I got my hair cut four months ago. It's gone from quite short to medium-length curly, and it's grown out perfectly. In a couple weeks or so, I'll get it cut again. It'll cost $60, including a tip, and be worth every dollar.
Men, it seems, too often consider a haircut as something less than important. But haircuts matter, simply because you're stuck with one for at least several weeks before it grows enough to cut again. I myself stumbled through a series of low-quality $15 haircuts until I was 25, two years ago. Then, frustrated with mediocre 'dos, I called up one of the popular and reputed salons in downtown Toronto, and asked for an appointment with their best curly-hair cutter.
The next week, after an hour under the creative eye and steady hand of Jimi Imij, a stylist at Coupe Bizzarre, I received the best haircut I'd ever had. Paying $60 that first time was a bit jarring, but I've kept going back, more convinced than ever of the value of craftsmanship. It's like with suits. A good three-piece outshines an average one, just as a fine haircut outranks the ordinary. Don't cheap out -- on either score -- is a sensible basic rule.
Spending an hour is key. Most men see haircuts as a date to be done with quickly; they get it over with like an inconsiderate lover rushes sex. But a haircut should not be a rapid snip-snip affair.
Whether hair is curly or straight, the idea of shape and structure underpin a proper cut, and they take time to do well. Shape is the easier of the two -- short on the sides, longish on top or whatever more involved variation. Structure, however, makes the cut. Cutting underneath is as important as cutting on top, influencing how the hair falls, rests and looks. There can be no express version of this procedure.
The goal, Imij says, is "being able to predict what it's going to do." And this is the great contrast with my cheap haircut experiences. For $15, they might look nice the week you get them, but they always grow out a little off. The concept of good value is undermined when you have to go back three weeks later because the first one was lousy.
Still, don't assume haughty prices equal solid quality. It's easy to charge a lot for a service. The difficult trick is delivering, and sometimes things just aren't worth the money. Finding a personal style and comfort is most important.
My buddy Adam Harper, a former banker now looking for more progressive work, gave Coupe Bizzarre a try a year ago, partly on my recommendation. The experience was not positive. "It was totally not worth the money," he said. "My hair didn't look any better, at four times the cost."
Harper's back at his regular: Alex Cuts, a basic $15 shop. It's standard issue, save the eponymous owner's entertaining personality and skilled scissors. For me, two dreary decades of less-than-pleasing results from Topcuts and the rest of that ersatz ilk leave me unwilling to ever go back.
The cost of my new cuts still shocks many men ("Your haircuts cost $60? Oh my God!" was my roommate's reaction), but like fine suits, excellent footwear or Haagen-Dazs, paying a fair chunk extra is more than worth it. At a minimum, a discerning man should consider moving up the price scale when allowing a stranger to wield sharp blades at close distance.
Dave Ebner is a Globe and Mail reporter.