Barber Hacks: 5 Instagram Barbers To Inspire Growth
Barberhacks is entertainment network focused on barbering. We drop tips, tricks, and articles on barbering every week, so be sure to come back weekly for more content.
INSTAGRAM
I am one of those people that haunt Instagram on a regular basis, https://www.instagram.com/crowbarber and I believe, as barbers that we can learn a lot from this platform, and be inspired by this platform. One of the reasons that I created Barberhacks.com was to help inspire barbers that need inspiration, and to create a place where education was free for those who don’t have the money to splash in order to further themselves in this field.
When I was coming up I was incredibly broke (I lived on dollar Ramen for too long), I struggled to find information that would make me better at what I was doing, and I had mentors that didn’t care to provide my education for me. I struggled for every ounce of education that I have in my head, I bought books, I borrowed books from the library, I trolled the internet for DVDs from small companies (hell, I learned how to fade from a DVD called Enter the Art Zone), and I took whatever classes I could afford. And you know what? I still had holes in my education, I still have holes in my education, but I do whatever I can to fill those holes.
Instagram and YouTube have changed the way that we learn, the way that I learn, and I believe that we, as a barbering community, can do a lot in educating one another through these platforms.
With this in mind I’m going to run down, in no particular order, barbers that educate and inspire me on a daily basis.
Andrew is incredibly creative with his haircuts, fading with scissors, and creating textured, natural looks photographed in such a way that creates a sense of drama and modern nonchalance.
With a motto that claims, “Good hair doesn’t come from a jar,” Andrew espouses that educating our customers is the best way for them to be happy with their hair, and I agree with this. Anyone that can make their hair look good based on the advice that you’ve given makes that customer a walking billboard for you. Happy customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends.
If you haven’t taken the time to read @adhbook it is a guide on how to get to the point where you can raise your prices and ask for the wages that you deserve. The entire book is on Instagram where you can read it for FREE, and it really is great advice to anyone that wants to read it, especially if you are in the hair industry. Do yourself a favour and read it.
Andrew is also an amazing photographer and social media influencer, although I’m sure he would say otherwise. IF you are looking for ways to up your photography game, following him can’t hurt, as he is always suggesting lens’ and photography equipment that could change your game.
It doesn’t finish here either, Andrew just started https://www.thehairjam.com where he and other celebrity barbers give you tips and tricks of the trade from social media, business, videos and photography.
He is very active on Instagram, answers questions from his page and his DMs, and is inspiring in every sense of the word.
Flawless fades and designs are Rich Payne’s specialty. Rich has ways of blending hair with free hand techniques that are thrilling to watch in video and take painstaking precision and attention to detail that very few have the ability to match.
Having originally ran into Rich’s videos on YouTube, it has been amazing to watch him grow as a barber and to marvel at the silky finish on his fades and the architectural approach to lineups and cuts.
Rich doesn’t shy away from filming video of his approach to finishing his cuts, which, to me, is what differentiates a master from a novice, and Rich is a master barber in every sense of the word.
While his designs are simple in many ways, Rich’s designs have such a clean finish and his use of negative space within these designs adds such an amazing and striking visual punch-to-the-face that pull me in and have me revisiting his page in order to be inspired to get better and be better in perfecting my clipper and razor craft.
One half of the worldwide sensation that is Schorem and Reuzel, the Bloody Butcher is the maddened spirit of Rockabilly let loose on the barbering world and is an insane genius in classic men’s hair.
Part of the reason that the barbering industry is filled with young tattooed men with a penchant for huge pompadours, the Bloody Butcher’s feed is a mix of hair, skateboarding, grime, booze, cigarettes, sex and love for the barber shop.
You could argue that Schorem is responsible for the mass exodus of men from the salon and back into the barbershop, enabling craft barbering to become what it is today.
What started with two barbers that refused to do it any other way than their way became a global brand and sensation and when you follow the Bloody Butcher’s Instagram you can see why they blew up the way they did.
Schorem is a men’s only barbershop where you can drink a beer and whisky and get a flat-top with fenders, a pompadour with jelly roll, or a psycho quiff from a barber with a bowler hat, suspenders and a three piece suit.
The Bloody Butcher is the personification of this movement and his Instagram posts share his unbridled enthusiasm for barbering, and for me personally, I like to be caught up in the insanity of it all.
