Thread: got a shave at the barber shop today

greetings,

it's just like anything else. do you work on your car, take it to the dealership or have a superb mechanic that will not give the car back unless it is prime?

i have been to barbershops but only one i consider true. he used a shavette and i don't think an 1800's english blade honed by a samurai would of made a difference in the shave. prep and skill.

the haircut was like 30 minutes. the prep for the shave was like 30 minutes. the shave was like 30 minutes. pure fu&^%^ perfectionist. much more rare than the rarest blade i tell ya. man, for 2 hours i was the king being served by a royal servant. One thing to mention is that it isnot just the shave and experience. The true barber is the main pipeline (grapevine) on what is going on. the particular cat shaves the governor and other politicos so he knows what's going on. Also knows what is going on, on the street.

My favorite part however was as i was walking out a son was bringing his pop in for a shave. I'm estimating the son was in his mid forties and was wheeling in his father, maybe even grandpa for the traditional mens grooming.

Traditional barbers are rarer than hens teeth or dubli duck magnetic wonder whatever. It's all about the spirit of the people. regards, m.a.d.

When I was much younger my local barber once suggested a shave as well as my haircut, and I thought "why not?" and went for it. He did the full works and I remember being baffled at what he was doing. Kept thinking "when is he going to get on with the actual shave?"

While I didn't fully appreciate the experience, I did end up with the best shave of my life to that date. I count myself lucky to have got that shave before the nanny state decided to outlaw use of conventional straight razors in this country. I know barbers can use disposable blade systems now, but given how often I hear of them using a cartridge razor to finish off, I have to conclude it is now very rare to find a barber capable of giving a great shave. I can do a perfect job with a cartridge razor on my own, thankyou very much.

I asked my barber back then about buying my own "cut-throat" but he put me off the idea. Was probably good advice at the time, what with there being no SRP (or even Internet) back then, but I do regret not getting into straight shaving sooner.

Originally Posted by Rawaz

I have thought about this for some time..since the barbers arent very good at shaving it seems, I've never had a shave from a barber only got a razor "honed" to butter knife sharpness.
Anyway I thought why haven't any of you shavers opened up a barbershop and give proper shaves for people out there?

First of all in the U.S in most parts of the country health regulation prohibit the use of a straight. In the parts where its not prohibited the health regulations make using on very inconvenient. Even if a barber were to use one insurance issues would be a problem.

You need to have a barbering license to give shaves unless you have a shop built in you home and do it privately and if they find out you'd be in trouble. So you go to school and they don't teach shaving anyway but you could cut hair.

Also shaving oneself is different than shaving someone else. Finally besides us is there really that much demand for a "straight" shave to make it economically feasible?

Two months ago I went to a shop here in Worcester and saw a guy reclined in a chair all lathered and thought wow, I'm going to get to see a pro do a straight razor shave. When she started shaving him with a disposable Bic or something like that I asked the girl cutting my hair what's the sense of getting a shave at the barber if they are just going to use a disposable? She told me that their boss wouldn't let them use straight razors except for shaving necks. I said, "What's the matter, she afraid you'll cut someone's throat?" She said, "Yeah. that's about the size of it."

Last month I was in another shop and mentioned to the guy cutting my hair that I had started using a straight razor. He chuckled and said that there was no way to get a closer shave than with the 3, 4 and 5 bladed systems available today. I just told him that hadn't been my experience and we let it go at that, but I could tell he thought I was some kind of weirdo.

Unfortunately, straight razor shaving seems to be a dying art at the barber shops. Pity.