J's 503 Barbershop — Local services in Gainesville

Needed to find a barber shop in town for regular upkeep of my hair and though I'd try this place out considering it's close proximity to my apartment. Walked in October 10th at 10:30 am, signed in and had a seat. They had metal folding chairs and leather sofas that were worn down and had tons of rips in them like the dragged them off the curb from someone's house. They had coffee available, no signs for prices, no music in the background, the guys were really taking their time, but the work looked quality. There's a LOT of Spanish spoken here, that doesn't bother me, I lived in Miami and quite used to that and the atmosphere but they seemed to be on Miami time too (Slow).

One stylist had a customer of friend sitting in an open chair talking to him while he had a customer and was talking more than paying attention to his guest. He would stop and talk, cut a little hair, stop and talk with a lot of hand motions, cut a little, talk more, and the customer looked uneasy like he was becoming impatient.

When I sat down to wait, there was 7 men ahead of me and after waiting 20 minutes, one stylist finished and called the next person. A gentleman came in shortly after, put his name on the list and sat down. The next stylist to finish walked over to the list and called the guy who just came in before everyone ahead of me.

After another 10 minutes the distracted stylist finished and called the next name. If each haircut there took 30 minutes, I would have been there for at least and hour and a half just waiting.

My time is to precious to be wasting it waiting that long. I went to Regis and no regrets. Got in immediately.

I'd give this place a half star if I could. Save your time and go...

I went here 3 times... I'm from out of state and I'm part Puerto Rican and usually seek out Puerto rican/ Spanish barbershops... First guy that cut my hair was from DR... Even tho my Spanish could be better we had no issues communicating and he tried really hard and took his time but overall I think he was a little inexperienced... Not the worst or best cut but so so..

2nd cut was with Carlos 2 weeks later. I explained everything I wanted in detail and he did a great job. it was a fresh cut... I tip him $10 on top of the $20 for haircut...

3rd time I came back exactly 1 week later asked for Carlos. Told him same thing as last time... While cutting my hair he was talking to other people about the playoffs the whole time and he must have stopped caring about my haircut because he proceeded to give me one of the worse haircuts I have had in a really really really long time... Rip...

All other shops have now been ruined for me. These people are on another level. There were 11 different barbers in the shop. I was a walk in appointment so I had to wait a little bit which is totally understandable. As I sat in the waiting area watching I saw every single person at every station come out with perfect fades regardless of who cut their hair. I also got that same perfect fade. They edged all around my beard and hair line with a straight razor with great care. The haircut took a little bit longer than I am used to, but unlike other shops it wasn’t because they were distracted with other conversations but instead because they were deliberate about every single cut they made. Couldn’t be more impressed. I feel like I now need to lower other barber shop reviews I have done by one star now that I have this hair cut...