I used to be a regular here from when this place was still fairly new without many customers, and I was very impressed by Ali's attention to detail as well as satisfied with the cheap price of $10 for hair and $5 for beards. He would take a $20 for both, which he said included the tip, which I was fine with since it was worth it. Slowly, as happened with my last barber, who was a few miles down the street on Warren, the customers increased and the quality consequently decreased.
For example, he would start to use his clippers on areas of my beard and head hair instead of scissors, which has an effect on how the finished product looks. His hastiness to get all the customers in (he would easily have six or seven waiting when I would get there) was noticable and sacrificed customer satisfaction. The last time I was in there, I asked him to use a blade to line up my beard, which I've done countless times before. He didn't put hot water on my skin or let the shaving cream sit for long so ended up cutting me several times and giving me razor burn. He then blamed the blade and said it's better to use the trimmer next time, which obviously saves him time. I was very disappointed since this has never happened to me before or after this incident with other barbers.
A few months back, I had an important event out of town. I came to Ali's two days before my flight during normal business hours to get a cut and was surprised to find it closed. I was tempted to go across the street, but my loyalty to Ali throughout the years made me go back the next morning, the morning of my flight.
I arrived around 10 or 11 AM and saw his brother there. I asked where he was, and he said he's still going to be a few hours, so I decided to never go back.
One necessary quality to look for in a barber is reliability. If a barber closes down when he wants, without even leaving a sign on the door, and doesn't come to his own hours, staying with him is just not an option for me, no matter how good he is. He's lost a customer for doing something I have seen many other barbers in Dearborn off of Warren do far too often. If he had been reliable, I would've given him three stars. read more
