I needed to be in Braintree for the day and had some time to kill, so I thought I'd get a haircut while I was there. I did my research beforehand and this place seemed like it would be reasonable quality and from the website I gathered walk-ins during the day would be £12. In the end I was charged £19.50, which, from their website, is the price of a wash and reshape, which seems to me just to be a way of squeezing extra money out of you for anything more than a trim. It's splitting hairs and can easily alienate customers who end up paying more than expected. When I questioned the barber about this, unfortunately after he had already cut my hair, he said that he hadn't updated the website since it had been put up a year ago and that £19.50 was the price. I have had better hair cuts for much less, in more expensive towns than Braintree. I wanted to keep much of my fringe, and we agreed on a length, but after cutting it to that length he kept on endlessly snipping at it and at the end took a pair of feathering scissors to it so it ended up a good couple centimetres shorter than I'd wanted, leaving me with very little fringe. He didn't seem to understand what suits my face and spent more time probing into the details of my life than consulting with me about what I wanted. I ended up with something fairly run of the mill, that doesn't suit my facial proportions, rather than a stylish haircut you might expect of the price tag, especially considering the location and small floorspace of the shop. It also took a good 10-20 minutes longer than I would usually spend getting my hair cut and if anyone else had walked in they would have been waiting a long time to be served as there was only one barber in a three chair shop. I suppose much of that could be chalked up to the time of day, but it may have been telling of a general lack of custom. In all fairness, what I did get was fairly well done and the shop is nicely fitted, but it wasn't what I asked for, and it's overpriced for what in the end is a wash and cut in a small barber shop, away from the main shopping areas in Braintree, which is hardly a high class town. They need to simplify their price list and bring the prices down, and they need to get a better idea of more youthful men's styles, then maybe they might have need to have more staff on during the lunch hour. If I had been a local I would certainly take my custom elsewhere. read more