Told them "just tidy it up" and got asked four follow-up questions before a clipper came near me. First time a barber has ever asked what I actually meant by that.
The chair is booked, the blade is stropped.
Three cuts we’re known for
The Traditional Wet Shave
Beard Sculpt & Line-Up
Pick your fade, see the price
Fifty years on the same street
The standards, explained in English
City & Guilds qualified
A fresh blade, every time
Patch tests, when it matters
Registered and insured
Twenty-five minutes, start to finish
- On arrival
The consultation
Thirty seconds on what you want and what grew out wrong last time — before a single clipper guard goes on. - In the chair
The cut
Clippers first, scissors to blend, the straight razor for the line — the same order, every barber, every time. - 10 minutes in
The check-in
A pause to check the length is right while there’s still time to change it, not after it’s too late. - 20 minutes in
The finish
Hot towel, neck shave, a dust of talc — the part most places skip when they’re running behind. - On the way out
The mirror check
A hand mirror, back and sides, before you’re out of the chair. If it’s wrong, it gets fixed there and then.
Four customers, named with their permission — some of them Saturday regulars since long before we had a website.
Twenty years I’ve had my Saturday morning slot with Walter, now with Michael. Same chair, same twelve minutes, same conversation about the cricket.
Brought my son in for his first proper cut. Aiden had him laughing within a minute and the fade was better than mine.
The patch test for the beard dye felt like overkill until a mate of mine reacted badly to a dye somewhere else. Now I ask every place if they do one — most don’t.
Questions we actually get asked
Including the ones about the blade after your shave.
Both work. Walk-ins are taken in order behind whoever is already booked, and the board by the door shows the wait honestly rather than the "5 minutes" every shop seems to say. Saturdays are the one day we’d book ahead for.
Every straight razor here takes a single-use disposable blade, changed for each customer and never touched by anyone else’s skin. The used blade goes straight into a sharps bin, collected by a registered waste carrier — the same route a clinic uses, not the ordinary bin. Clippers, combs and scissors are wiped and sanitised between every chair, and towels are laundered at 60°C or above.
Because the dyes used in beard colouring carry the same allergy risk as any hair colourant, and a reaction can be serious. We test a small amount on your skin 48 hours before, exactly as the manufacturer’s instructions require. If you’ve had a dye service anywhere in the last six months we can usually work from that test, but a first visit always gets a fresh one.
Both. Michael and Priya hold City & Guilds Level 3 Barbering; Aiden holds Level 2 and is working toward his 3. All three are registered with the National Hairdressers’ Federation, which keeps a public directory you can check us against.
From about five upwards, yes — under-12s are £14 rather than the full £24 skin fade, and we’d rather you booked ahead for a first visit so we can give a slower chair to someone who might be nervous about it.
Both, plus contactless and Apple/Google Pay. No minimum card spend, and no card surcharge — the price on the board is the price on the card machine.
Kirkgate Market’s own car park is two minutes’ walk and is free after 6pm and on Sundays; on-street pay-and-display runs out at 6pm most days. Leeds train station is a nine-minute walk if you’re coming in that way.
Text or ring with as much notice as you can — there’s no fee for cancelling, we’d just rather know than have an empty chair. Persistent no-shows may be asked to pay when booking in future, which has happened exactly twice since 1974.
Booked in five minutes, done in twenty-five.
Hoyle & Sons
- 58 Kirkgate, Leeds LS1 6BY
- 0113 245 6620
- Tu-Fr 09:00-18:00, Sa 08:00-17:00, Su 09:00-13:00