an extra couple chairs that he rents out occasionally. He's also in a pretty good location in Sacramento. So there's enough population to sustain his business.

I'd say you need to be good and you need to be quick. He only does men, but he gives the best haircut I've had and charges less than most chain places. Clearly he makes it up because he takes about half as long to do a cut and moves people through pretty quickly.

the only barbers I ever liked once I hit puberty was always at the base barber shop (grew up a military brat) and it needed to be the gay guy or curly headed lady... for some reason they where the only ones who could give me a good looking hair cut (having curly hair sucks)

once I got out into the real world and found out places charge more than $4 for a hair cut I stopped getting it cut...

these days I get it cut for free... part of the locks-of-love thing... grow it out to where they can cut off 10+" and it's a free cut... then grow it again...

but if it suits you I'd say go for it.

A lot will depend on where you live/will be living after the career change.

I live in a large city, and it seems that 2 things I see a lot of are tattoo shops and barber shops. It's cut-throat enough here that it drags down the prices (good for customers, bad for the barber) and I also see a lot of young(ish) barbers.

Like donalson, I have been getting my hair cut at "the base" even tho in my case I'm retired military. Even then, I only get it cut 1 or 2 times a year.

You need to be in an area where folks take good grooming seriously and where your cost of living is affordable.

There's a barber here in town that has been in business for ever. Little hole in the wall shop, nothing fancy. He stays fairly busy. His house, it's a multi-million dollar beach front place. He drives an old truck to work because he doesn't want his P car sitting in a grocery store parking lot all day. Maybe he sells more than haircuts, but he's making money somewhere.