What does a barber do?
Barbers are individuals who provide hair services like trimming, cutting, grooming, shaving, and shampooing. Oftentimes, barbers assist the customers by walk-in or prebooked appointments for hair care. They use combs, scissors, clippers, and hair blowers to cut and style hair. As barbers, they welcome their clients and consult with them for their desired hairstyles. They even offer suggestions and recommendations for hairstyling. The skills necessary for this job are exceptional customer relations and service skills, communication skills, and the ability to follow instructions.
Barber responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real barber resumes:
- Train under license barber, oversee inventory control and manage cleanliness.
- Work with all types of tools such as scissors, brushes, razors, trimmers, dryers, and clippers.
- Provide leadership, mentorship, and training to staff.
- Clean and sterilize various instruments including combs, clippers etc.
- Shape, cut, adjust and curl wigs as required by clients.
- Perform hair color, perms, shampoo clients, light housekeeping light laundry.
- Experience with shampoo and sets, perms, cut and color, clean and sanitize shop
- Provide cosmetology for customers as needed.
- Organize materials base on cleanliness and operating functions.
- Train under license barber, oversee inventory control and manage cleanliness.
- Attach wigs or hairpieces to model heads and dress wigs and hairpieces according to instructions, samples, sketches or photographs.
Barber skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of Barbers are proficient in Work Ethic, Customer Service, and Clips. They’re also known for soft skills such as Creativity, Customer-service skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Barbers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Work Ethic, 18%
Educate and demonstrate proper work ethics, new techniques and styles to all employees.
- Customer Service, 17%
Presided over staff training and coaching to ensure quality assurance and optimum customer service and satisfaction.
- Clips, 17%
Obtained a job at Great Clips to gain cutting experience.
- Cleanliness, 14%
Organized materials based on cleanliness and operating functions.
- Retail Sales, 7%
Perform clerical and administrative duties, such as; bookkeeping, personnel, and retail sales.
- Skin Care, 7%
Provided quality barber's services including hair and skin care while placing an emphasis on maintenance and proper hygiene.
"work ethic," "customer service," and "clips" are among the most common skills that barbers use at work. You can find even more barber responsibilities below, including:
Creativity. One of the key soft skills for a barber to have is creativity. You can see how this relates to what barbers do because "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must keep up with the latest trends and be ready to try new hairstyles for their clients." Additionally, a barber resume shows how barbers use creativity: "trained under licensed barber, oversaw inventory control and managed cleanliness. "
Customer-service skills. Another essential skill to perform barber duties is customer-service skills. Barbers responsibilities require that "workers must be friendly, pleasant, and able to interact with clients to build and retain clientele." Barbers also use customer-service skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "maintained cleanliness and personal grooming of customers. "
Listening skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of barbers is listening skills. This skill is critical to many everyday barber duties, as "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must be attentive when clients describe what they want to ensure satisfaction with the result." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "communicated with clients and customers for hair care needs. "
Physical stamina. For certain barber responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "physical stamina." The day-to-day duties of a barber rely on this skill, as "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must be able to stand for long periods." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what barbers do: "analyze patrons' hair and other physical features to determine and recommend beauty treatment or suggest hairstyles. "
The three companies that hire the most barbers are:
- NEX
21 barbers jobs
- JCPenney2 barbers jobs
- Hersha Hospitality2 barbers jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable barber resume templates
Build a professional barber resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your barber resume.
Compare different barbers
Barber vs. Licensed cosmetologist
A Licensed Cosmetologist provides various services, such as hairstyling, skincare, nail treatments, and makeup. They are responsible for complying with health and safety standards.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, barber responsibilities require skills like "exceptional client," "work ethic," "strong work ethic," and "cleanliness." Meanwhile a typical licensed cosmetologist has skills in areas such as "appointment scheduling," "make-up," "cosmetic services," and "front desk." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Licensed cosmetologists earn the highest salaries when working in the education industry, with an average yearly salary of $37,827. On the other hand, barbers are paid more in the professional industry with an average salary of $38,348.licensed cosmetologists tend to reach similar levels of education than barbers. In fact, licensed cosmetologists are 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Barber vs. Cosmetologist
A cosmetologist specializes in offering various services ranging from haircuts, makeup, skin and hair treatments, manicures, pedicures, and even shaving beards. They must have extensive knowledge and experience on the subject, plus keep up with current trends. Although most clients relay their preferred styling, a cosmetologist may also provide options and suggestions according to a client's hair condition or facial structure. Furthermore, a cosmetologist must have a strong client base, which is why one must build rapport and prioritize customer satisfaction.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, barber responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "exceptional client," "work ethic," "strong work ethic," and "cleanliness." Meanwhile, a cosmetologist has duties that require skills in areas such as "tip," "spa services," "hair color," and "make-up." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Cosmetologists earn a lower average salary than barbers. But cosmetologists earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $36,317. Additionally, barbers earn the highest salaries in the professional with average pay of $38,348 annually.cosmetologists earn similar levels of education than barbers in general. They're 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Barber vs. Barber shop manager
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, barbers are more likely to have skills like "exceptional client," "work ethic," "clips," and "strong work ethic." But a barber shop manager is more likely to have skills like "styling hair," "payroll," "customer complaints," and "business operations."
When it comes to education, barber shop managers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to barbers. In fact, they're 1.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Barber vs. Barber apprentice
Even though a few skill sets overlap between barbers and barber apprentices, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a barber might have more use for skills like "exceptional client," "work ethic," "clips," and "strong work ethic." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of barber apprentices require skills like "front desk," "professional image," "client request," and "administrative tasks. "
The average resume of barber apprentices showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to barbers. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 2.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.4%.Types of barber
Updated January 8, 2025
