5 Secrets They Don't Teach You in Barber School

5 Barber Secrets They Don't Teach You in Barber School
As a barber, you're not just cutting hair - you're building a business and a reputation. In this video, I'm sharing the 5 crucial secrets that barber school won't teach you but can make or break your career in this industry.

🔍 In this video, we'll cover:

Why competition isn't what you think
How consistency beats occasional excellence
The importance of sitting in your own barber chair
Why pride is a double-edged sword
How showing your authentic self attracts the right clients
These principles have transformed my business and countless others - they're the difference between struggling barbers and thriving ones.

📈 SECRET #1: Competition Isn't What You Think
Stop comparing yourself to neighboring barbers! The "grass is always greener" mindset will kill your motivation. Instead, focus on self-improvement rather than beating others. Track your personal growth through:

Skill development (new techniques mastered)
Client retention rates
Income progression
This mindset shift prevents burnout, attracts support from fellow barbers, and helps you focus on what actually matters - your own growth.

🎯 SECRET #2: Consistency is Discipline
Showing up reliably matters more than occasional excellence. Your clients need to know they can count on you. Build trust through:

Predictable availability
Consistent quality in every cut
Systems for scheduling (time yourself; under promise and over deliver)
The compound effect of showing up day after day creates a sustainable business that weather's industry fluctuations.

🪑 SECRET #3: Sitting in the Barber Chair
Experience your shop from the client's perspective! What do they actually see while in the chair?

Are your mirrors clean?
Is the lighting flattering?
Is your station organized?
What's the client's view while waiting?
Small adjustments to improve client comfort can transform satisfaction and lead to better reviews and referrals.

⚖️ SECRET #4: Pride is a Double-Edged Sword
Confidence is essential, but unchecked pride limits growth. The most successful barbers balance:

Believing in your skills
Remaining teachable at every level
Learning from others regardless of experience
Accepting constructive criticism
Remember: the best barbers are always students of the craft, no matter how successful they become.

💯 SECRET #5: Show Yourself (and Get People Who Love You for You)
Authenticity creates stronger connections than perfection. Clients don't just come for haircuts - they come for you!

Share your personality in your work
Be vulnerable about your journey
Show behind-the-scenes content
Let your unique style shine through
The right clients will appreciate you more for being genuine, leading to better retention and more enjoyable work days.

🔥 BONUS TIP: Implement these secrets gradually. Pick one to focus on each month until they become second nature.

💬 QUESTION FOR YOU: Which of these points resonates most with you? Share in the comments below - I read every single one and love hearing from fellow barbers!

Connect With Me:
• Instagram: @philofthebarber
• Website: www.philosophyofthebarber.com
• Book an appointment: https://philosophy-of-the-barber.square.site/

About Philosophy of the Barber:
At Philosophy of the Barber, we're dedicated to elevating the craft of barbering through education, discussion, and community. This channel is your resource for industry insights, techniques, and business strategies to help you thrive in your career.

