REAL ENGLISH: Vocabulary and expressions to get a haircut

Hi, there, and welcome to Benjamin's hairdressing salon. In today's video you are going to be

learning the language for how to ask for a good haircut, and it's a quite technical lesson

if you are perhaps a hairdresser wanting to come over and work in the U.K., which lots

of people do. And then we're going to be looking at some terminology that will help you. So

this is for professional hairdressers, and it's for people coming to get a haircut, speaking

in English, to make sure you leave the hairdresser as you wanted to, and not with some totally

wildly different haircut. Let's begin.

First of all, you need to make sure that you get sat down on the chair to get your haircut.

Two ways of doing this. Firstly, you could book over the telephone. You may want to check

out some of my previous lessons on telephone English. So, if we're on the telephone, you

could say: "Hello, there. Good morning. I was wondering if I might be able to book a

haircut?" and then they'll say: "Certainly, sir" or "Certainly, madam. When were you thinking?

When were you thinking?" That means: When do you want to have this haircut? So I'll

say something like: "Tomorrow morning would be ideal. Tomorrow morning would be great."

And then they'll say something, like: -"Is 9:30 okay?" -"Yup, that would be good."

Or you may just be walking past a hairdressers, that I was the other day, and you might just

go: "You know what? I'd like to have my hair cut now." So, something like: "Hello. Is it

possible to get a haircut this evening? Now?" And they'll say: "Yes." If there's a queue,

they might say something like: "How long...? How long am I going to have to wait for?"

So we're using "going to", future tense: "How long am I going to have to wait for? Going

to have to wait for?"

So, you're there, you're in the hairdresser, now we need to communicate with them the haircut,

the hairstyle that you would like. So, this is not an exhaustive list for women's haircuts,

it's not something I know a huge amount on, but just a few phrases to get you going. In

terms of hair, we talk about the weight in your hair. So if you've got thick hair, you're

a lady and you want to remove some weight... You can use this is you're a guy as well,

if you're a man. If you want to remove some weight, you say: "I'd like to remove some

weight." It makes sense. It's thick. We want a little bit of a lighter haircut, you say:

"I'd like to remove some weight."

Now, an "undercut". So, "under", something is under and we are cutting. This means we

have more up here than down here. This can be done in a subtle... So that means not obvious

way, quite sort of smooth, but just kind of gradually goes down; or you can have the more

extreme example, sort of shaved here, and thicker up here. So that is the undercut.

"Dusting", our next terminology, next term. If you have some split ends and you don't

want a whole cut, but you just want to cut off those split ends, so the end of your hair,

they're just fraying a little bit, it's just a little bit messy, you want to tidy up, we

call that "dusting". So if you say: "I'd like just a brief session of dusting. I'd just

like you to dust my hair", hopefully they won't get a cloth out and start dusting it

like you're some piece of furniture. Okay.

"Point cutting", this is where we... I know these aren't proper hairdressing scissors.

Point cutting is where they point down, and they'll just be cutting down like that. This

is to just sort of just tidy the edges of the hair, the very end bits up and it kind

of gives a slightly softer appearance on the end of those bits of hair.

"Inch", so I sometimes get in trouble when I go to the hairdresser and I suddenly come

back and it's much shorter than my wife was expecting it to be. So it's very important

that you communicate exactly how much you want to be taken off. In the U.K. we deal

in inches. Okay? So: "I would like to have just a couple of inches off", so that would

be... That's two inches. So make sure you know what an inch is. That's one inch, that's

two inches.

On to the guys. Okay. So, in London at the moment, as in other places, beards are very

on, very in. They're in fashion. You might want to sort of groom your beard, that means

just a little cut of the beard. Tends to be sort of more hair up here and less around

the sides and back. "Clippers" are sort of an electronic razer that'll go: "Zzzz", okay?

So if you want to use that, you just say: "Could you do the back and sides with clippers,

please?" And if you want it really short, you would say: "I'd like it clipped quite

close, please. I'd like it clipped quite close", that means pretty short.

"A trim" just means a little bit off all the way over. A trim. They'll probably say: "How

much would you like off?" And they'll get the hair and go: "About this?" and you say:

"Yes" or "No, a bit shorter", "I'd like you to cut a bit shorter", so that'll be taking

more hair off. "I'd like it a bit longer. I'd like it left a little bit longer." They

would cut less off. If you do want to keep most of the hair up on the top, you'd say:

"I'd like to keep most of the volume on top", so the volume is... Well, if we're thinking

about math, it's length, height, width, so all of that volume of hair.

Next phrase: "a messy, out-of-bed look", which is probably what I've got. So: "Messy", the

opposite, the antonym of "tidy". "Out of bed", so it's like you've been asleep, you just

wake up. Oo, this is my hair, that's what I'm going to do with it. So, to achieve this

messy, out-of-bed look, after the cut, after your haircut you may ask the hairdresser if

they have any gel or wax that they could put in your hair to sort of style it how you want

to. Okay? So you could ask: "Do you have any wax that you could style my hair with?"

A couple more alternative haircuts for you. So, a "bun" is where you sort of... It's like

you have a bun, a cake, a bun at the back here where your hair is kind of collected

up in a bun. If we think of Bale the Real Madrid in Wales, football player, he has a

bun often. A "Mohawk", this is where it's sort of gelled right up like that.

"Partings", a slightly more traditional look. This is, by the way, not my comb of choice.

It's... Well, I found earlier. So, a parting we go to the side like this. Yeah? That is

a side parting. I'm combing it to the side. Center partings look a bit weird, but that's

where you sort of go down the middle. Okay? And you kind of have a straight line rather

than a wonky line. Okay.

You may also ask, if you're a guy, if they can give you a shave as well. So, using a

traditional brush here made out of badger hair, and put some shaving cream up there,

and using a traditional razer. Also, tidy up at the back. You could ask: "Do you might

just tidying up that, sort of...? The hairs at the back as well?" You could ask for.

To help make a nice, positive atmosphere whilst you are having your haircut, why not engage

in some small talk with the person cutting your hair? Now, I've written here: "to strike

a balance", that means not talking too much, but not also sitting silently staring into

the mirror, which is a little bit sort of unfriendly. Why not ask your hairdresser:

"Have you worked here for long? Have you worked here for long?" So the person is still working

there, but we are here using the present perfect tense because it has an aspect of having...

Of the past. Okay: "Have you worked here for long?" They'll probably say, I don't know:

"Two years", "Three years", ask them if they enjoy it, keep a conversation flowing.

Then at the end, it's nice to end on a positive note. If you've told them clearly what you

want done, then hopefully they've done it well, so: "I really like what you have done

with..." Give them a compliment. Say something is good. "I really like what you've done with..."

I've got another video which is about... All about phrasal verbs and compliments, so this

may be useful here. And also you may want to give them a tip at the end. Most hairdressers

prefer you to pay with cash, with proper hard currency. Give them a pound or two as a tip,

it's always appreciated.

On that note, if you would like to leave a tip on any of our teacher's videos, I believe

there's a link that you can use to do just that, and it's always appreciated by us.

Okay, so hopefully you're now feeling much more confident about having a haircut in the

U.K. or another English-speaking country. Why not test yourself now by doing today's

quiz and subscribe to this channel to see more videos by me? Until next time, good bye.