My buddy got hitched yesterday and he and the groomsmen, me included, went to 18|8 in Lafayette, ca. From the outside everything looked good, inside they had refreshments, beer included, some fairly attractive women who were to perform said straight shaves.

After being seated a hairdresser/barber (?) introduced herself asked me if I ever had a straight shave before, I replied "everyday", which spurred a quick conversation on how and why I got started. She started in with a hot towel then some sort of gel,another hot towel some more gel, and got to work. She started wtg feeling her way around and mapping my beard before each series of short strokes. After finishing the first pass she asked me how it was going and I replied nicely what blade are you using( apparently they are required to use shavettes for health reasons, which made no sense to either one of us) to which she answered, derby, a nice smooth shave btw. Now onto the second pass and where things got interesting, she pulls out a pj electric shaver and does a pass on my neck, sits me up and asks well what do you think? Befuddled, all I could come up with was, ok? Sheescorted me back to the front desk where they charged me $31 and asked what could be better. Not wanting to shit on mybuddies day, I just said it could be closer.

The overwhelming consensus was how had this place stayed open so long, every one of us either needed to shave again or at least touch up. What really surprises me is that this chain is all over the place. Mind you the idea is good, but poorly executed.

I guess the take away is to always ask what a classic straight shave actually means, because last I checked it didn't include an electric razor.