Thread: I'll have a trim and a shave!

I am not sure this is the place to post this and if not then hopefully the mods will move it for me. I was driving home today and my local barber shop was boarded up.... closed....gone forever. This place had been here since I was a child its like a landmark. but no more. So the purpose of this thread is to document the slowing vanashing link to history, the barber shop.When I was a boy there were only two places that a man could go to be a man without fear of sisters or mothers or wives toneing things down. They were the pool hall and the Barber shop. Now the pool halls are mostly gone and the barber shops are dieing or becoming coed. So I would like those of you who can to take pictures of your local Barber shop and post it here. This will serve as an historical record when a shop is no more and also allow us to throw bussness to small town barbers when we are away from home and in need of a trim and a shave.
I will atempt to get some photos of our shop before it is compleatly gone tomorrow as well as a couple more shops in the area. I hope this will grow into something good.
So what do you guys think?

OK I guess we are lucky there are Six barber shops in the local area, that is within 20 miles, I'll take some pics when I can, but I have no clue why you guys would rush to a rural county in North Carolina.

Phil

And you know how some barber shops are REAL barber shops. About a month ago I went into a new barber shop that opened up in town. It had a female cutting hair but the owner was clearly a barber. I mean, he just had that sort of aura, you know?

I'm getting my hair cut in the shop, checking it out, and somebody calls on the phone. The barber picks it up and listens for a second and says "Hell, no! Cash and only cash, thats all we take!" and hangs up. Then he looks at me and says "W*ssy!".

I was glad I had brought cash.

Hey, I hit 2,000 posts again.

You see all that barberiana stuff or whatever they call it on Eboy, the chairs and cabinets and sterilizers they sell. Its all coming from someplace and it ain't going to new shops opening up.

You never want to argue about method of payment to a guy standing over you with sharp instruments.

Aaa, the barbershop, the real barbershop. The chrome tube steel and black vinyl chairs, the slowly turning candy cane barber pole out front, the 12 inch mustard color floor tiles, the old rotary dial TV in the corner by the old wood frame, foam padded mustard colored fabric chairs and two pot bellied flat-topped barbers. I still remember the brown booster seat I had to sit in to get high enough for a cut, the black plastic drape, the comb container with the blue tinted sanitizer in it and the smell of testosterone. I remember dad getting a shave with a straight razor and I do remember the barber using a tuning fork. He would ring the fork, hold it in his shaving had with the blade. I remember dad talking about how good it felt. The razor blade hummed while he got his shave. I had almost forgotten about that place. A little white wood sided shack on the corner, it is still there, standing empty. A shell with no sole.

Now it is the ‘salon’, a bunch of poufy hared young girls with electric clippers and the overpowering smell of perm agent. You never smelled that in a barber shop. Don’t laugh, but I am almost 38 and my mom still cuts my hair, she was taught by my grandmother who was taught by her mom etc… Barbers are a dying business, along with the pool hall and local butcher shop. I know of no barbers in my area (but there is a barber school) but I have not searched them out, one pool hall and two real butchers. Heaven help me when mom gets too old to give me a trim, I will have to go to ‘Fantastic Sams’, Sam must have been gay.

Well Floridaboy some of us live in North Carolina and like the rural parts the best! I went by Kelly's today and in just a few days they had gutted the place, nothing left but the sign and barbers pole. So I took a picture of the sign sort of as a memorial.

This next spot is exactly what you described Cannonfodder 4 leather and chrome chairs with no waiting, in the back corner is a throne of a shoeshine chair, tv on the wall and not a barber in the place that not male and over 60 yrs old. Not to mention that old time barber smell when you walk through the door. Hell even the name says it all Model Barber Shop. Will try to get some pictures of the inside. Located on Haywood rd in Asheville NC.

No home town spirit guys?

I have to admit that I have not walked into a "barbershop" since I was in 4th grade! I'm 46, so you do the math. My barber, that I can remember did both haircuts and straight shaves, gave me such a bad haircut on one occasion that my mother started taking me to her "beauty" shop. Well, you get accustomed to a beautiful well endowed lady giving you a haircut! Regardless, I still remember the barbershop, the scents and smells, the smoke, the coffee and the conversation, even if I was reading a comic book! There is an old shop nearby me that was called "Gary's". He sold out to "Red". Almost every time I drive by, Red's is closed. Lately, I have noticed that Red's is open mostly at night. And there is some young guy in there working. I'm not about to stop in!

RT

I'm gonna try and stop by my old barbershop next week... Dick was always extolling the virtues of the straight razor to me, he gave me my first straight shave actually. (as well as second, third, fourth.... etc.) I'm just trying to find out when he's going to be there as he's mostly retired at the moment, but deserves to have a shot of him in his barber shop. (plus I dont think any of the other barbers would trust me to take out his razor and hone collection to take pictures of.)