First off, I hope all barbers don't give straight shaves like this guy... I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I was going to enjoy the experience. When I came in, the barber ushered me over to his nice leather reclining chair. I sat back, relaxed, and asked him what he was going to do. He quickly summarized by saying first, he would give me a hot towel treatment, followed by shave, and then more hot towels; "it's all about the relaxing experience." I thoroughly enjoyed the hot towel treatments, especially since it was below freezing that day. After the first hot towel treatment, he took an electric razor to "get rid of some of [my] fuzz." (Is that what barbers normally do?) Once my "fuzz" was gone, he walked away and I heard the buzzing of an electric shaving cream dispenser. At that moment, I started questioning his technique and expertise... He applied a light layer of shaving cream on my face, and although I couldn't see how well layered it was across my face I could feel the thinness of the foam. Then he began to shave. He didn't cut or nick me, but he didn't do a very good job... He slowly shaved across my left cheek, down across my chin, and through my right cheek. When it came to my mustache, he began lightly scraping off some hair with some difficulty. He tried a couple times to get at an angle that wouldn't tug too much, but couldn't and relented by firing up the electric shaver (it was at that point I knew he didn't do this very often). After the shave, he placed three more hot towels on my face, slapped on some aftershave, and told me I was done. At first, I didn't know how to react because this guy had just used an electric razor on my mustache, and had only done one pass. I expected at LEAST a second pass to pick up the rest of the gruff. We walked over to the counter and I paid the man an undeserved $17 for the shave. On my way out, he told me to come back... whenever I needed a haircut! :happy102 In the car, as I was runny my hands across the patches of unshaved hairs, I knew I wasn't coming back.
The guys I go to here use a electric goop dispenser too. The straight razor shave is pretty good though.
A shavette looks like a traditional straight, but the blades are disposable. Sorry to hear that it didn't go so well.
I remember a while back when Letterman grew a beard. When he got ready to shave it, he brought in a barber and had them shave him on the show with a straight. I know they were pressed for time, but I remember the closeups of him, and how TERRIBLE it looked. I sure wouldn't have wanted that to be my company that gave him that awful shave. I wonder if anyone here has had a BBS shave by another person? I imagine it would be pretty difficult to shave another person BBS, with each person's hair being unique and not being able to feel what you're doing. As far as this guy you're talking about, sounds like he didn't have much of a standard of quality if he took your money and let you walk out of the shop like that.
Reminds me of Mark Twain's book "A Fool's Progress", in which he describes a shave he receives enroute. Hilarious. Not that yours was.
Yeah, I don't think he really knows what a good shave is. I asked if he used a straight shaver at home, and he gave me some silly reply about it being too difficult and only "our grandparents use them because that's all they had." Also, I'm pretty sure he took me for a dummy because I wanted to know more about straight shaving. Little did he know! All I can do now is look for a better place, and not go back to that one... not even for a haircut! You'll have to send me an excerpt!
Unfortunately, I too underwent my first barbershop shave that was a little disappointing. The chair was comfortable, and the hot towels were very nice. My barber used a straight for one solid WTG pass. He then went to a multiblade cartridge for an against the grain pass He also used the autofoam dispenser which I didn't find to be too bad, but I would have preferred my bowl and brush. Mine was only 12 dollars which was fine, but I left with a mediocre shave. I kind of have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Yeah, I have a hard enough time shaving my own face, with top dollar products and fairly good technique...let alone letting someone else make an attempt without knowing anything about my skin type or it's setbacks. I think I will stay away from the barbershop for a while...
IVE HAD SOME VERY DISAPPOINTING SHAVES FROM BARBERS MYSELF !!!! Glad i got that off my chest .. I tried 4 years running to get a decent barber done shave , diffrent places bad shaves all. This caused my knee jerk reaction to do it myself this year starting with joining forums and purchasing of gear to wet shave.. ect ect .. What happened to the steady handed proffessional who had done some many shaves and had developed super-uber shave skills . I havent given up.. yet.. he is out there somewhere in florida ..
Stories like these are the reason I don't let anyone else shave me Sorry to hear about your bad experience!
Similar Horrid Experience It is apprent that the place you went is not the place to go. I have been to some very nice places and it had been my experience that any place charging under $20 for a shave has been horrible. If I did not know any better I would have thought you went to Alexandra's Salon in Everett, WA. They have a Barber who uses a chair in there and he advertises straight Shaves. The man has no cluse what he is doing or even a concept of how to shave a customer. All I can say is at least your guy did multiple hot towels. This guy in Everett used one towel, used an canned shaving cream like some walmart knockoff. The best three shaves I have had were in order. 1: Truefitt & Hill Chicago 2: The Art of Shaving (over all most of the locaions seemed about on par with each other. 3: Johnny D's Barber in San Jose, CA In regard to Barbers using brushes and an actual straight Razor you will not find it. At least not in the USA. The reason for this is hepititus. I believe is it Hep C specifically. For this reason you will not find them using an actual Straight or a brush. There are a few rare exceptions to this however but they are few and far between. There have been some barber shops where I have talked to the barber for a few minutes to ask his process and if I did not like it I would say thank you and then leave.
Is it true that you need some type of license to be giving straight shaves? I've heard of the risk of getting Hep C before, and I wonder if this one reason (along with many other reasons I'm sure) why straight shaves aren't as popular as they used to be. Know what the kicker is? The place is called the Shave Shop. Part of the reason why I even bothered was because of the name... I figured they were competent enough to widely advertise their skill in the store name. Guess not.
