Exchange Barber Shop

If you walk into this very authentically charming barbershop and find a guy doing nothing but reading a newspaper, wait till one of the other ¾ gentlemen are available. 3 minutes into my beard trim ($ 17) and after some basic machine work this guy looks at me and says: «all done» hands me a mirror and I look to find what can only be described as a 2 year old’s attempt at coloring inside the lines.
The conversation that ensued:
Me: OK, can we clean the neck with a blade?
Barber: we don’t do that here
Me: what do you mean you don’t do that, it says ‘Shave’ right there on the sign ($ 30)?
Barber: Ya, sorry we don’t do that here. It shouldn’t be on there…
Me: OK… What about the blade right there on the counter?
Barber: Ya, sorry we don’t do that here
Me:…
So I pay up very reluctantly and grab a seat while I wait for a buddy and I watch as his barber pulls out a basic shaving blade, gets a little cream and cleans the edges. As you would typically expect.
So I ask again,
Me: It seems that you guys do use blades…
My barber: Ya, but we shouldn’t, I don’t do it usually, I can do it if you like, but I don’t normally…
Me: Do you consider this a clean shave (points at neckline)?
My barber: I did the best I could with the machine, I don’t use the blade though
At this instant I’m ready to lose it on this guy but decided to stay calm and to get back home and do the right thing, write this review.
Newspaper Barber is a stain on what otherwise seems like a delightful experience for someone on their lunch break or just wandering around San Francisco as I was on a beautiful day. The owners of Exchange would be wise to get rid of him for ruining the reputation of their beautiful place.

I went in for a beard trim, and the result was so bad I had to shave the whole thing off.
When I went in I asked the barber to straighten the edges around my neck and ears, and specifically told him not to remove any length. Instead, he trimmed the length down to about an 16^th of an inch (think Don Johnson in Miami Vice), then brought the edge of my beard in about an extra inch in each direction.
Because my jawline next to my ear was now completely bald (as was under my chin), I had no choice but to shave it all off an start from scratch.

Old school barber the way it should be including hot shaving crème straight blade razor shaving. Always quick service

Great spot. No BS, no pizzazz, just a great place to get a good & affordable haircut. I prefer Dan but have had good experiences with other barbers as well

I Heart this place :)
Great people, a feeling of a real part of SF history. My favorite barbershop in SF.

I’ve walked past this tradition-​oriented barbershop for decades on my way to work and never took advantage of its proximity to my workplace. I saw men in the chair getting the usual traditional cut, mostly business men who weren’t the rainmaker-​types but who plodded through life steadily and doggedly nonetheless.
What a shock to have finally gone to this barbershop for the first time and only after having officially retired from the workforce, too — only to learn that the tall, dark-​skinned barber with black hair has no clue how to cut hair and gave me such an expensive hachet-​job haircut as I might expect to receive from an illiterate Korean trying to earn a buck in the Tenderloin district.
I had paid a Sicilian barber $ 40 for my last haircut in North Beach, and while expensive for my wallet, the cut was beautifully styled just for my head and was perfect for the next 30 days afterward. All I really needed was a trim, but I decided to let the guy give me a medium cut for $ 29 dollars when he said, «You want to keep the same style, right?» I sure did.
He literally butchered my hair. He swept it up and heated it so all the mistakes were not visible at first. All it took was a shampoo the next day to notice he not only did not follow the style the previous barber had created, but he cut my hair way too short where the part is, so that the hairs stood up and could not be combed own. He took away all the layering that had been in place and merely chopped the sides off so that the bottom layer of hair was almost crew-​cut-​like and the top layer was short and thick.
I thought the cut he gave me would eventually fall into shape, but he successfully managed to give me a haircut that would continuously make me look like Alfred E. Newman — swear to God!
And to think I tipped this butcher an extra six dollar-​tip, too!
Many reviewers here are not exaggerating when they say — don’t go!!! Don’t go! The clientele I observed as I waited my turn for my cut are not the least interested in shaped cuts or styles. If you just want your hair chopped off so you can let your big ears breathe for another month, come here. Otherwise, stay away.
After two weeks, I am still so hopping mad as to what this barber perpetrated — I only know one way to get my revenge on this a**hole.

