As 2017 comes to a close, I thought I would take a look back at the year in men's hair. I haven't had as many opportunities to blog as much as the past, but I'm out of the salon for a few days for the holiday.
At least for the guys that come in to get their hair cut by me, the undercut is still king. This is easily the most requested haircut in the salon. It's a great looking cut, has been in fashion for years now, and I think part of the reason for so many men requesting undercuts from me is that I have more pictures of that particular haircut than any other on Yelp, Instagram, and my website so my numbers my be skewed a little. I tend to fade my undercuts, because of that it makes for a good picture from the front and the side--while scissor haircuts can be pretty uninteresting from the side view. That leads to twice as many undercut pictures. I'm trying to get better about taking more pictures of the haircuts I do.
The number one haircut girlfriends have been sending guys in with pictures of is Ryan Gosling's haircut. There wasn't one picture that everyone brought in, but a few different lengths. All of them were long enough on top where the hair could be parted to the side and fall over (as opposed to spike up) and the sides were long enough to where the hair could be pushed back. This haircut looks great at a few lengths, so you could get one of the shorter versions of the cut and have it grow into how he wears it when it's longer. You could even come in for the hairline clean up service I offer ($10) and get the sideburns neatened, back tapered, and neck trimmed so your hair doesn't look sloppy as it grows out to keep your hair looking its best.
This year I've also seen classic barbering come back into style--men getting their hair cut with a shorter clipper blade and short on top as well. Some guys like the look because it's low maintenance at home. These usually get the hair cut finger length or just a little longer on top. Others just like the classic, clean look or have really thick hair on the sides and need the clippers to rid some of the bulk.
I get a decent amount of guys with long hair coming in to the salon as well. For this blog, when I say "long hair" I'm talking about any hair that touches the collar or longer. While I do see a lot of guys with this length of hair, I think I would see more if I had more pictures of longer haired men. I didn't really take a lot when we first moved to Culver City--when we were in west LA I had a great spot with a neutral background inside Sola to take pictures of my haircuts, and I'd been trying to find a spot at the new salon. The best spot I could think of would be in front of the brick wall at the bank, but no one (including myself) wants to run across the street and dodge traffic on Sawtelle to get their picture taken. I settled on just taking pics at the chair in the salon after I do my detailing and get the hair styled.
Overall, it was a great 2017 at the salon. We left Sola in west LA and moved to Culver City in February. In the hair industry moving is really stressful because there is no way to tell who is going to follow you, especially with the traffic in Los Angeles. I saw a dip in the amount of haircuts I did in the first month we were at the salon, but things really picked up as I got going and I ended up having over 50% growth for the year. I'd like to thank everyone who followed me, and all of the new people I've met while working in the Culver City salon for making this year one of the best.
On to 2018!!
Tim
