Achhina's Digital Garden

Barber Log

3 min read

Barber Log

Running log of haircuts at The Barbershop, Bramalea City Centre (BCC). Each visit captures the barber, what they did, what worked, and what to repeat or ask for next time.

Standing preferences / cheat sheet

Language and technique notes to hand the next barber:

  • Hair: blended top with a low taper.
  • “Keep it natural” ≠ “no lineup.” When I say natural I mean keep the thickness on the beard — I just don’t want the forced/boxed jaw shape. Say “keep the thickness” to avoid confusion.
  • Beard bottom neckline: go ~1 cm higher than the existing crease/endpoint. Lining up right at the natural endpoint is what makes my own line look less clean.
  • Self-cut warning: my own top cuts are uneven, especially the right side (my perspective, where the comb-over comes over). Growing it out more evens things up.

2026-07-04 — Deepak

Asked for: blended top with a low taper.

Key feedback — self-cuts are uneven

  • Deepak was surprised at how uneven my top was — specifically the right side. A lot of that is me cutting my own hair too sloppily to notice.
  • Takeaway: grow out the right side more so it evens up.

Hair

  • One on the middle, faded / low-tapered at the bottom.
  • Top was not a one — maybe 1.5 or 2.
  • Circular comb to push the middle hair up higher → more traditional / “put-together” look. Like it as an option, more polished than I usually go.

Beard

  • Took the mustache noticeably shorter — tapered the depth/thickness more than expected. Like it, but hard to replicate → study this.
  • Clarified “natural” = keep the thickness, not “no lineup.”
  • Bottom neckline ~1 cm higher than I do → cleaner line (into more thickness rather than at the crease).
  • Foiler, then a lot of scissor work thinning the sides — took thickness off without looking shorter; ended up looking slightly longer. Done right.

Verdict

  • Preferred Deepak’s beard; preferred Rohit’s hair (better blend + taper).
  • Caveat: Deepak worked off a bad starting point (my uneven self-cut), so the hair comparison isn’t fully fair.

2026-05-16 — Rohit

Before Thailand trip. Overall: 7.5–8/10 (would’ve been 9–9.5 if not for the patchiness on the side of the beard).

Asked for

  • One all around, low taper at the bottom, no blending at the top (what I do for myself).
  • Seemed slightly annoyed at first (probably the no-blending request). Added some blending at the top anyway — worked out better.

Hair — top length

  • Cut the top in 3 passes: left, center, right.
  • On the right (longest part) went ~1–2 hand-lengths further back to take more off → keep in mind for the other side.
  • On the shortest side he trued up the cut mark he’d made — worth copying.
  • Besides horizontal passes, did one vertical pass on the shortest side (new technique).

Beard

  • Liked it overall; a little short, but that’s mostly the patchiness on the left/right.
  • Trimmed the beard length down a bit more.
  • Neckline: combed beard down, then set a higher neckline — ~a thumb-width above the Adam’s apple (vs. my usual natural extension point). Looks better.
  • Pushed the cheek line down a smidge → looks better.
  • Tapered in more on the sides → balances the patchiness.

Graph View