Thread: Remembrances of the Barbershop

Gentlemen,

I wished Medic484, in another thread, good luck in his schooling to become a real barber.

I have always considered real barbering a noble profession and the real barbershop the center of the universe. No, I myself am not a barber; rather, I am a writer and a former radio announcer. Anyway. . .

That post gave me an idea to start a new thread about personal barbershop stories. I am sure you have many of your own. By barbers I mean real barbers, those who cleaned the sideburns with a straight razor, and shaved with a straight razor, topping the performance with a splash of Pinaud's Lilac Vegetable or Clubman.

One of the many barbers I visited through the years loved opera. He sang beautiful arias from "La Traviata," "La Boheme," "Turandot" and a string of other great operas. He had a sweet and powerful tenor voice and I loved hearing him as he worked the scissors with the skill of a champion swordsman in a Raphael Sabatini novel.

The only time I would have preferred the curtain closed was when he belted out his arias with the straight razor in his hand. Now and then he would stop the shave or the cleanup and sweep an emphatic arms in the air. It scared the daylight out of me.

Ah, but my visits to that barbershop have left me with sweet memories of a lost art.

Regards,

Obie

Obie,

Many thanks for this thread. The most interesting barbershop experience I've ever had was whilst staying in Amman. The shave (Dovo Shavette) was actually pretty nice. However, the "business haircut" went South right after the barber realised I was German.

Regards,
Robin

Even though my dad was Italian, he was a barber in the Marine Corps(still is in heaven). He was the barber for our family and extended family. He specialized in one style, short. Any request for a different style could have been a painful response
I cut for my family and a few friends just to save them a few dollars. I still give the talc powder brush off like he did, but have learned a few more styles Barber Shop a la Sicilian style.
Mike

No stories really but I'm old enough to remember when barbers cut hair with mechanical clippers and gave shaves with a straight as a daily business practice.

My barber shop memories all stem from travelling in Central and South America. Some really nice places where you could spend the better part of the afternoon talking history, politics, literature, etc. while getting a haircut, a shave, and having your shoes shined. I always talked about how great the shaves were. Took me years before I even considered that I could shave myself with a straight and get something similar.

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen,

By barbers I mean real barbers, those who cleaned the sideburns with a straight razor, and shaved with a straight razor, topping the performance with a splash of Pinaud's Lilac Vegetable or Clubman.

I've only had one barbershop shave (not that great, but anyway) the guy splashed me with Clubman.... since then, it is the only aftershave I use... why oh why did I ever spend more than 5.00 a bottle when something that cheap could smell so good?

When I was about 12, my dad and I used to go to a barbershop he had been going to for years. About that time a new younger barber (Dave) took over the second chair and I started getting my hair cut with him under the presumption his would be more "modern". I don't really looked all that modern, but I thought so. One day Dave wasn't there anymore because he was sick. We found out later that he had leukemia. Somehow my dad got in touch with him and he would take me and my best friend to Dave's house for haircuts. After our haircuts, Dave and my dad would sit and talk while my friend and I would be doing something else. I found out later that my dad was talking to him about his illness and listening as Dave talked to him about his fears of dying. Eventually he did die.

In Later years, I talked to my dad about it and he said that was one of the hardest things he ever did. He said he never knew what to say and mainly just listened. I have to believe this was exactly what Dave needed.

This is probably my only real memory of an individual barber or barber shop. This memory really is more about my dad than the barbershop. It is one of the things that makes me proud of him.

Obie, what a fantastic story! I'd love to have a barber like that.

My dad was a barber until I was 10 y.o. We lived in a small farming town in s/e Illinois. He did crews cuts and flat tops. If anyone wanted a style other than those two, he sent that person to one of the other two barbers in town. They, in turn, sent him the flat tops.

He was a barber from after Korea until '69. The last four years he put himself through college in the morning and opened the shop in the afternoon.

On Saturday morning, after my mandatory dance lessons, I'd go to the shop and raid the Bazooka Joe bubble gum box. I would load up the pockets of my jeans. Every third Saturday (three kids) I got to go with him to George Papadocus' diner/antique shop for lunch when he closed the shop for the day.

The other day he told me that sometimes the shop would be full of people and no one was getting a haircut. Just talking and watching t.v.

He also hated giving shaves. A haircut was 75 cents and a shave was 50. The shave took three times as long as a haircut, so he was losing money.

A couple times a year in the evening, after the shops closed, the barbers in town would meet to decide prices for the next year or so. This was no one would cut someone else's throat and they could all feed their families.

Oh, I love listening to his stories.

He is 77 now and still cuts his own hair with the same clippers. Not a crew cut or flat top, but now much longer, either.

I've been looking at barber colleges around here lately, myself.

Kev

Originally Posted by terrierpike

I've only had one barbershop shave (not that great, but anyway) the guy splashed me with Clubman.... since then, it is the only aftershave I use... why oh why did I ever spend more than 5.00 a bottle when something that cheap could smell so good?

Interesting,I've had barbershop visits and they would break out the Clubman and like wise it has been the AS i will get most often,AquaVelva/Old spice run-ins accur periodically because my father used them.