If you trust your barber’s work quality, you can always straight up ask him for input. I told mine I don’t want to deal with styling my hair every day, but would still look fine if shaped. He asked a couple questions on my preferences - clipped and/or faded sides and back, length, integrating the beard or not, etc. Then off he went. I keep going back despite him being a bit more expensive than all options around cause I just don’t have to worry if I’ll like it.

Not specific to your situation, just a process I recently went through. White female, thick, wavy, unruly hair. For decades, most haircut, style places were white people focused. Most white women have fine, straight hair. These places just didn’t know what to do with me.

Few months back, did research. 2a to 2c hair. Reading stuff online, many people with same hair were black women, sharing tips. So I went to a salon, all black staff and customers. Said, I’m having trouble figuring out what to do with my hair, anyone feel OK educating me?

Nice older black woman said with a smile, come over here white girl, let’s see what we can do. Glad I took a risk. Best haircut, style, ever. She turned me on to a lot of good hair products.

The difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut? 2 weeks.

It’s a dumb joke but your hair grows out, so even a haircut that looks bad initially, after a couple of days it looks natural again.

There’s also websites where you can upload an image of your face and try different hairstyles. That way you can “try on” virtually before committing to something in real life.

I think the best haircuts are the low-effort ones that work with your face type and head shape. But you generally just have to try a couple till you find one you like. Since you’re young, I would also try with longer hair since you might not get that chance later in life!

Good luck!

Bring a fashion magazine to your barber and point to the style you like. Celebrity photos might help too.