Thread: The Truth About The Barber's Notch

How many times has this come up in the last few years ? I have joked and said that I thought a drunken grinder at Wade & Butcher miscued and accidentally notched the end of a wedge. The crew saw it and like the aesthetic and the rest is history.

I've read the supposition that it is for ease of opening the razor but since a square or a round point isn't difficult to open I wasn't convinced of that. I believe I have finally discovered the real deal on the barber's notch but I have to give a little personal background.

I had a mustache for decades. When I first got into 'wet shaving' in '06 I shaved DE and took the mustache off just out of the enthusiasm I had. It was something else to shave. Wasn't long before the call of the straight razor beckoned and I became a straight razor shaver exclusively. I continued to shave my upper lip clean in the ensuing years.

A few weeks ago I began raising a mustache again. Now I am not one of those who favors a bushy and full stache. I shave between the top of the mustache and taper it from the nostril to the end of my upper lip. Back in the early days of straight razors the mustache was probably more the rule rather than the exception.

I have found in the past few weeks that the barber's notch makes tapering the mustache, around the nostrils, so much easier than getting it done with a square or a round point, that I have to believe manicuring the mustache more easily is the motive for the barber's notch. YMMV.