Guys who go into a barbershop and order their haircut by number, C or D?

"Number 2 on the sides, and 3 on top."

I was mystified by this the first few times I heard it. At least some of my childhood barbershops had a big poster on the wall with models with different cheezy-ass 1970s hairstyles. Were the people I heard asking for specific types of haircut?

No. They are asking for the number of the specific clipper guide/guard thingy that determine the length of electrically trimmed hair. One barber recently "helpfully" informed me the number of the haircut I'd just gotten.

Not a fan, myself. I like scissors, but I don't mind if someone uses a trimmer on me. And hey, if you are particular about your hair length, I can see the virtue of convenience; it's just that this system is not in my brain yet. Plus I've had pretty much the same hairdo since I was seven years old, so usually I just say "like this, but shorter."

this will be a fun us/uk thread

If you are bald, like me, then this makes sense. I go into a hair dresser and ask for like a 1 on the hair and 1.5 on beard to keep it all a certain length.

If it's all one length all the way round, and one can purchase the trimmer and guides, couldn't one just cut one's own hair as well as a pro?

no

If you're bald then isn't everything a 0?

^ not necessarily, some people that are bald totally do a 0 or some leave some hair. I side with Larry David on this, one should be able to see HOW bald you are..the total shave is a trick

I think when I hear "bald" I just register it as "100% hairless, baldness completed", rather than thinking of someone who is balding or has a bald patch.

i do this

Not a fan, myself. I like scissors, but I don't mind if someone uses a trimmer on me. And hey, if you are particular about your hair length, I can see the virtue of convenience; it's just that this system is not in my brain yet. Plus I've had pretty much the same hairdo since I was seven years old, so usually I just say "like this, but shorter."

i'm curious if this is the case why did you frame the post as C/D and not RFI

i not only ask for a particular number i ask for a haircut by name

short ivy league, 4 on top

tapered and faded

Ridiculous thread tbh

Two back and sides, tidy above with scissors btw

wtf @ this thread

ILX: come for judging people for the most inane trivial criteria, stay for ... ?

imo the acceptable hair options are barbershops where this exactness of task are good, or a skilled hair stylist/barber who can be trusted to recreate a specified style or offer suggestions that are appropriate

the middle ground of discount hair cutting chains are too often poor craftsmen and inexperienced as stylists

it's not a "hairstyle" or "haircut by number" it is literally just referring to the clipper guard length. what is the mystery.

where is this a mystery in the thread?

I was mystified

...did you read the rest of the post?

it's what's known as a framing device

and while it's not "the number is shorthand for a style", if you tell a barber a number, and they know what you want, ("2 on sides, 3 on top") then you are, in fact, requesting by number!

thread should be retitled "'like this but shorter' vs. specifying trimmer length"

i never know how to ask for what i want done to my hair

a hairwhat

what about pointing to a picture in People magazine and saying "like that"

"Number 2 on the sides, and 3 on top."

I do this all the time for the sides

i do this because i want the barber to know how short i want him to shave my hair

One reason I enjoy reading this site is for all the strange threads that are created and this is definitely one of them. There is a LiveJournal approach that people take that makes this place quite fun.

Okay legitimately sorry for the judgy tone but I somehow made it 40 years hearing conversations that were long (so to speak) on qualitative information and short (so to speak) on quantitative information. My grandfather was a barber and my dad grew up in a barber shop.

"Short in the back and on the sides, but leave it a bit long in front" or "just a normal haircut" or "off the ears" or "tapered in the back" or "off the collar" or "just touching the ears." There was a whole language of it.

Then, seemingly just a few years ago, numbers entered the conversation. I went from never hearing them to always hearing them (though the technology had been there for a generation). It surprised me. Jeez.

Compare people who hold their phones like a slice of pizza. It didn't happen like almost ever, then it happened a bunch. It's understandable for an observer of culture to wonder wtf.

C/D: holding a phone in front of your face as if it were a slice of pizza

i've been getting buzz cuts on and off for 25 years and specifying the numbered length i want has always been required.

lol it was always EXACTLY as stated until my top got so thin it was revised to "finger length on top, long enough to lay flat, no longer."

also rounded in back, and either '1/4 inch of sideburns' or 'leave the beard,' depending on my face.

my new barber told me my number when I told him what I wanted and I liked it

"1 into a 2 at the back and sides" is standard for me.

When I was a student i bought clippers and went through a phase of a 5 to an 8 all over, apart from the time I had a clipper guard mishap that resulted in a 1 all over with a 0.5 strip up the left side of my head.

It is very important to have the right to do whatever you want with your hair, even talk about it using numbers

i've been getting buzz cuts on and off for 25 years and specifying the numbered length i want has always been required.

Exactly, I mean, this is how you order a buzz cut, fcol!

Guys who go into a cafe and order their drinks by size, C or D?

One reason I enjoy reading this site is for all the strange threads that are created and this is definitely one of them. There is a LiveJournal approach that people take that makes this place quite fun.

