Became Mourning in the Middle of a Haircut
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Question
Someone who started getting a haircut knowing that his father was on his deathbed, and during the haircut he learned that his father passed away, can he finish the haircut?
Answer
If he started the haircut, he can finish it, but if he only sat in the barber's chair and the barber's cape was placed on him, it is proper not to get a haircut.
Source
It is stated in Avail Rabbati, chapter 5, halacha 8, and in the Jerusalem Talmud, first chapter of Shabbat, halacha 2, and this was written by the Rif (16) and the Rosh (siman 68) at the end of Moed Katan. The Shulchan Aruch also ruled in siman 340, paragraph 2: "He sat to get a haircut, and they told him: his father died, he completes his head, both the one cutting and the one being cut." Mordechai (siman 1022) wrote that the reason is due to the great honor of people. (And according to those who hold that mourning on the first day is from the Torah, and in the Gemara in Berachot 19 it is explained that only rabbinic prohibitions are permitted, it must be said that it refers to close news or to an onen who is not in the laws of mourning from the Torah, and see siman 341, paragraph 5).
Rabbi Akiva Eiger wrote there: "In the Jerusalem Talmud (chapter 1 of Shabbat) it implies that this is the same measure as that which is taught in the Mishnah there: do not sit before the barber close to Mincha, as it is said there: from when does the haircut begin, when the barber's tools are placed on the knees."
However, in Aruch HaShulchan it is written that it is questionable whether this is the measure, since the reasoning is due to the great honor of people. Therefore, if only the cape was placed, it is proper to be stringent not to get a haircut.