I love Tabac, but it has no barbershop scent to my nose. Of course, when I grew up in Boulder, Colorado in the '60s and early '70s, my barbershop doubled as a head shop, and the overwhelming scent there (and everywhere else in Boulder) was patchouli. To my nose, Pashana is the barbershop scent, not Tabac.
Funny, on another forum, a poster from Germany said that Tabac could be described as a German barbershop scent.
Never woulda guessed it has oakmoss. Wouldn't have figured either one for a fougere, either. When I hear that word, I think lush grassy green...neither one is particularly green to me. Brut? Fougere, yep, love it or hate it. Those two? Well, okay. But that's just me and my nose which count for nothing in the grand scheme.
When I was getting haircuts as a kid, there was no Tabac. I remember Vitalis, Aqua Velva, Barbasol, maybe Clubman, but I am not sure.
Exactly what I'm incapable of doing. I'm ignorant of this type of thing when it comes to fragrance. I am an "I know what I like" ignoramus. I have zero knowledge about top notes, base notes and their olfactive families. I had to look that stuff up on Wikipedia just now in order to complete this thought!
To those who say that Tabac is the German equivalent of an American Barber Shop scent, I concur. I lived in Germany between 1978-1994 and Tabac was also THE Drugstore brand, just like Mennen, Vitalis, Aqua Velva. Every Apotheke stocked a line of Tabac, Weleda, Schwarzkopf, and Speick products.
The only way I might equate Tabac with barbershops is the image of men sitting, reading, and smoking a pipe, waiting for their turn.
Off the subject of Tabac for a minute, after my family's first Estes Park vacation in 1971, we stopped at Boulder to see the Univ. of Colorado. Somehow the football stadium was open, so we just walked in and I had fun "scoring touchdowns" and running up the slope. -)
Yes, the stadium was usually open in those days. In 1971, I used to ride my bike there with a football and a tee and kick "field goals." The stadium was also a rare patchouli-free zone.
I find that babershop scents can be somewhat subjective. Theyre all a little bit different and what a barbershop scent is can vary depending upon location and what time youre talking about. Theres a lot of barbershop soaps that Ive tried and didnt think they were much of a barbershop scent. For example, I dont find Soap Commander Honor to be very barbershoppy but some do.
The old barber (Zuurhorst, the owner was called) in the small village where I grew up definitely smelled of Tabac. So it is a barbershop scent ... maybe just not in the USA, but certainly in Germany.
