Thread: Straight razors obsolete, says barber shop franchiser

Hi folks,

I was reading today's Wall Street Journal at lunch and on page B4, I noticed the article It's Back to the Barbershop - in a Franchise about a guy named Joe Grondin who's trying to bring back the old fashioned neighborhood barber shop, but as a franchise.

This franchise is called Rooster's and so far he has 14 of them open, with 8 under construction and 20 more under contract to be built across the country. The article goes on to talk about how Grondin is trying to revive the old fashioned barbershop where men can go and talk about news, politics, sports, etc while still getting a top notch shave and haircut with a little pampering, yada yada...

Grondin has strict requirements on how the shops must look, along with manuals that direct how the shaves or haircuts are to be done, how long they last, etc. Then near the end of the article, he starts talking about shaving. He states that they use DE razors for shaves. I was really hoping to read that they were using straights (or at least Shavettes), but I was disappointed, although a DE isn't too bad given that some barbershops use Mach 3s or worse. But then the next sentence really got me... Grondin says, and I quote, the straight edge razor barbers traditionally have used to shave their customers is obsolete! Well, that certainly made my day. We all know there is a big resurgence in straight razor shaving and we're proof. Needless to say it kinda bothered me that this guy is so concerned about getting every minute detail of the old fashioned barber shop just right, down to the wood floors, type of barber chair, etc and yet he totally leaves out something as critical as the straight razor. He totally lost some credibility with me.

Perhaps I can find an e-mail address for this guy and we can educate him on why straight razor shaving isn't obsolete. If anyone wants to read the article that doesn't have access to the WSJ, just PM me with your e-mail address and I can send it to you.

Ed