I asked for a trim and I felt like I was going to get my ear cut off. The barbor was too old and I am not sure if he ever knew how to cut hair. I am quite ashamed to pay over $ 28 for the terrible cut I received. He does not know how to blend and told me I have to shave, why thank you sir. There are about 3 – 4 different lengths of hair on my head now, with a solid half buzz around my right ear. I may or may not have a rat tail in several days since he also doesn’t know how to even out the back.

Worst haircut I’ve ever gotten in my life. The guy seemed rushed, and now I have to go elsewhere to fix up his mess (I asked him to fix it, he wasn’t too insterested). I also hate writing bad reviews on Unilocal,but honestly, go somewhere else.

$ 17.00 for a goatee trim? I think I am changing careers.

The worst experience of my life… I stopped by last night to get a haircut, The «barber» asked what i wanted I told him and he mocked me that it was too short, I explained I have had the same haircut for 5 years, and he refused to give me what i wanted. My latino female co worker was waiting for me when he decided to tell her that there were playboys in the magazine rack for her to read. and then went on a rampage from everything to how he loves Mitt Romney to Alicia Keys new haircut and how it makes her hips look big but she still has a nice rack… to the McDonald’s closing down next door because of the Mexican and Asians coming from third world country’s don’t know about cleanliness and how they only shower once a week and that is all that was working there.(at this point my co-​worker excused herself as not to explode on this A hole) meanwhile Im sitting in his chair blood pumping to my face and teeth grinding trying to to punch this guy. and it didn’t stop there… he asked if he said something to offend her? I said possibly but she most likely stepped outside to make a phone call, trying not to set him off on yet another tirade …he then proceeded to tell me that woman shouldn’t come into a men’s barber shop if they don’t want to hear men’s talk. WTF?! And now onto the hair cut… he started blow drying my hair and fluffing it up like it was 1984. I finally stopped him stood up payed him the $ 26 and walked out… today I will invest yet yet another $ 20 to fix what he f’ed up… I left shaking in anger and have never been so appalled in my entire life by a business.

I went to exchange barber shop based on the prices, reviews, and proximity. There was only one barber available and I wish I could remember the bastards name. It was the worst hair-​cut experience of mylife.
So he asked me what do I want. I tried explaining what type of haircut I wanted and before I could finish my sentence, he starts ranting for several minutes about what he wants. When I tried again to complete my sentence, he started rushing me. Bad start. So he begins talking at 150 words per minute about how his good ol’ glory days working in a cruise liner and how kids now-​a-​days are all screwed up. I was thinking to myself «I’m not here to listen to your uneducated opinion.» When he finished, he asked me if I wanted watery gel in my hair. I told him no but he kept persisting. I caved in and gave him the go. After he very roughly applied the product, I looked at the mirror and his gel-​applying skills looked horrendous. I began to ask myself if this guy was like this with everyone or did he just not like me. If it’s the latter, I couldn’t see myself giving him a reason, being that I barely got a word in our one-​way conversation. Who knows.
When it came time to pay, I still gave him a tip out of common courtesy. I will say that he did a good job at cutting hair, but that is it.
Just to give you all an idea of just how bad this experience was, out of the two years I’ve been on Unilocal,I’ve never wrote a review on Unilocal.This guy’s customer service skills are so bad, I felt obligated to give you all the low-​down.

Expensive, but very good barber. Certainly knew how to cut my hair with the correct style. Nice people working there is also a plus.

Been coming here for the last 2 years. Great service, reasonable prices, in and out quickly.

Been going here for years. Get exactly what I want, with no fashion BS (or prices) and no tacky ‘70s era Supercuts etc. crap. They have all the classic touches: Confidence-​inspiring Barbicide, a rotating barber pole, a well-​thumbed (not by me — I swear) Playboy and sports pages, as well as a more modern addition — a «No Cellphones» sign. (That’s just means no talking on them, I read the newspaper on mine while getting cut.)
My biggest complaints are 1) at some point I started getting annoyed by the crappy intrusive commercials on the generic radio station they play, and 2) they switched from basic old-​school barber tunics to something slicker with giant 19^th century clip art images of scissors and razors etc. This seemed like someone’s girlfriend tried to «update» them.
Wrong venue, Yoko.

Old school SF barber shop in the financial district. Haircuts are ~30 out the door. Playboys are available to peruse as you wait. Barbers like to shoot the bull and give a good cut.

