How much do you pay your barber? Jalen Rose said $100 should be the minimum

How much do you pay for your haircut: $20, $30, $40?

Former NBA player and ESPN announcer Jalen Rose said men should spend a minimum of $100. Not surprisingly, Rose’s comments generated a lot of conversation between barbers and customers alike.

Here in Milwaukee, Gaulien Smith, owner of Gee’s Clippers, one of the largest barbershops in the state and country with 30-chairs, said he would be hard pressed to find a barber who would admit to charging $100 in Milwaukee, but they do exist.

“I try not to knock barbers who charge those amounts, but we don’t charge that at my shop,” Smith said.

Rose's comments sparked a discussion about fair pricing, valuing the work of people in the service industry and the unique, almost sacred relationship, between barbers and clients in the Black community.

Smith, 52, said there are many reasons he has kept haircut prices reasonable. The main is that hair grows back fast, and it would stop a lot of customers from coming back.

“There are a lot of single mothers out there trying to make ends meet and we don’t want to create an extra financial burden on them, so we keep our prices around $20 to $30,” he said.

While Smith has cut the hair of many prominent athletes and entertainers who live in the area or who are in town to visit, he said he doesn’t believe in inflating prices just because a person has a large bank account.

“That’s not the way I do business. I don’t charge you more because you happen to play for the Milwaukee Bucks, or you are Shaq or Reggie Miller. I’ve never done that,” Smith said.

So how much does former NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal and Reggie Miller pay Smith for a haircut?

“They give me $200, but that’s because I travel to them to cut their hair. It’s just what they give me,” he said.

While Smith believes prices should be kept affordable, other stylists said prices have not kept up with the changing economy. While all agreed $100 is excessive, they think a price increase should be considered.

How much a haircut costs varies across the country

Rose, 50, was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines “Fab 5” in the early 1990s, playing along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. They reached the NCAA Basketball Championship games as freshmen and sophomores in 1992 and 1993.

Rose played in the NBA for 13 years and has been a successful sports analyst for ABC, ESPN, NBA Countdown and Get UP!. He reportedly has a net worth of $50 million, so his comment may be a bit out of touch.

“Everybody knows Jalen Rose was capping,” said Richard Armstead, a barber at Gee’s Clippers, who has been cutting hair since he was 11.

Armstead, 49 said while $100 is a lot to ask for a customer, he notes prices have not kept up with the times.

“When I was cutting hair in Minnesota in 1994 near the Mall of America, I was getting $20 for a haircut then, while cuts in Milwaukee was around $13 for an adult and $8 for a kid,” Armstead said. “And that was 29 years ago.”

Milwaukee ranks on the lower end when it comes to men’s haircuts when compared to the rest of the nation, according to You Probably Need a Haircut, a website launched in April of 2020 to give barbers and stylists a way to make money during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The average men’s haircut is $43, while a woman’s is $69, according to the website.

In Milwaukee, the average cost for a man’s haircut is $26. Cities charging the most for men’s haircuts including New York at $118; Seattle, $60; Chicago and Houston, $53, according to the website.

There is more to a quality barbershop than the price, Smith said.

He has owned Gee’s Clippers for 28 years and has cut more than 250 NBA and NFL players along with other celebrities. He runs his Milwaukee Bucks sports themed location like barbershops from the 1950s and 1960s.

“I want our location to be the heartbeat of the community where you can get a great quality haircut; a place where good news is shared; where politicians can talk to their constituents; and where we can hold town hall meetings and conversations on things going on in the community,” Smith said.

Every third Thursday of the month for five years, the shop has showcased “Real Men, Real Talk” meetings led by spoken word artist and author Kwabena Antoine Nixon, where men both young and old tackle the subjects of fatherhood; voting; mental and physical health; healthy relationships; employment and topics going on locally and nationally.

No subject is off limits. The most important part of the conversations is men learning they are not alone. I have attended several and they are informative and offer mentoring.

I haven’t been in a barber’s chair in years because I wear my hair in loc’d, but I can tell you that the barbershop is a sacred place and the bond between a barber and a client is special.

