'81 Barbers — Local services in Tucson

Below is my overall experience. For background, I had been using the same barber for a year but she moved so I had to find a new barber. I found this place through Google and its reviews were great. I don’t think it’s quite often you find a place with a 4.9 rating. So going in, I felt like I picked the right place. Now to choose a specific barber was tough. There are several options which some have a description of what they specialize in and how much experience they may have. I really appreciated this opportunity. Though some had little to no description. I ended up picking one that best aligned to both my schedule and overall hair profile. I set my appointment up. The setting: The area itself is really nice. Most of the buildings are fairly modern and overall safe. The inside of the barbershop is nice as well. They have a small lounge area and bar. I didn’t partake but I thought it was great to have as an option. Now, why I gave this place a 3 star review came down to a couple things. When I showed up, I was immediately helped and met my barber. He did take a phone call which was totally ok with me. It was a few minutes. When he finished, he asked what I had in mind. At the time, I had ‘medium length’ hair, it reached my eyebrows when brought down. I mentioned to him, I wanted to cut half an inch, possibly more depending how it looked after removing a bit off. That’s when he mentioned, he didn’t really work with my length of hair. He did mostly short hair, fades, sorta thing. He did mention he would still cut it if I wanted him too. The thing is, his profile showcased at least to me scissor work and hair of my length. I picked him as the person to cut hair for a reason. So this sorta irked me but decided to keep that to myself and accepted his offer. The next contentious point was that he kept getting called from a realtor and I believe his significant other. He spent a great deal on the phone while cutting my hair. Now, I understand people can multitask but when dealing with hair, I am not too open to it. I was not a big fan of this. I felt like his concentration was not fully there coupled with ‘my style of hair’ not being what he was used too. Furthermore, if not mistaken, I chose the option which happened to be 30 minutes. Regardless, it felt like he was rushing as well for whatever reason. The time spent on the phone and not fully concentrating could have been used differently. Overall, given everything that happened is why I rated this...

Updated Review – January 2025

I’m updating my review from 5 stars to 1 star.

Celia takes great care of her customers, and I trusted her with my hair for a couple of years. I initially started coming here because I heard it was an LGBTQIA-friendly space, and I always booked with Celia because she consistently did a great job. However, as my schedule got busier, I began booking with other barbers, which turned out to be a mistake.

The haircuts I received from other barbers progressively got worse. Last month, one of them asked invasive questions about my gender and sexuality before encouraging me to find Jesus. This month, another barber gave me the worst haircut of my life. The entire cut took an hour, and felt like it was his first time cutting hair. He scissor-cut a fade—something that should have been a major red flag—and completely butchered it. On top of that, he was rough with the clippers to the point that I had to ask him to ease up multiple times. I walked out with a terrible haircut, red marks all over my scalp, uneven sideburns, bizarrely harsh lines, and what can only be described as a very short bowl cut. It was cut so short that I couldn’t even get it fixed—I just have to wait for it to grow out.

I used to recommend this place, but after these experiences, I won’t be returning.

Edit: Celia reached out to apologize and informed me that the barber had been fired. She expressed that she would have preferred I contact her directly about my concerns. Normally, I would have, but she was sitting in the chair right next to me the entire time, getting a touch-up. Since she didn’t step in or say anything while it was happening, I didn’t see the point in bringing it up afterward. She offered a refund, but only in the form of a gift card or a free cut—neither of which is helpful since I don't plan to return. I appreciate her reaching out, which is why I’m adjusting my review to 2 stars.

Edit #2 Celia has sent me multiple text messages offering a cash refund only if I remove this review.

Edit #3 After receiving multiple messages/calls about this review, I blocked their phone number. I see that they did send a refund of $47 for my...

I’m from out of town and had come here once before and had an incredible cut, so I was looking forward to returning. But unfortunately this time I didn’t have a great experience. Frankly, I was disappointed.

My barber was Peter and I had asked for a .5 fade, but he only faded in the back, which is not what a fade means. Halfway through, he showed me the cut and the sideburns were uneven, with equal-length hair on the sides and a taper in the back. It looked bad.

I asked him to fix this and he fixed the sideburns, but he then said it was my fault for not communicating clearly what I wanted. I would have expected more professionalism and given the shape of my head, the cut I was given does not suit me. I again asked him to fix it but he said he couldn’t since he would have to do the entire haircut again and had another appointment.

He didn’t charge me, which is why I give two stars and why I know he didn’t think the cut was up to standard, but I was disappointed he didn’t try to make it right and blamed me for the cut I was given. I felt it was very unprofessional — I would have wished ‘81 barbers would have tried to give me a good haircut rather than just move me along to get to the...