I’ve often wondered if it says anything about American and British national characters that Americans take a look, a seat and a shit, whilst the British have all those things.
Probably not, though - language doesn’t work that way.
Another NY Red-Sea-pedestrian here. 48 years old, as I think age is important for context.
In my experience of having grown up in a highly Jewish neighborhood on Long Island (Great Neck) and now living in Manhattan, I can safely say everyone I know of my generation or younger would say “get a haircut” or (slightly less popular) “have a haircut.”
I have heard “Take a haircut,” however. Among my relatives, it seems to have been used mostly by those of my parents’ generation, i.e. Depression-era folks. (Which for most of you would be grandparents or even great-grandparents. Sigh. I’m old. Well, and also I was born when my parents were 39 and 44, which throws things off a bit.)
My father (1922-2003, born & raised in Brooklyn) said “take a haircut.”
My mom (1927-1986, also born/raised in Brooklyn) didn’t–she was “get a haircut” as far as I remember–but her mother (1900-1991, born in Ukraine and moved here in 1924) did.
But for me–maybe because I heard my father use it way more than my grandma–it feels like a phrase that would be used more often by men rather than women.
OMG! Yes, my sisters and I totally grew up saying that and still do. And yes, it’s received some amused reactions–although not from kids, but friends/boyfriends/husbands.
They should really call it leaving a shit – I mean – you’re not taking it anywhere – funk dat!
Red-Sea-pedestrian! Snerk!
Good point about age. I’m 43. Mom and pop from Queens.
(And I’m from Port Washington. Howdy, neighbor!)
Wait, I missed this the first time around.
So the phrase “taking a haircut” might really be an idiom more in line with “he took a bath on that stock,” or “he really lost his shirt on that bet”?
Well, I’ll be dipped in … interesting. My family are all post WWII immigrants.
My wife grew up saying, and still does say, “close the lights,” which used to drive me nuts but, you know, force majeur, as they say in the shtetl. She spoke Yiddish at home growing up, which is still a feeble excuse. She also used to say, I think, before I put a stop to it, “close the lights” to mean shut off the oven.
I’ ex heard Brits “take Sports Illustrated” when Americans get it, or have a subscription…right? Or is that affected in England?
I’ve never heard “take a haircut” before, but I have heard “take a shave” (referring to shaving yourself, not getting one from a barber).
Yes, we need to re-think our usage of “taking a shit” vs. “giving a shit.”
And if barbers “give” haircuts, it does make sense for their customers to “take” them.
“Red-Sea Pedestrians,” indeed! 
I’ve heard “take a haircut” as slang for “get less money than expected/you deserve”, but never for the literal act of geeting your hair cut.
I’ve heard it fairly often, but not in the sense of the kind of haircut one gets at the barber shop.
I’ve heard “take a haircut” fairly often in the financial sense of the word, which expresses the difference between the market value of an asset put as collateral for a loan and the actual amount of the loan.
Yup. IANA New Yorker, but I have lived there for a year-ish and dealt with a quite few for decades now.
“Haircut” in the debt restructuring sense is always “take a haircut”, never get, give, have, etc. Doesn’t matter where the company is, which pundit is talking, where the debtholder is. It’s “take a haircut”. In the same sense as “take a beating”, i.e. to involuntarily receive something adverse. We in the airline business have lots of experience with debt restructurings.
“Haircut” in the tonsorial sense is in my experience always and everywhere something other than “take”. I have no experience with 1920s-era Jewish folks so I can’t comment on the accuracy of that.
The book pulykamell cites confuses the heck out of me. I’ve lived all over the US & never heard “take a haircut” from anyone out West, down South, up North, or in the Middle.
One man’s anecdotal experience, and worth what you paid for it.
Whoa Nellie. I’m a freelance editor/proofreader and have a certain big bank as a client, which means I’m used to a lot of financial jargonese. Nevertheless, this week I’ve been proofing their letter to shareholders and, for the first time, came across this term “haircut” used in that sense. Now, two days later, here you are with it again!
So weird. I suppose now I’ll start seeing it everywhere. Talk about Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in action.
(BTW “Red Sea Pedestrian” is from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. One of my favorite self-identifying terms!)
I noted and liked it too; told it immediately to my wife. Thanks for the cite.
I suffer my tresses to be abbreviated.
Really?
I only get the ones on the top & sides of my head cut.
I don’t know my barber well enough to have them cut the hairs on other parts of my body – and don’t really want to become that well acquainted. In fact, I hardly ever cut those hairs at all.
Where did you learn about British English?
British people take a piss (they’ll only use “pee” if there are children around) and even take the piss. Brits also make decisions; I have heard of “take a decision” because students have asked me about it as something they’ve been taught as a British usage. Googling hasn’t helped me, but maybe it used to be the way we said it; these days we make decisions, not take them.
(Going for a piss is actually much more common than taking a piss).
British English takes a look or a seat in some contexts. If you’re pointing towards something away from you, in the context where you might use “that” rather than “this,” you say take. If you’re near the item, where you might use “this”, you might say “have”.
I’ve never heard having a shit and I suspect any google results for that would not be from native English speakers. You might refer to having had a really had shit a couple of hours ago, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking of. You definitely wouldn’t say “hey, don’t go in there, I just had a stinky shit.” Did would be more likely.
Count me as another 50+ (former) NY/LI Jew who remembers having heard “take a haircut” - probably from one of his grandparents - years ago. Definitely sounded weird at the time.
My North Carolina-born dad will some times “cut off the light” or the TV. Or the “dad-burn TV”.
The “have/take” distinction relating to metaphorical distance in the manner of “this” and “that” makes sense, yeah.
The only example of British “have a shit” that I can think of is Bill Bryson in A Sunburned Country. Which is perhaps anomalous, as Bryson is an American-born, multiple-decade resident of the U.K. who’s married to a British wife.
[hijack] Mine is a suit being “bespoke, not off the peg” from Kingsman. I heard it there and then read it a couple of places in the ensuing week or two. [/hijack]
My Nana used to refer to getting your hairs cut, but not to taking a haircut.
Another Jew, not from NYC, who has never heard “take a haircut” except in the financial sense prior to this thread. I’ve heard the financial sense.
I get my hair cut. Or have my hair styled. Or cut my hair. Never take a haircut.