Bad haircuts

My old pal has found a barber shop that suits him. A really old fashioned barber shop. But like most of these places - there's one guy who's really good - and maybe another person who's, well, still learning. In a unisex joint or many of the women's places you can pay for different grades of expertise and (presumably) talent. I'll have the "director's cut", I'll have the "master cut", I'll have the cheapo cut by the gal who normally brushes up the hair from the floor cut.

But apparently in a truly all male preserve barber shop a different system operates. The "naw, you go ahead" system.

St Caffeine describes:

He's obviously the less popular of the two guys there because both times I've been, he's cut my hair while others, who were there before me, continue to wait. It doesn't matter to me; I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible

I've always wondered how this make the "lesser" guy feel. While regular customers wait it out for the superior cut, the newby jumps the queue. It's got to be obvious what's going on.

My husband used to go to this dirt cheap barber shop in Sheffield. We were dirt poor, so it worked out. But the guy who owned the shop did these amazing hair cuts. I mean he could have been charging at least 10 times what he did if he only operated from a different neighbourhood - and in London 20 times. I'm sure he could have doubled or tripled his prices without a significant effect on business. The Vol-in-Law always came back looking slick - and he's the scruffy academic type. But, the barber shop second was not nearly so good - and the Vol-in-Law was never quite able to work the "naw, you go ahead" system to best effect - so he was often out-maneuvred and ended up with the lesser cut. Once the poor gal who cut his hair (do you really trust a woman who works in a barber shop?) also managed to cut his ear. He came home with blood streaked jawline and a bad hair cut.

Shortly afterwards the barber shop instituted a new policy and a sign appeared. Regular cut £X, Apprentice cut £Y (X > Y)