#BarberSecrets #BarberBusiness #BarberLife #BarberTips #BarberSchool

Transcript

Five Lessons Beyond Barber School

Bree 0:00

As a barber, you're not just cutting hair, you're building a brand and a reputation. Today we're going to talk about five things they don't teach you in barber school. We're going to cover competition, consistency, sitting in the barber chair, pride, and one at the end that is the most important of all. These five things are super important in order to have long-term success in the barbering industry. First, we're going to talk about competition. It's not what you think. If you ask the average person about competition and what they view that as, they're going to tell you something like, Oh, at the barber down the street, oh, the other barbers in town. Mm-mm. That's what it looks like. That's what people think it is. But that's not reality. If you spend all your time looking around at what everybody else is doing, you're not going to be paying very close attention to what you're doing. Think of it like driving. If you're spending all of your time looking at the cars around you on the road, but you're not paying attention to where you're steering your car, that's a bit of a problem. Don't get me wrong, you got that peripheral vision, so you can keep an eye on what things are happening, but you have to focus on what you're doing because that's the only thing you have control over. And if you're in a situation where you're working at someone else's shop and you're looking around at the other barbershops in the area, looking at, oh, their barbers get paid this, or oh, they're only charged this for booth rent. But you don't see the whole picture, you don't see the culture in that barbershop, you don't really know what's going on there. It may look more appealing, that whole grass is greener thing. From a distance, it might look like the ideal situation for you. But if you decide to drop and leave and check it out, it might not be all it's cracked up to be. In my opinion, it's far more productive to be focused on the positive things that you can improve on in your own profession versus worrying about what somebody else is doing with theirs. One of the ways that you can focus on your own self-improvement and making sure you're moving in the right direction is keeping track of things, keeping track of how much your clientele is growing, making sure that you're constantly looking to build your skill set. Those sorts of things let you know that you're moving in the right direction versus constantly looking around you, seeing what other people are doing, and not focusing on improving yourself. Remember, income is only one way to measure your improvement. If you do everything in your power to make sure your mindset is focused on the positive that you can instill, you're gonna reap long-term benefits from the strategy. You're gonna make sure that you can prevent burnout, you're gonna have people actually support you in your journey. Those things help you better focus on what matters. Number two, we're gonna talk about consistency. Consistency is actually discipline. And here's how that goes. Showing up reliably, not just for your clients, but also for your coworkers, matters far more than occasional success and occasional excellence. Making sure you can show up every day on time so that you can become dependable and then they will be able to rely on you. That matters far more than you showing up early once in a while or doing a fantastic, like heavy business day once in a while. Every client wants to be able to depend on you. They need something, you should be there when you say you're gonna be there. If you have a posted schedule, be there when it says you're supposed to be there. Or if for whatever reason life happens and you can't, communicate with them because life does happen. But if life starts to happen a little too often, to where you don't have a pattern of being reliable, you have a pattern of constantly rescheduling and things coming up, then you're no longer reliable. You become a liability. In order to establish consistency, you have to create systems. We're talking systems for scheduling, systems for how you execute your services. So make sure you have a clock at your station so you know how long it takes you to perform a particular service, not on a specific individual, but the service in general. Make sure you know about how long it's going to take for whatever service, be it a haircut, a skin fade, a face shave, whatever it is, know how long it will consistently take you to perform it. When in doubt, under promise, over-deliver. If you gotta work in a little bit of wiggle room for yourself because you know some people's hair is gonna take a little bit more time and attention than others, work that in. It's better to have a little bit too much time than not enough, and then you start running behind. One thing we should all be learning in hair school is procedures for attacking certain hair services. If you were not blessed with a procedure, create some. That way you are doing things efficiently and you're not wasting time hopping between tools and not respecting your client's time. If you know how long it takes you to perform a service and you have a first timer trying to squeeze in and you go, you know what? Yeah, I can fit you in. Awesome. That way you can guarantee that you're not going to be running late for your next customer. Or even better, when you get to know your regulars, you know that you can accomplish their services faster than your allotted time when it comes to an appointment. Great. That means you just opened up a little bit of time for yourself or for another client. I'll give you an example of long-term benefits of showing up consistently over time and the importance of building that foundation, even though you're not going to see benefits overnight. When I first opened my barbershop and the downtown area that we were located in was used to rolling up the sidewalks at night about five o'clock. But we knew that there was a need for there to be a late night. If you had shift work and everybody closes at five and you don't get out until five, how are you gonna get a haircut? But the previous barbershop that was located where we were didn't offer that. So we needed to make sure that we stayed open consistently. We chose Thursday evenings, we were gonna be open until seven. We stayed open until seven for probably 18 months to two years before people really started to know that we were open late on Thursdays, even though it was on the internet, it was available for anybody to find, but it was just the understanding in the public that like everybody closed at five, they rolled up the sidewalks, nothing was open downtown. But eventually we had that consistency, we were open till seven, and there wasn't always a ton of people that first 18 months, but once word started to spread, that became one of our most popular evenings for people to show up and book in. Number three, sitting in the barber chair when you don't have a customer. Now in my barber school, you were taught, uh-uh, you don't sit in that barber chair. That barber chair is for clients only. But other schools of thought are don't sit in the waiting chairs, those are for customers. Well, if you can't sit in the barber chair and you can't sit in the waiting chair, and if you don't have a break room, and even if you do have a break room, if nobody sees that there's a barber available, are they gonna come