If you ask one of our barbers what we do, they'll usually say 'we cut hair.' If you ask the answer that's actually true, it's a little longer. SIR is a hospitality business. The haircut is the thing we make. Hospitality is what we sell.
The 90-minute argument
A skilled barber can technically cut your hair in 25 minutes. We know — we've done it. What we've also done is watched what happens when you stop. When the consultation goes from 90 seconds to fifteen minutes. When the cut breathes. When the hot towel actually sits long enough to do something. Every part of the appointment changes when nobody is racing the clock.
Slowness as the product
Our clients don't pay for a faster haircut. They pay for the opposite — for a chair that doesn't ask them to do anything for an hour and a half, in a city that asks them to do everything else.
Hospitality runs the room
Espresso when you walk in. Water without being asked. The same barber every visit. We remember whether you like the fade tight or soft, whether you're growing it out, whether your wife liked the last one. Those are hospitality moves, and they're what separate a chair you sit in from a chair you belong in.
Why this is also the business model
Volume shops chase the next booking. We chase the next decade with the same client. That's a slower way to grow a barbershop, and it's the only way we know how to build something that's still good in ten years.
—SIR Management