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This page addresses certain recurring subjects customers bring up from time to time. I thought about researching and writing my own articles; but, on second thought, I decided that was too much trouble; so I’ve simply included links.
MOLES AND BUMPS THAT MIGHT BE CANCER. See a doctor; don’t ask your barber for advice.
THINNING HAIR. “What can I do about my thinning hair?” people ask. Personally, my thoughts on the matter are:
- Accept it and don’t worry about it.
- Surgery is an option. It’s expensive, and insurance won’t cover the procedure.
- There are certain products that claim to help reverse thinning hair. Do they work? I don’t know.
- Some people try the toupee route. Some toupees actually look quite convincing.
- Some men who are in their seventies, eighties, and nineties have a thing that has become known as a “comb-over.” This is the practice of allowing the thin hair on the top of a man’s head to grow really long for the purpose of tricking the rest of us into believing that the man actually has a full head of hair. It never works.
INGROWN HAIRS. Customers used to ask us to deal with their ingrown hairs. As we were never taught in barber school how to remove ingrown hairs, it never really turned out well I don’t think. Thankfully, all that seems to be a thing of the past. I have found that treating the affected area with 70% alcohol helps. Here’s an article about ingrown hairs from Cleveland Clinic. Amazon sells products to deal with them.
HEAD LICE. We don’t see head lice that much anymore. If you or you child gets head lice, please do not come to the barber shop until the issue is resolved. John Hopkins Medicine website has a wonderful article concerning the subject of head lice. There are also over-the-counter products available.
DRY SCALP. What to do about a dry scalp – this is a query that we have heard since we’ve been in the hair cutting business. Here’s an article from webmd.com about dry scalp. There are also over-the-counter products available.
OILY SCALP. We don’t get many questions about oily scalp. Anyway, as with the other two preceding subjects, here’s an article from self.com about oily scalp and some over-the-counter products to treat it.
COWLICK. A cowlick is a section of hair that grows from the scalp at a different angle than the surrounding hair. There are two ways to deal with a cowlick: (1) Let the cowlick hair grow really long so that it will become heavy, will lay down, and will give the person with the cowlick various combing options; or (2) cut the cowlick hair really short, which will sort of get rid of it until the section of hair grows back out and begins sticking up again. Here’s an article about cowlicks.
EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES WE USE. Sometimes a customer will ask where they can get one of the items we use in the shop. Sometimes I tell them the item which they have asked about is found on Amazon; and sometimes I will simply give them a barber supply catalog. Here are links to some of the common questions we get about certain products we use…
- Andis Outliner II edger
- Wahl Super-Taper clipper
- Clipper oil
- Guides/Guards for Wahl clippers
- Scalpmaster replaceable-blade razor
- Blades for razor
- FMS Flattop Wax – this is not what we have traditionally used; but since Covid has made certain things either too expensive to buy or hard to get, we’ve been using this brand.
- Hair Gel – yeah, believe it or not, people don’t know where to buy hair gel.