in? Maybe, maybe not. So where does a barber sit when they're not cutting hair? I will say that my barber school definitely is recommended standing. But you know what? Sometimes for your long-term health, that's not always the best. Now, that whole you got time to lean, you got time to clean, absolutely. If there's things to do in the barber shop, do the things. But if you do find yourself all the things are done and it's a slow day, especially if you're on the newer side, but even if you're experienced, it's okay. Sit in the barber chair, sit where the clients are sitting, but do it with an intention. When you sit there, look around and put your mindset in the position of a customer. What are you seeing? Are you seeing dust on the table? Are you seeing hair in places? Do you see where cleaning maybe has been a bit neglected? Are you seeing things that you don't want a customer to be seeing? Like maybe a stack of Amazon boxes tucked off in the corner, maybe not so tucked, or somebody's lunch that they had to drop really quick because they had a walk-in come in. These are things you want to pay attention to when you have an opportunity. Sit down, look around, see what the customer's seeing, see what you don't want them to see, and fix it. Same thing in your barber chair. Sit there, but turn it around, look at your station and see what the client is seeing. How clean is your station really? Is it organized? Is it efficient? Is everything labeled properly? That way, when they're looking around, maybe they're curious. Oh, what's that blue stuff? What's the stuff in that bottle? Especially if maybe they have an allergy. You want to make sure that they're feeling safe in your space, that you're professional, that you're sanitary, that they don't have to worry about catching anything from you. Also, it's a good idea to sit in these spots to know if they're comfortable, if they need to be replaced, or if they need to be fixed. Even making those small adjustments are gonna make all the difference when it comes to the details that customers experience, so that they're gonna continue to come to you and not somewhere else. Number four, pride. Now, pride is a double-edged sword. Don't get me wrong, there's no issue having confidence in your skill and your experience. Just like anything, taken too far, it can be a negative. As barbers, especially with first-time customers, it's important to have confidence. Otherwise, why should the customer be comfortable in your chair? If you're not exuding confidence, why should they have confidence in you if you don't have it in yourself? But at the same time, when it comes to a growing and progressing barber, if you want to continue to become a better barber, you need to be humble. Humility is key to having an open enough mind to be educated further. You really got to be open to the concept that there's something in this world you have yet to learn. Now, don't get me wrong, having that pride and confidence can be a driving force for good, so that you really want to show exactly what you know, show all the services that you are capable of offering. That is not a problem at all. But as soon as you start to have the thought, man, I don't need to listen to this guy. I already know how to do this. Maybe there's something that you don't know. And maybe because you're just not opening to listen to it, you're gonna miss out on a little nugget of knowledge that would have taken you further. Because that person has a different life experience than you. Maybe they know a little bit you don't, even if they've been cutting hair less time than you. It's important to keep the mindset that no matter what, everybody on this earth is different and has a different experience level and perspective to offer. You can't experience everything in this world. None of us can, and thank goodness for that. But that means everyone has something to offer everyone else as far as knowledge and experience. I guarantee you, the most successful barbers you see on social media platforms, one of the reasons they continue to be successful is because they keep learning. They know they're not the best. None of us are, but they know there's always something new to learn. Number five. And in my opinion, the most important thing that you need to know that they typically don't teach in barber school. Show yourself. Be you, be authentic, be bold, show who you are, especially those of us who are introverted. It's really important for us to show our authentic selves to our customers. That way they know who we are. Because that's how you connect with people. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand. That's vulnerable. Could be open to being judged. But realistically, this is your space. This is your space to work in. You have every right to decorate, to show off what makes you enthusiastic, what excites you about life. That kicks off conversations, that creates connections, you find friends that way, and in today's day and age, that's a little bit harder to do than it used to be. If you're not connecting with people in this industry, why are you here? This is all about people. Sure, haircuts, shaves, those are things that we do, services we perform, but we're performing them while we're connecting with people. We're connecting with people even while they're waiting, before they get a service, after they get a service. People are why I, after 15 years, am still in this industry. Because trust me, if it was just about the haircut, I would have left probably five years ago. Maybe more. We happen to be blessed in one of those careers where we have an opportunity daily to show kindness to one another that can't be undervalued. Just the other day, I ran into a client and his wife when my husband and I were out for our anniversary dinner. I'd never met his wife before, and when they got up to leave, they stopped by the table, said hello, introduced themselves, and she was so enthused to meet me. She had heard stories about me for years because I've been cutting this man's hair for years. I wouldn't think twice about somebody saying anything about me from a barber standpoint, because I've never really seen this man outside of the barber shop. But for whatever reason, we've connected over the years, and apparently he says good things about me. And that's really nice to hear. Because we haven't necessarily always agreed on subjects when he sat in my chair, and that's fine. I'd say some of my favorite people are people I disagree with quite a bit. But that's what makes it fun. The ability to disagree with somebody and still love them at the end of the day. So let's recap. Competition. It's not with the barbers down the road, it's not with the barbers in town. Competition should really be with who you are yesterday. If you're not trying to be better than you were yesterday, what's the point? Two, consistency. Consistency is what builds discipline. You can't really have it without the other. It's not a bad idea to sit in a barber chair or sit in a waiting chair and look at your shop from a different perspective. Pride can be a double-edged sword. Make sure it's cutting where you want it to cut and not cutting you in the process. And lastly, be yourself. Show the world who you are, one client at a time. These five things will serve you very well long term in your career. I guarantee it. They've served me very well in mine. I want to know which one of these resonates with you. Leave it down in the comment below, and I'll see you next time.