Temescal Alley Barber Shop — Attraction in Oakland

Not that they need more patronage, as others have mentioned, the waits here can get out of control. But I wanted to throw my two cents here since I've had consistently good experiences and good haircuts here.

My hair is kind of hard to cut. It's curly with a few cowlicks and before I started going to Temescal Alley, it was kinda 50/50 whether I'd like my haircut--regardless of how much I paid.

But then I tried Temescal Alley and I haven't gone anywhere else since.

I've been going here since it was just Nick and Brad in a tiny room with two chairs. As they expanded I was a bit worried that new barbers would mean more variance in my haircuts but I've never gotten a bad haircut here. Which is crazy to me because I've had my hair cut by maybe ten different people there and every time it's good. Sometimes I like my cut more or less but it's always baseline of good.

The barbers are all good natured, nice folks. Their banter and cross talk is usually amusing. And as for the wait--its highly variable. Sometimes there's no wait at all. Other times you come in and the waitlist is full for the entire day.

If you like the barbers but need a scheduled appointment, try Al's Barbershop in Alameda. It's the same folks but...

I’ve got to say that with all of these reviews, I came in with high hopes. All I can say now is that this experience was incredibly underwhelming. There is no attention to detail here.

My usual barbers back home in NY take their time to give you a very sharp, fantastic haircut. Here, I come in and I’m out in less than 20 minutes. And the difference is apparent. The barber I had mentioned twice that he couldn’t do something that my previous barbers could do no problem. That’s pretty sad considering that I thought that it’s pretty common practice to give people a lineup.

If you don’t care about getting a really good haircut, come here. It’ll come out mediocre. Not worth $40, which is double what I pay in NY. Why should I pay double for half the service?

Maybe it was just the barber I had, but I don’t think I want to come back here only to be...

The guy at the door is friendly but their lack of a reservation system means you get matched with a different barber every time.

Last time I was matched with Brad. As I showed him photos of the haircut I usually get, he was visibly annoyed. When I showed a second photo to help describe a previous haircut that I didn't like as much, he was even more annoyed.

He then proceeded to tell me what "I liked", which contradicted the conversation we had just had. He proceeded by giving me an army cut (and no Brad I do not like army cuts) without saying a single word to me. Once finished, he pretty much pushed me out of the chair without showing me the back of my head.

Not sure if he was having a bad day or if they were so busy that he was trying to makeup time on my cut but the outcome was an uneven cut far from the style requested.

Can't...