Ali Barber is a barber shop at 96 Fowlds Avenue in Sandringham, near Fowlds Park in Auckland's inner west, carrying a 4.3 rating from nine Google reviews. Barbering runs on repeat custom, and the regulars' trick is simple: find one barber and stay put. After a couple of cuts a barber knows the cowlick at your crown, how the hair sits as it grows out, and exactly what "a tidy-up" means for you. It helps to speak the language too — guard numbers for the clippers, scissor work on top — and to look for the small signs of a good cut: a question or two before the clippers start, clean work around the ears, and a mirror held up to the back before the cape comes off. For anyone around Sandringham due for a cut, it is a convenient local stop.