Benjamin’s Barber Shop

Good barbers and friendly service. Was actually happy with my cut for once (I’m very picky). Think I’ve found a long term barber!

Great haircut, good music and the two guys are really nice. Can also book online so makes it easy.

I’ve had my haircut all around the world and I gotta say, this place gets a bad rap for no reason on this site. The place I can compare it to here in Edinburgh would be Ruffians. Here’s the deal:
First off the haircut is just as good if not better. After having multiple people cut my hair at Ruffians I had both Benjamin and Mark cut my hair at some point. The main difference would be PRICE. I had great cuts and good experiences at both, but Benjamin’s is significantly cheaper and the cuts looked more original, had more art to them.
The other big difference is that it doesn’t feel like a commercial shop, where the other one did. This is a legit spot to great a damn good hair cut and just chill.

I popped in one Sunday afternoon one guy getting a wee trim, on the whole nowt happening 2 barbers i think one cutting other on sitting on his chair on Facebook or something so sat there for 5 mins checking oot the dodgy décor, well eventually he sauntered over and asked me if i booked no i said so in the same breath, wednesday is the next appointment now remember this is a barbers shop not a ladies hairdresser, wednesday he said, ill give you a card, i know stockbridge is well known for its artie farty approach plus i did not have any hair around my chin and not to much on top, 10 min job at most come on guys get a grip for that 10 mins you would have earned £20 yes 20 not eighteen cause i would have given you a wee £2 tip, anyway iam away back to berts shity décor but just to sit and wait for a nice haircut and a wee read of the sun

Ahhh, sweet misogyny. Yet another hair cuttery that cares more about genitals than about hair. Do you want a stylish and sharp men’s cut? Wait wait wait, hold on… do you have a penis? No? Then get lost. That’s the policy at Benjamin’s. Now why don’t you run off to a nice salon where you can talk to your stylist about nail polish and tampons, because Benjamin’s doesn’t cut women’s hair ‘no matter how pretty you are’ (charmingly patronising and misogynistic quote taken from their window-​front sign). You might be thinking, ‘heads are heads, what difference does it make?’ But no, they’re not, because if the head belongs to a woman, then the barber has to do his job knowing that there’s a person with a uterus attached to that head, and who can expect a barber to do his job under such grotesque conditions?
No mention of this policy on their Facebook page or online booking page, by the way (other than a photo of their gross window sign, which you would only see if you flipped through their Facebook photos to find it). My (female but masculine) partner went in for a pre-​booked appointment today and the barber turned her away. He would rather drop an appointment and insult this prospective client than be seen cutting the hair of a female person, and he obviously couldn’t have been bothered to contact her beforehand to tell her that he wouldn’t be willing to touch her oestrogen-​contaminated head (her forename is very obviously a woman’s name, so he would have seen this from the online booking). She’s physically disabled and walks with a cane, and it’s a struggle for her to walk more than short distances, but she was nevertheless left with no choice after this insulting and completely avoidable interaction than to wander about in the rain looking for another shop that would take her. Way to keep it classy, gentlemen of Benjamin’s.
So, if you’re a woman (no matter how masculine), don’t try to go here. If you’re a genderqueer/​agender/​bigender/​genderfluid person, it might be safest to avoid Benjamin’s as well, as you may be subjected to a humiliating assessment of your sex before they decide whether you qualify sufficiently as a man to be served, which you won’t if, as far as they can tell, you have the wrong reproductive anatomy. And if you’re a man who simply doesn’t think that there’s any problem with women having traditionally men’s haircuts, screw Benjamin’s and give someone else your patronage.

Great cut, beard trim, and a whole lot of good chatter. These guys are wonderful and take good care of you.