Never in my life did I think I’d take the time to review a barber shop. Well, the Exchange is that good.
Not only are the haircuts great but you’ll never get the sense that this business will EVER show up in any Bravo TV show. I seriously doubt that the words coiffe, highlights, and fierce have ever been uttered in this establishment.

Just got my haircut by Dan. Realized I’ve been going there every three weeks since 2001 when I moved to this town. I had heard about this place because it was ‘Old School’. I’ve made no radical adjustments to my hairstyle during that time, nor do I expect to ever until I lose enough hair to justify the completely shaved head look + huge goatee.
Prices have gone up over the years (I think it’s $ 26 at press time) but the location is right and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the one time my wife’s stylist cut my hair before our wedding for something in the neighborhood of $ 90.
There are some other comments suggesting racism. I don’t know about that. I’m just a regular white dude with a semi-​jewfro. I guess I’ve had about 140 haircuts there over the years and have seen zero brothers and only the occasional Asian guy. I’ve also never seen someone with long hair, Emo hair, colored hair, a woman, anyone under 25, or anyone who looks like their hair is a major priority in their life.

I love an old school barbershop. They shave your neck with a straight razor and debate politics. They have an ample stock of Playboys. I may not read them but I take some satisfaction knowing they are there. Don’t even ask them for a shampoo. Their position on such stupidity would be the same as mine – can’t you wash your own hair?
I like Ben. He’s been cutting hair for about 89 years, which is about the minimum level of experience I require.
I’m not giving them a 5 because I don’t think they’d care. If you want a 5, then go to a dang salon where they will dip your fingers in rose water or something.

My advice: NEVER GO TO THIS PLACE!
I went in, seeking nothing more than a decent haircut. I walk in, and there were three employees hanging around. I say hi. No one greets me. One looks and me and goes back to reading his paper. The other sits at his seat, texting or playing with his cell phone. The third one looks at me the longest, walks to a station and just says, «sit here» without looking up at me. No hello, no welcome, just «sit here.»
Already I can tell that these people aren’t the friendliest, but that’s ok, I say to myself. I’m just here for a haircut.
The barber who directed me to the chair goes off to, I kid you not, rinse out his mouth with his hands at the faucet, without washing his hands (I’m sure– I was watching the whole time), after which he goes to one of the counters to do something (his back was turned to me during this time). So I’m waiting for about three minutes for him to return.
Meanwhile I look around, and as my eyes glance over this place, I catch one of the other barbers (the one reading the newspaper) looking at me and giving me this dirty look. As soon as he sees me looking at him, he goes back to reading his paper.
There was someone who reviewed this place who alluded to racism. I didn’t quite believe him when I read it (I attributed it to his paranoia at the time), but I sure as heck believe him now. It’s hard to explain but the feeling was palpable and unequivocal.
Finally the barber who directed me to this chair comes back. He says, «so you want a haircut, huh.» I said «yea. I’d like a fade on the back and a slight — » He interrupts me.
«So you want it real short all over?»
«No, I just want it shorter in the back and on – «
“Well, that’s what a fade is.»
I proceed to try to explain to him what exactly I want. He tells me that he doesn’t understand what I’m saying.
Now, I admit that I’m not the most technically knowledgeable person when it comes to men’s hair fashions. But I was trying to explain what I wanted and for some reason (maybe it was me, maybe it was him) he wasn’t getting it.
«You’ve told me three different things you want.»
«A fade is short all over. That’s what you told me you want.»
«You’re not making any sense.»
Those were the three main things I remember his saying clearly to me.
Even if I was having the utmost difficulty in explaining myself, he was determined to prove that I didn’t know what I was talking about and he refused to work with me to figure out what I wanted.
Like anyone who’s lived in many different places, I’ve been to countless, barbers and stylists. Yet in my experience the difficult part of explaining what I wanted was ALWAYS alleviated by the provider’s willingness to treat me like a human being and work with me to find out what I wanted.
That last part was lacking sorely in this experience. At no point did I feel welcome here. At no point did I feel I was treated like a human being.

I needed a cut bad, when I just grease my hair back flat its way past time. Walked in and aske if any one know how to cut a Pompadore?
Dan Frasco shot back hell yes come back at 1. Went back at the appointed time and whitin 10 miniutes I was back in shape. $ 27+ Tip not bad for a great cut in the FiDi.