Getting Cut Before The Day That Matters

Wedding, prom, quinceañera, graduation, senior photos, a job interview, court. If there is a day coming up that you will be looking at pictures of in ten years, here is how to get the cut right.

Why not the morning of

Two reasons, and the second one is the one people learn the hard way.

The first is how it looks. Hair that was cut forty minutes ago sits differently than hair that has been slept on once. Every barber knows this and almost no customer does.

The second is that the morning of leaves you no room. If the fade is tighter than you pictured, or the line is higher than you wanted, there is nothing anyone can do about it with two hours to go. Come in on Wednesday for a Saturday wedding and there is time to adjust.

What to ask for

Tell your barber what it is for. That one sentence changes how we cut it — a cut for photographs is not the same as your usual Tuesday cut.

• Haircut and beard together. If you have facial hair, get it shaped at the same time. A sharp cut over an unshaped beard is the most common way a good haircut gets undone.
• Bring a picture. Not to copy, but so we know what you are picturing. The word “fade” means about nine different things.
• Say if you will be wearing a hat for part of the day, or if the photos are outdoors in the Bakersfield sun. It changes what we do on top.

Bringing the whole party

This is the part most shops cannot do. We have twelve chairs.

A groom and his groomsmen, a quinceañera court, a family coming in before graduation photos — you can all get cut in the same room at the same time instead of booking six separate appointments across three days and hoping everyone shows up.

If you are bringing a group, call the shop on (661) 742-1555 rather than booking online one by one. Tell us how many and what day, and we will make sure enough barbers are on the floor. Give us as much notice as you can for a Saturday.

The beard question

If you are growing a beard out for the day, stop tidying it yourself about two weeks before and let us shape it. Home trimming between now and then is how beards end up uneven on one side, and that is the side the camera finds.

If you want a clean shave for the day, that is the one thing to do the morning of, not before. Shave two days early and you will have shadow in every photo.

We are open when you actually have time

Event weeks are busy weeks. Ours are the hours that tend to survive that.

• Sunday 8am to 2pm. Most shops in town are closed. If the only window you have is Sunday morning, we are open.
• Saturday from 7am. Before the day starts, before anything else is scheduled.
• Friday until 8pm. After work, the night before a weekend event.
• Seven days a week, so the two-or-three-days-before rule actually works no matter when your day lands.

Walk in any day we are open — with twelve chairs the wait is usually short. If you want a specific barber or a specific time, book ahead.

The week of

• Three days before: haircut and beard shape up.
• Two days before: still fine. This is the window.
• The day before: workable, but the cut will still look brand new in photos.
• The morning of: only for a clean shave, or a line-up if you were cut earlier in the week and want the edges crisp.

If your day is coming up and you are not sure what to ask for, come in and say so. We would rather talk it through in the chair than have you guess and find out in the photographs.