You can’t deny that, as a barber, the Butcher has skills. He constantly creates images with his crew that are original, inspirational, and filled with organized chaos.
https://www.instagram.com/staygold31
I feel as though Sofie’s page is the page of an influencer as much as it is a barber, but I enjoy the way that she approaches barbering and her brand. There is so much of that west coast, Los Angeles, fashion forward feeling to Sofie’s page in her work.
As a brand ambassador for Babyliss and Mizutani shears, Sofie uses her raw talent, her well-crafted image, and penchant for video and photography to curate a page that betrays the amount of work that goes into it and comes off with an effortless amount of cool.
Razor blades mix with vans, bleached hair, tattoos, selfies and crisp, well-executed fades that make you question whether your tools are as good as what they have going on over at Babyliss.
While I don’t normally go for inspirational messages on Instagram I feel that Sofie’s message is positive and honest, and that is a hard image to curate on a platform based mostly on pictures.
This page is a page where I go to for inspiration on how to present my image on social media and the hype surrounding it, and to do it with style and positivity.
Josh creates haircuts that defy modern convention, but feel as though they walked off the set of the latest Blade Runner movie. I imagine Josh inspires as much hate with his haircutting style as he inspires the opposite.
What I love about Josh and the way that he cuts hair, is that he is stepping outside of the conventional, in a way that relies on technical prowess and innovation. By blending men’s barbering with techniques steeped in the hairdressing of Vidal Sassoon, Josh and his empire of Menspire Salons, hold men’s hairdressing and barbering to standards that you don’t see from many barbers.
The Vidal way of hairdressing takes the natural fall and growth pattern of hair in consideration and builds haircuts from that, and Josh and his crew build on those ideas, adding design elements based on round, square and triangular shapes coupled with the ideas of hard and soft edges to create fashion forward looks.
Whether you like the looks that Josh is putting out, you can’t deny that his approach to hair is something from which you can pull a wealth of knowledge from and apply to your everyday services in the barbershop.
Honorable Mentions:
@titanbarber
@nomadbarber
@braidbarbers
@kevinluchman
@brosh.jp
@flatmax
@patmanbarber
@shawnbarbz
Thanks,
Email Mjmartinejohn@gmail.com for a gear guide and to be put on a mailing list.
When I was coming up I was incredibly broke (I lived on dollar Ramen for too long), I struggled to find information that would make me better at what I was doing, and I had mentors that didn’t care to provide my education for me. I struggled for every ounce of education that I have in my head, I bought books, I borrowed books from the library, I trolled the internet for DVDs from small companies (hell, I learned how to fade from a DVD called Enter the Art Zone), and I took whatever classes I could afford. And you know what? I still had holes in my education, I still have holes in my education, but I do whatever I can to fill those holes.
Instagram and YouTube have changed the way that we learn, the way that I learn, and I believe that we, as a barbering community, can do a lot in educating one another through these platforms.
With this in mind I’m going to run down, in no particular order, barbers that educate and inspire me on a daily basis.
ANDREWDOESHAIR
Andrew does hair doesn’t call himself a barber, but a hairdresser, but one that communicates through men’s hairdressing. The founder of ADHbrand and the writer of https://www.instagram.com/adhbook, Andrew is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the hair industry and he shares it freely on his instagram page, and if you are willing to pay for it, through the hairjam.com.
Andrew is incredibly creative with his haircuts, fading with scissors, and creating textured, natural looks photographed in such a way that creates a sense of drama and modern nonchalance.
With a motto that claims, “Good hair doesn’t come from a jar,” Andrew espouses that educating our customers is the best way for them to be happy with their hair, and I agree with this. Anyone that can make their hair look good based on the advice that you’ve given makes that customer a walking billboard for you. Happy customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends.
If you haven’t taken the time to read @adhbook it is a guide on how to get to the point where you can raise your prices and ask for the wages that you deserve. The entire book is on Instagram where you can read it for FREE, and it really is great advice to anyone that wants to read it, especially if you are in the hair industry. Do yourself a favour and read it.
Andrew is also an amazing photographer and social media influencer, although I’m sure he would say otherwise. IF you are looking for ways to up your photography game, following him can’t hurt, as he is always suggesting lens’ and photography equipment that could change your game.
It doesn’t finish here either, Andrew just started https://www.thehairjam.com where he and other celebrity barbers give you tips and tricks of the trade from social media, business, videos and photography.
He is very active on Instagram, answers questions from his page and his DMs, and is inspiring in every sense of the word.
SMASHTHALEGEND
https://www.instagram.com/smashthalegendFlawless fades and designs are Rich Payne’s specialty. Rich has ways of blending hair with free hand techniques that are thrilling to watch in video and take painstaking precision and attention to detail that very few have the ability to match.
