Instantly Improve Your Appearance: A Good Haircut

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by Nick Hoss

A good PUA haircut is the number one way to improve your appearance instantly. I’m not going to tell you what kind to get. I’ll do better than that. I’ll tell you every thing you need to know in order to go out and decide on what kind of haircut you want and where to get it.

Choosing a Salon

I recommend you go to a jazzy looking place, the kind with all of the extra shit that you truly don’t need–the scalp massage, the dainty cup of tea to sip on, eyebrow trim, etc. Why? 

These places do all this stuff for two reasons: 1) It makes for an experience so people (moreso women) want to come back for the service and perceived value of the extras. 2) It makes these places appear trendy, and a good place will be trendy. This is where the hair dressers are pulling in the pretty people as clients. They have to keep on top of what’s popular today.

What you don’ t want to do is go to a barber shop for $12, and don’t go where your Dad gets his hair cut. Dad’s haircut isn’t for attracting women.

Be willing to pay good money for a good cut.

Choosing a hair dresser/stylist

For me, the best haircuts have come from gay dudes. Nobody shoots it straighter than a gay guy when you ask an opinion, and in my experience these are the guys who try to advance their careers because they aren’t as tied down outside of work. (Straight people have families.) Going to New York for a week of training is much easier for them. 

I find older women do a better job of cutting than younger girls because they have more experience (duh). I’ve also had a couple of younger girls who I felt were just telling me what I wanted to hear when I asked opinions. (Then again, I’ve had others who are the other way and won’t listen.) However, the main thing is to get somebody who deals with male clients on a regular basis. Regardless of the stylist’s gender, each one has preferences and specialities when it comes to what head they want to chop.

I’ve found it tough to get straight dudes who cut hair, period. The one time I did have one he was cool as hell and just liked cutting hair.

I had the same hair dresser for three years (gay dude), and once I found him I stuck with him. Even after I moved away I would still come back.

Choosing Your Haircut

A good shop will give you a free consultation (and trim between cuts). Use this time to go over what could work for you. I like to bring in a picture because I’m a dude like that. When I wanted something sharp but a little badass, I brought in a picture of Brad Pitt from Fight Club. In my long hair days, I brought in a Jim Morrison. Today, it’s Bradley Cooper into Henrik Lundqvist.

The interesting part of bringing in these pictures was that the stylist always sized them up based on a couple of things only his trained eye could see:

• Shape of face–As you can’t tell from none of my pictures, I have a narrow face, built like Napoleon Dynamite, so a Lundqvist cut works well for me. The Brad Pitt, however, needed to be tailored. Ideally, your hair and face together will make an oval shape. (This is why some guys grow goatees.) I had to shorten my sideburns to use the Tyler Durden cut.
• Hair type–My hair works well for Bradley Cooper because it’s the same texture, with waves and curls. I can’t pull off Ryan Gosling as naturally because his hair is lighter in texture.

Remember that part about paying good money for a good cut? If you’re tight for cash, you only need to pay up the first time. I read this in Magic Bullets and wondered why that was at first. The reason: stylists follow “lines” like a template. When I had my Kentucky Waterfall mullet in college, my hair “line” broke more toward the back of my head. When I had the Brad Pitt haircut it was more toward the front.

Once you get that template set on your cranium, the next stylist should be able to follow it more-to-less. It will be better if you stick to the same stylist, but do what you can.

The important part of deciding a haircut is knowing what identity you want to convey. This is so underrated but can build attraction before you even open your mouth. When I was in college I didn’t give a fuck (and wanted to portray that*), so I just wore a mullet to be that guy. I was older and more rooted in my identity than any of the 18-year-olds I went to school with, so this actually turned in my favor often enough with A.D.D. college girls. Not so much in the real world–older women couldn’t and wouldn’t take me seriously. I cut my hair into a more professional, typical faux-hawk after graduation, as was the style at the time. It had a little edge and looked sharp, exactly what I wanted to convey. 

**I have this theory that anytime you can stand out from the crowd in a positive way AND GET AWAY WITH IT, it is attractive. Standing out to get attention for its own sake, aka “peacocking,” isn’t. 

Now I rock more hockey hair with some dirty flow. I see myself as more of an entrepreneur, so I don’t need to abide by corporate standards of suit and tie so it works. It also ties in nicely to my I’m-a-Canadian story. Coincidentally, not many guys in Texas–where I live right now–rock longer hair, so it makes me different without being radical. I didn’t realize this at first until a girl pointed it out to me. Girls pick up on subtle things.

Bottom line: Don’t expect to pick up punk-rock chicks with your comb over, and don’t expect to win over the preacher’s daughter with a mohawk. Know what you want to convey and keep an eye out for haircuts on the guys who are dating the kinds of girls you want. Sometimes a good haircut will give you one-up before you even open. Use stereotypes to your advantage.

A good haircut in a major city will be around $50. In NYC it could be double that. Don’t forget to tip.

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