Bayview Barber College

This place is a scam! The owner of the place has a revoked license and all of the people working there are unlicensed to cut hair. The owner «Wayne» scams people into thinking that they are enrolling into a legit barber college and only to find out months later after the state board cracks down on them that the owner doesn’t have a license to operate they have also been scammed out of paying a tuition fee and he has them working Tues-​Saturday 8 hours a day without pay, while these people think they are earning hours. After the state board cracks down on them they come to find out that they were scammed they worked for free and all the hours they put in do not count towards a barbering degree since the place is not licensed. Don’t enroll in this school and don’t support the asshole «Wayne» for taking advantage of these people.

Uhm, if you thought San Francisco Barber College was in the «ghetto» you should check this place out. As soon as I got off the muni I felt WAY out of my element, and that’s definitely unusual for me. The people around me didn’t like seeing a white boy who looks like a cop walking around their ‘hood. I could feel the tension of me being unwelcome. At least it seemed that way.
Now here’s how easy I am: I’ve been cutting my own hair for 10 years now. A buzz cut with a #1 guard for Wahl clippers, an ¹⁄₈^th inch guard. No «tapering» or whatever other stupid stuff «men» have done to their hair. Take some clippers to my head like a lawnmower. And we’re done. I just moved to SF and needed a quick cut and didn’t want to buy new clippers when I had a perfectly good pair that could be shipped out to me, so I violated my ten year streak of self cutting and decided to let someone random guy touch my head.
So I walk in and the girl behind the counter looks at me like she’s never seen a human before. She doesn’t say a word to me, no smile either even though I initiated. I sort of stood there for a second looking around the place and checking out their pricing board. Finally I had to open, «Yeah hi I wanted to get a hair cut?» I still felt out of place. The girl sounded as lost as me, «Okay?» she questioned back.
She charged me and led me over to a barber who was telling another male client he didn’t know how to perform the kind of haircut the customer wanted. He said something like, «I’ve never done that, and I can try, but it’s at your own risk,» which of course scared the guy and he had to move down the line to another chair. And here I’m still thinking, I’m just after a buzz, seriously how can you screw that up? I told the barber what kind of cut I wanted and he was, first off, confused by the length. «Wait you said what do you want, eight what?»
I said «¹⁄₈^th inch all the way around,» repeating myself, cut and dry. «Oh, okay, okay,» he scrambled around behind me with his equipment, still not sounding like we were speaking the same language. He did one pass down the top of my head and showed me the length in the mirror. He had managed to get close enough. It wasn’t quite the same ¹⁄₈^th inch I’m used to but it was close, and different clippers have different guards, I get that. And I really don’t want to argue with the guy over what should be such a simple procedure that I’m so used to.
So he gives me my buzz cut. Folks this is about a 7 – 10 minute hair cut that could not be any simpler, literally, unless I got no haircut at all. His electric clippers didn’t work very well. I’ve gone through a dozen of them myself and I know when one is cutting good and when it’s beat. And this dude’s equipment was nearly beat. When the barber was trimming my neck line his trimmer didn’t work so he had to borrow someone else’s. The guy he borrowed from said, «Alright but you’re using my shit, that’s coming out of my pocket,» which seemed sort of inappropriate. Either way both trimmers hurt my neck, and this guy was not gentle at all. These things are alarming for a school. What kind of future are the potential barbers being set up for learning with ineffective equipment and in this environment?
He finished and says, «All done,» seeming quite hurried this whole time, although there was no wait and they were not busy. «Oh wait,» he said, «Here, here, you can look at it.» I took a 2-​second glance in his little hand mirror at my head, it looked fine, and I was not comfortable in this place, or in this neighborhood; this whole process was a pain and I just wanted it to be over. I over tipped, bad habit of mine, did the boot scoot and boogie, and high tailed it back to my neck of the woods
Getting home and brushing my teeth that night I noticed several streaks on my head that were not fully cut. Not MAJOR, but definitely noticeable and embarrassing. On the back left of my head where my cowlick is, there was a large patch of hair that stood out as uncut. This dude, in a barber college, failed at completing my haircut. I don’t know where the instructor was, invisible during my visit needless to say.
It’s mostly my fault for violating my routine. And I should have checked the cut more carefully before I left. But seriously? It’s just a buzz cut. If I went and payed some hair stylist $ 26 for an 8 minute buzz I’m sure it would have been immaculate, but I just can’t justify that considering I’ve been spending $ 26 a YEAR on my haircut for so long.
It’s $ 8 for a no-​frills clipper cut, and any other service is additional cost. Considering it is a barber college the prices are reasonable, but not as low as SFBC, which was sadly closed when I went by during business hours… And in all fairness I’ll never go back to Bayview Barber College after this quasitastrophe. I feel like I payed someone $ 12 to insult me, in a way.
I will be cutting my own hair again from now on, lesson learned, thank you.

This place is really a jewel in the heart of the 3^rd street corridor. My husband was a little shy about his haircut because he’d never had his hair «tapered», I guess is the term. So anyway, the guys practicing there are real gentlemen and are true professionals in training. It’s not a ritzy place at all, but for the price and the service, it deserves all five stars!