A few things for clients to notice when they go to a barbershop or when they frequent a barber are is there barbicide multiple combs or brushes, changing of razors, clean cape, no food on the station, clean nails and hands or gloves disinfectant spray for clippers. These things go towards your safety and comfortability and to make sure that the spread of disease and infection does not happen to you or any of your loved ones or anyone that comes to a barbershop. This is why us as barbers are accountable to the barber board in our states. I will discuss the importance of each of these things as well as why they are important.

Barbicide

This is a disinfectant for our combs razors, shears, guards pretty much almost anything that we use on a client. As barbers, we are to always have this on our station in a glass container. A lot of you might notice it in a tall glass object that looks blue when you come into a barbershop, this should be one of the first things that you look for on a barbers station to make sure that his implements that he is using on you as a client is disinfected if you go into a barbershop or visit a barber and you do not notice this barbicide on his or her station this is a sign that they are not a very clean barber they can still be a good barber and skill, but they are not a very clean barber because reducing the spread of infection and keeping the customer safe is a very important priority

Multiple combs/brushes

All barbers should also have multiple combs and brushes available at their station or in their disinfectant container and the reason for this is so we are not spreading disease or infection to each client by using the same implements multiple times on different clients. Sometimes barbers in a hurry will use the same comb or the same brush with a client to cut down on time to make as much money as possible. This is not a benefit to you as a client. It should be avoided at all cost, if possible because of the things that are out there that could be spread easily, such as ringworm, lice, etc. also, this is just a disgusting practice and this is why all barbers have went to barber school and earned our license so we can safely practice our business as a barber and cutting hair on clients typically when a barber does come across a client that has ringworm in their scalp we would have to shut down all operations for the day, disinfect everything and reopen the next day once everything has been disinfected meaning the barber station all implements, all tools everything this is why you as a client want to pay attention to your barber when you are getting a haircut to make sure that they are using a new clean disinfected comb or brush when they are giving you a haircut and this is why some bars may skip this step because they don’t wanna shut down and stop making money for the day to disinfect everything

Changing of razors

Changing of razors, is another detail to pay attention to when you go to the barbershop changing of razors is very important because this is what keeps the client safe as well and reduces the spread of disease because with the razor, you can cut a person cause them to bleed, and there are the risk of hepatitis B HIV and other contagious and easily spread diseases from human bodily fluids. There ultimately are two types of razors that a barber can use. One is a true straight razor, which you cannot replace the blade on, but you can sharpen that blade with a strop this is what old-school barbers would use and very few barbers today. Use this type of razor because there is more work involved with it and most barbers. Don’t know how to use a strop to sharpen their razor the correct way because this isn’t tall in most bar schools if any today the main razor that bars use is a razor that you can replace the blade on and we buy these in bulk the reason why is so we have many razor blades to change throughout the day or the week as we service a new client a barber razor should be replaced every time a new client sits down in a chair if they are getting that service done so you as a client should be aware if your barber is replacing the razor blade with a new razor blade before using it on your hair or face

Clean Cape

Most people who attend a barbershop ever since they were a kid understands what the purpose is and it is to keep the hair from making contact with you the client or your clothing. It’s a protective barrier, but I’m sure this can be overlooked and taken for granted as well, when a barber puts a cape on a client, it should be a fresh clean, smell and free of any stains food stains anything that looks like bodily fluid stains for maybe previous little kids who may have attempted to pick their nose when they’re sitting in a chair or wipe their tears or what have you a barber should have multiple clean capes at his station for his clients. Another purpose of the cape is the neck area. The neck area of the cape should not touch the client skin. This is why we use a neck strip along with the cape to protect you from the previous client that was in the chair and whatever bodily fluids might have come in contact with that area of the Cape, whether it be blood from a shaving cut or sweat.

Clean nails and hands/ gloves

As barbers, our hands and nails should be clean between every client, whether that is the bar washing his hands between every client or the barber having hand sanitizers at his station and using them between every client also a barber’s nails on his hands should also be well manicured and clean meaning when you get a service our hands are very close in on your face your nose, your mouth area ears everywhere you want a person who’s gonna be that close in your personal space to have good high team you don’t want them with dirty hands that smell like food from their lunch or having dirty nails where you can clearly see discoloration or things under the nail bed. Another thing to look out for is our gloves, a lot of barbers think especially since the pandemic their gloves are the end all be all of being safe or clean this can be true, however just because a Barbara has gloves on doesn’t mean that that is the most sanitary thing he is doing or she is doing and the reason why I say this is if a barber is not changing his gloves with every client that means everything that Barbara is touching is on that glove, and whenever he touches the next person he spreading that to the next one and the next one unless he is changing his gloves between every client that he is servicing, so the key thing is to make sure your barbers hands are clean or pay attention to if his hands and nails are clean and if he or she is changing gloves between every client

Disinfectant spray for clippers

Lastly, all Barbers need to have a can of disinfectant spray for their hair clippers, and trimmers. This is the way that we as barbers, disinfect and kill disease and viruses and bacteria on our clippers and trimmers is by spraying them with this disinfectant and letting it sit for a few minutes to make sure it is all clean and disinfected most barber should have this done before you sit in the barbecue chair because it takes time for the spray to actually disinfect the clippers because we need to let it sit for a few minutes to take it full effect on the clippers. Also, another thing about cleaning the clippers is to make sure that your dust the hair off of the clippers before letting those clippers make contact with your skin or your hair because this will limit the spread of disease and infection from the previous client if they had anything in their hair.