Post of the year

my new barber told me my number when I told him what I wanted and I liked it

same

Yeah it's a nice little buzz each time

wtf @ this thread.

and hey what's up with people who wear clothes based on the letter on them - "i'll have that t-shirt in large" - just ask for a t-shirt.

also i'm bald and i get a 1 not a zero - for that rakish wildman look

i'm curious if this is the case why did you frame the post as C/D and not RFI

― the late great, Tuesday, September 5, 2017 12:36 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

definitely mis-titled but it's more of a sweet hybrid, it's like a WUWT thread (what's up with that)

"3 on the sides and back and a trim on top" has been my order forever. OP should take his amazement to the "things I was embarrassingly old when I leaned" thread

lolllll

OTM. Except now I ask for #4 on the sides for a more mature look.

Also I've gone back from the $30 barber to a $15 barber and my hair looks just as good as long as I tell them that. Occasionally I also ask them to thin out and round the "corners" or whatever you call the spots just to the back of the ears where he back/sides/top of the head meet. I've learned over time the importance of not being afraid to ask the barber to change something when he says he's done.

when I got my current haircut I brought in a picture of a comic book character who is a teenage girl

that works too

my favorite is usually to slide into the chair and say i'll have a six....ty-nine, then pull my shades down to see if they catch my drift. then when they refuse to cut my hair, i go home and use the clipper 2 all the way around.

thread redeemed

surprisingly there is no thread on ILE for general barbershop discussion, perhaps this thread could be repurposed for that

and hey what's up with people who wear clothes based on the letter on them - "i'll have that t-shirt in large" - just ask for a t-shirt.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Tuesday, September 5, 2017 7:15 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

analogy works in unintended ways — I’ve gone to a local higher-end menswear place for a suit or shirt and the guy working has glanced at me and immediately grabbed the right size for me to try on multiple times!

pros just know

I order by number and keep a notes on my phone with the 2 combos of numbers I like (my usual is 3-3/4 guard on sides (1-3/4 on hairline) 1.25" in front top, 1" on back top). My barber just asks me to show her the formula. Also in that note is a list of dates of every haircut I've had since June 2011.

How many haircuts is that

I get the B6 from a hair extensions vending machine

Number 4 all over. Worked when I lived in London and Austria and now it works for me in Switzerland.

Guys who, when they order an orange juice, at the bar ask for 'a fresh orange'

Moving to a new city after having been to the same friend's shop for haircuts for over 10 years was an interesting experience. Sitting in the chair and saying 'just make me look cool, okay?' apparently doesn't work with people I don't know

The good thing about having your hair cut abroad is that you can feign ignorance of the local language and sit there in peace without having to enter into small talk with the barber.

i've been clipping my own hair for a couple of years now, it's fucking great

everyone should be bald imo, having hair is a bourgeouis indulgence

I have the most bourgeois indulgence then.

Despite not having cut my hair in 20 years I do enjoy the occasional trip to a hipster barbers for a beard trim and a shave. The challenges is always to get someone who can get my beard appropriately pointy.

ed's hair is counterrevolutionary imo

I think it observed on a previous thread that shaving your head when you are bald can be closely equivalent to a combover: if the intention is to disguise the fact you are bald (by confusing the issue of whether you are bald by choice or bald by nature).

Then, seemingly just a few years ago, numbers entered the conversation. I went from never hearing them to always hearing them

I'd guess I learnt about these numbers and how to ask for them in different places on my head about 28 years ago

27 years ago I bought clippers and started doing maintenance on my hair and basic cuts on school friends', using the numbers to indicate the length of oh god is this thread really happening

OP should take his amazement to the "things I was embarrassingly old when I leaned" thread

Is the next step going to be that YMP had a ponytail until 2014 but still doesn't understand why other, shorter haircuts used different equipment

To be fair, I've never asked for a haircut in numbers. Just described what I wanted and hoped for the best. I did get confused when I moved here by hairdressers asking loads of questions like 'do you prefer scissors or clippers?' because frankly I don't care what tools someone uses - they're the experts, and I know nothing about cutting hair. Just do what looks best, you know?

In many ways I'd much rather live in a prescriptive society where (as someone said above), you walk into a clothes shop and a sartorial expert simply hands you the clothes they suggest you wear, a barber cuts your hair the way it ought to sit on your head, the grocer works out the exact foods you need to feed your family etc... I don't know exactly how it would work, but it would make life easier for consumers, and retailers would be regarded with better respect

I think it observed on a previous thread that shaving your head when you are bald can be closely equivalent to a combover: if the intention is to disguise the fact you are bald (by confusing the issue of whether you are bald by choice or bald by nature).

as opposed to what, killing yourself?

or just going to live in the bald camp

you have to write "I AM BALD" in kiss curls with what remains of your hair

well, it's difficult to remember now, but there was a time before the 'ubiquitous shaved head as soon as the first signs of hair-loss emerge' monoculture.

Yeah it's cruel the monoculture it's cruel

i stopped going to the barber about 15 years ago and just hack away at it myself with scissors or get my wife to do it with the trimmer instead. it never looks particularly great tbh but i only ever had one major disaster: i managed to give myself several random bald spots while my wife was away on holiday and i ended up having to wear a wooly hat to work for a week to cover it up. told everyone i had earache :(

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4c/8f/0e/4c8f0e4ae9831f415964b39489a3863e--robocop--sci-fi-fantasy.jpg

Yeah, those were different times.

pros just know

it's because they are well-informed about reality thanks to their precision systems of measurement!!!

this thread has improved

The post-ironic Hoxton fin fauxhawk combover has some mileage left in it yet.