First professional shave experience

[pesa]

Hi guys,

I haven't been posting in SRP for a while now due to moving to a new house, so I'll figure that I'll take some time off to share my experience regarding my first professional shave. Nov 16th is my birthday and recently I found out that a well renowned barbershop just open its branch in Kuala Lumpur (I'll just hold the name of the barbershop for now, we'll see where this thread goes). Since this is a chance to experience a professional shave, my wife decided to treat me to a session of their Ultimate Shave.

I went to the barbershop in the afternoon with 2 days worth of facial hair. The setting and ambiance of the shop lounge is nice and luxurious; with free espresso provided while waiting. In an article on the barbershop featured in a local newspaper last week, it was mentioned that all their barbers are well trained with many years of experience and I went in with quite an expectation. One thing struck me when I met the staff though. While all of them were very polite and friendly, both the manager and the barber serving me had at least 3-4 days worth of facial hair. I find it amusing for a barbershop that advertised/ pride itself in providing high quality shave to have staff on duty looking like that.

I brought my 3 day set Engstrom razors which I already stropped the night before and asked the barber to use it which he obliged. He made a comment that he was surprised to know that I shaved myself with straight razor and on how not many people (at least this part of the world) know or want to. Apparently for hygienic/health purposes, the shop only uses straight razor with disposable blade.

He proceed with applying preshave oil and hot towel. Then he trimmed my beard and a bit of my sideburns before applying the shaving cream with a brush. Then he continued with shaving with and across the grain. I made a mental note on how light he applied the pressure while shaving and the way he pinched my skin in order to stretch it especially above the upper lip. I suspect that the barber just want to do 2 pass so I asked him to also shave against the grain which he again obliged. In the course of the session, he used 3 hot towels, gave a face massage, cold towel, applied aftershave balm, powder and some cologne. The barbershop sells their own product range and other shaving equipments. I myself bought their pre-shave oil just to try a new product.

The verdict: Since I started shaving with straight razor daily for only 4 months now, I must say that I was a bit disappointed with the end result. Although the barber shaved against the grain, it wasn't something that I would call BBS. In all honesty, I achieved better result daily with the same razor. He also missed a couple of difficult spots under the jaws (which I also do). That was my chief complaint about the whole experience. The rest was a wonderful way to pamper one self. Would I go for it again? Maybe for my next birthday but if its for the quality of shave, then I'll have to take a pass based on that particular experience.

Any of you guys care to share your experience getting a professional shave? Is it possible that a barber might need a few sessions to get familiar with the customer's face (direction of hair growth/grains etc)? Or a good barber should be able to nail BBS the first time? Thanks in advance.