Having originally ran into Rich’s videos on YouTube, it has been amazing to watch him grow as a barber and to marvel at the silky finish on his fades and the architectural approach to lineups and cuts.
Rich doesn’t shy away from filming video of his approach to finishing his cuts, which, to me, is what differentiates a master from a novice, and Rich is a master barber in every sense of the word.
While his designs are simple in many ways, Rich’s designs have such a clean finish and his use of negative space within these designs adds such an amazing and striking visual punch-to-the-face that pull me in and have me revisiting his page in order to be inspired to get better and be better in perfecting my clipper and razor craft.
The_bloody_butcher
https://www.instagram.com/the_bloody_butcherOne half of the worldwide sensation that is Schorem and Reuzel, the Bloody Butcher is the maddened spirit of Rockabilly let loose on the barbering world and is an insane genius in classic men’s hair.
Part of the reason that the barbering industry is filled with young tattooed men with a penchant for huge pompadours, the Bloody Butcher’s feed is a mix of hair, skateboarding, grime, booze, cigarettes, sex and love for the barber shop.
You could argue that Schorem is responsible for the mass exodus of men from the salon and back into the barbershop, enabling craft barbering to become what it is today.
What started with two barbers that refused to do it any other way than their way became a global brand and sensation and when you follow the Bloody Butcher’s Instagram you can see why they blew up the way they did.
Schorem is a men’s only barbershop where you can drink a beer and whisky and get a flat-top with fenders, a pompadour with jelly roll, or a psycho quiff from a barber with a bowler hat, suspenders and a three piece suit.
The Bloody Butcher is the personification of this movement and his Instagram posts share his unbridled enthusiasm for barbering, and for me personally, I like to be caught up in the insanity of it all.
You can’t deny that, as a barber, the Butcher has skills. He constantly creates images with his crew that are original, inspirational, and filled with organized chaos.
STAYGOLD31
https://www.instagram.com/staygold31
I feel as though Sofie’s page is the page of an influencer as much as it is a barber, but I enjoy the way that she approaches barbering and her brand. There is so much of that west coast, Los Angeles, fashion forward feeling to Sofie’s page in her work.
As a brand ambassador for Babyliss and Mizutani shears, Sofie uses her raw talent, her well-crafted image, and penchant for video and photography to curate a page that betrays the amount of work that goes into it and comes off with an effortless amount of cool.
Razor blades mix with vans, bleached hair, tattoos, selfies and crisp, well-executed fades that make you question whether your tools are as good as what they have going on over at Babyliss.
While I don’t normally go for inspirational messages on Instagram I feel that Sofie’s message is positive and honest, and that is a hard image to curate on a platform based mostly on pictures.
This page is a page where I go to for inspiration on how to present my image on social media and the hype surrounding it, and to do it with style and positivity.
JOSHLAMONACA
https://www.instagram.com/joshlamonacaJosh creates haircuts that defy modern convention, but feel as though they walked off the set of the latest Blade Runner movie. I imagine Josh inspires as much hate with his haircutting style as he inspires the opposite.
What I love about Josh and the way that he cuts hair, is that he is stepping outside of the conventional, in a way that relies on technical prowess and innovation. By blending men’s barbering with techniques steeped in the hairdressing of Vidal Sassoon, Josh and his empire of Menspire Salons, hold men’s hairdressing and barbering to standards that you don’t see from many barbers.
The Vidal way of hairdressing takes the natural fall and growth pattern of hair in consideration and builds haircuts from that, and Josh and his crew build on those ideas, adding design elements based on round, square and triangular shapes coupled with the ideas of hard and soft edges to create fashion forward looks.
Whether you like the looks that Josh is putting out, you can’t deny that his approach to hair is something from which you can pull a wealth of knowledge from and apply to your everyday services in the barbershop.
IN CONCLUSION
Pulling inspiration for our day to day lives from the photos of barbers around the world is what keeps me going sometimes, Instagram can be the place where I go to harvest the seeds of inspiration. Thousands of barbers doing amazing work, who do you look up the most? Leave comments down below to let me know.Honorable Mentions:
@titanbarber
@nomadbarber
@braidbarbers
@kevinluchman
@brosh.jp
@flatmax
@patmanbarber
@shawnbarbz
Thanks,
@crowbarber on Instagram
Follow our YouTube channelEmail Mjmartinejohn@gmail.com for a gear guide and to be put on a mailing list.
