The Grooming Cave — Local services in Howick

A real shame coming from a family who has come here for haircuts for over two years for my husband and two boys. The last time my boys got cuts a couple of months ago the owner wasn’t there - the staff were completely unprofessional stopping to talk amongst themselves and laugh at videos on their phones, and a couple of them had friends come in just sitting on the seats talking amongst themselves with the barbers all cracking jokes not actually concentrating on what they were doing and then stopping to go and vape outside at one point. One of my son’s cuts was terrible and so uneven. Then last week (We usually always book in) but this time we hadn’t and it was a weekday at around 11am there was one barber on and one guy in the chair. I asked if they could a cut for just the one of my boys who was with me and got told no as he was alone and fully booked; which was fine totally understandable! But then we went back to the car after grocery shopping and he was just sitting there on his phone, went back to the shops for some other bits and came back about 20mins later went past and the same thing… really unprofessional. I don’t see the point in having a barber at the mall if you don’t accept walk ins. Definitely won’t be back which is sad to say after being long time customers and having spent a lot of money between three boys there! Really...

Had a short wait until it was my turn (probably the only positive thing). The guy who started working on my hair was very restless. He was hardly paying any attention to what he was doing. He seemed more interested in playing with the jukebox or playing pranks on his colleagues than cutting my hair. I showed 2 previous photos of myself (after haircuts I found good) but I guess that wasn't important either. After cutting one side short with a razor, he had a comment like "next time you should get a scissor cut.. but now it's too late...". In the end he showed my hair with a mirror and asked if it's ok. I asked if he could cut a bit shorter on top (got razored on the sides and long on top). No reaction. Then said it's nothing like I showed or wanted to have. Again no reaction. Considered if I should really push it but it occurred to me that if I urge him to cut more, it will probably get even worse. Thus paid and left.

Some of the other clients did seem to get a decent or even a good looking cut. My wife didn't love it either but said it's not the worst I've had. I find it the worst I've had (I'm 45y so have had a few...).

Not going back. Enter at...

Staff were friendly when I walked in. Although I did not have a booked appointment, I didnt see why a few of us customers had to wait for the one barber when there were two barbers in the shop. The guy who cut my hair did a nice job. Definitely knows his trade as far as cutting hair. Only advice to the bro would be to interact a little more with customers while cutting. Even though we are there for a hair cut, you can still offer excellent customer service and build some sort of rapport. This can help lead to building a bigger and stronger clientele. The cuts are very over priced. I am not surprised given the location. I could get the same cut and baird trim for half of the price at a number of other shops. Music playing was my type of music so I liked it. I don't think parents of the little kids that had entered the store liked it though because of the swearing in some...