Thread: Pro Str8 shave?

So I am waiting for all my shave gear to come in later this week I thought about heading to a local guy who does hot lather shaves at his shop. Should I hold out and wait for my gear or go and treat myself with a cut and a shave? I haven't cut my hair since late August, nor shaved since Oct 5th. That way I should have some more stubble when my gear shows up and not have to work around 3/4'' beard growth.

Flip a coin.

Personally, I'd wait on the gear...but I would not recommend a full shave if its your first experience with a straight.

Two years ago while Xmas shopping I saw an Art of Shaving store in the mall I was in. I decided to treat myself to a pro shave. The experience was nice but I was VERY disappointed. I found that my own shaves using my DE were FAR closer and better. I expected to be dazzled but I wasn't. She only shaved WTG and I got a nick at that (no blame there - I nick myself still every single shave). anyway, I walked away pretty unimpressed. After a couple months at this, I already get a FAR better shave than what I got that day.

Unless you know the guy is an older barber trained to use straights or similar I would pass. Most visits to "barbers" for shaves have not been pleasant ones.

Yeah this woman was supposedly trained in the art. I expect that AoS would have it in their best interest to hire only qualified shavers (in order to sell their product). So let me ask, is it common to get more than a WTG pass when you get a pro shave? That was the biggest head scratcher for me. There is no way I can get a super close shave with only a WTG pass...

In my opinion, most of the professional shaves today are more about the experience which is usually pretty nice. That said, there are still some barbers out there that do a great job on the shave as well. I always recommend getting a barber shop shave when you can. We have had a ton of members sign up for the sport following a nice hot towel Barber Shop Shave.

Have fun