Garcia, 37, who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic but is now an American citizen, said he had made six hair-cutting trips to South Korea and one to Japan, where the Kia Tigers, Bernadina’s team, held spring training. Bernadina, 34, put up Garcia in his apartment and paid for his flight, food and whatever business he missed out on at the barbershop he works at in Washington.

While there, Garcia also cut the hair of a few Dominican players.

“Caribbean hair doesn’t get cut well there,” said Garcia, who cut the hair of a few South Korean players, too. “Their hair is different.”

The bond between the players and their barbers is so strong that Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners allows only Jordan López, who is based in the Bronx, to cut his hair. Several times a year, López said, he takes the six-hour flight to Seattle — or meets Hernández on the road — to do so, his airfare and food paid by his well-heeled client. Sometimes López, 39, travels to Seattle and back to New York in the same day.

Many men, no matter where they are from, stick to the same barber through thick (younger years) and thin (older years). Yet many of the players who are Latino or from the Caribbean say they were raised on the belief that appearances matter, even on the field, and so not just anybody can cut their hair.