The Black barbershop is just as important to the Black community as the Black church and Black Press because secrets are shared and information is passed. It brings people together, and positively affects the livelihood of those in the community.

When I was a kid, the barbershop was the place where my father took me to meet his friends; learn how to play chess; and where I would learn about sports from all the debates on who was the best basketball and football player.

Sometimes, the barbershop is just a place to go where men can take off their masks, relax and just talk to men about life.

“Men, especially Black men are under a lot of stress and the barbershop is a place where you can go and get that out,” Smith said.

Haircut is one way men pamper themselves

Loujefe Bolden, 38, said a fresh haircut improves his mood and makes him more productive. Bolden , a hip-hop artist, got a haircut and razor line from his longtime barber Richard Armstead. Bolden said Armstead has been his barber for the last 12 years.

“I only let Richard cut my head because he does such a good job. I mean I can’t cut myself up this good,” Bolden said.

Bolden pays $55 for his cut but he says he only comes to the shop once or twice a month.

“I would pay $100 if I could afford it because it’s more than just a haircut. It’s the feeling you get. You get out of the chair with a new energy. People compliment you and you feel good about yourself. A haircut is one of the best ways for a man to pamper himself,” he said.

Armstead said raising prices any higher would either force some of his customers to go somewhere else or not come in as frequently.

Smith said he has not raised prices at Gee’s Clippers in 10 years because of the shift in the customer base. More women are bringing their boys and many don’t have the income to pay for weekly or bi-weekly haircuts.

Smith receives calls weekly from mothers, aunts, and grandmothers seeking a haircut for their son or grandson.

He tries to accommodate every request and the shop often offers free cuts for boys going back to school, those who get good grades or during the summer.

“We try to do our part because we are a part of the community and you never know how that haircut may benefit a person down the road,” Smith said.

Men are demanding more from their barbers

Antonio Daniels, a former Milwaukeean, who now lives in Georgia, has been cutting hair in the Atlanta area for over a decade.

Daniels said barbers don’t get paid according to how they should get paid, so he would like to see the price of haircuts go up.

Daniels charges youth $20 for a haircut and men $35 to $40.

“I give kids four and under free haircuts,” he said.

Daniels said Rose, who has impeccable hair, pays $100 because his barber does a lot of enhancements like adding fibers to make it look thicker, sprays, some penciling to give a more defined line, and some coloring.

Rose, who admitted to flying his barber across to country to cut his hair, said he made his statement to defend barbers, beauticians and others in the service industry whose work is often taken for granted.

“His cut is not a natural cut. You are not going to get his haircut and go play basketball for an hour. His haircut is made for TV. It’s art,” Daniels said.

He is not surprised when he hears about former athletes paying $100 and even $200 because they want to magnify their success off the court on sport shows or commercials.

Over the past 10 years, Daniels said the influence of Hip-Hop caused men to demand more from their barbers than the traditional bald fade or gumby haircut made popular by R&B singer Bobby Brown.

“You can be bald when you walk into a shop and walk out with dreadlocks in a few hours. That costs,” he said.

Barbers are artists now and while the prices may not have kept with the customers’ demands, the barbershop, especially in the Black community, holds a special place because it’s a safe space for men to speak freely and be vulnerable and you can’t place a dollar value of this unique social function.

But you can tip your barber, it’s something they would surely welcome.

James E. Causey started reporting on life in his city while still at Marshall High School through a Milwaukee Sentinel high school internship. He's been covering his hometown ever since, writing and editing news stories, projects and opinion pieces on urban youth, mental health, employment, housing and incarceration. Most recently, he wrote about a man who went to prison as a child for a horrific crime in Life Correction: The Marlin Dixon story. Released at age 32, Dixon’s intent on giving his life meaning. Other projects include "What happened to us?" which tracked the lives of his third-grade classmates, and "Cultivating a community," about the bonding that takes place around a neighborhood garden. Causey was a health fellow at the University of Southern California in 2018 and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007. Email him at jcausey@jrn.com; follow him on Twitter @jecausey.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How much should you pay for a haircut? A former NBA star says $100.