Thread: Disappointed by "barbers" in CA

So I live in the Silicon Valley area (of the greater Bay area) and I have to say I am really disappointed with the so-called barbers here. I actually have a barber I usually go to which is a nice Vietnamese woman and she will do a pretty good job with a straight razor shave.

I went about seeing if there were other barbers in the area also that will do a straight razor shave. I called a place earlier in Redwood City (where I work close by) and the lady that runs the barbershop said, "Oh we don't do shaves because we don't take appointments. I have to take 1 customer right after the other as they walk in."

At my other barber she doesn't take appointments either but she'll do a shave if you're willing to pay for it.

What has been other's experience that lives in the same area? I was also told once by another lady (why is it seems woman are running all the barbershops these days) in Santa Cruz that she didn't do shaves and she was under the impression it was illegal because you could get a disease from the straight razor (heard of barbicide?).

Don't live in the area, but I believe the consensus is that straight shaves in the US performed by a barber must either be done with the shavee's own straight razor or with a shavette. You might have a hard time finding a barber who will use your own razor, so the best you can hope for is a barber who can handle a shavette well.

I went to a barber once to get a straight shave....once!


It was awful. Unless they specialize in straight shaves, I'd save my money!

I guess I should consider myself lucky that I know of the place run by the Vietnamese lady. She uses a regular straight razor that she just dips in barbicide. But it's sharp and she's amazingly pretty good. Charges me $25 for haircut and shave.

Well I live in the Twin Cities and a couple of weeks ago my regular barber was closed so I went to the other barber on the block and was surpised to discover that he still did shaves. He said that he stopped using a straight years back because "of aids and all" which I thought was interesting. But after a few minutes of talking with him he told me he still used the straight for trimming around the ears. I had him do that (he used a shavette with a fresh blade). It was cool for me as it was the first time I had that experience with the lather maker and all. I paid him a few extra dollars for the effort. He did seem to me though to be taken aback a bit to the idea as he obviously had not used that shaver in a very long time.
There aren't any barbers other than this dude that I know of here in the cities that will even take the time to look for their old straight however. Its cool that you have the opportunity in frisco.

Sean

I live in Oakland, and the guy around the corner (who's 80 if he's a day) I know cleans around my ears with a straight. Haven't asked if he does straight shaves, but since I'm due for a cut, I'll ask next week. There's also MR in the City, which gets mixed reviews on Yelp and at $65 is too rich for my blood, even with "free" drinks.

Of course, here in Oakland there's a totally different barbershop culture, too; they made a couple of (bad) movies about it. And they're a pretty good place to go if you're looking for a master clipper handler, but to my understanding, straight razor shaves aren't a part of the black haircutting culture. (That's based on the place in Richmond (CA) I used to go to, so if anyone knows different, please educate me.)

I'm hoping at least that the guy at Sportsman's can give me honing tips, if not an actual shave. I'll post in this space or in a new topic when I find out.