A few months ago I was trying to dig up some information on historic barbershops, and I hit on this website, extolling the virtues of a traditional shop with the red and white striped pole outside the door–to the considerable disadvantage of unisex styling salons, especially the chains. The site’s basic premise is that a barber, more than a stylist, is better trained to cut men’s hair specifically, and that a man will get a better haircut from a barber. I think there may be something in that. I’ve been going to one now for several months, and my cuts definitely hold up better. It’s also quite enjoyable when the barber lathers the back of my neck, and then today also the lower sideburn areas, and carefully shaves those areas with a straight razor. A straight razor! I had never seen one until I went to this barbershop, although I am aware that all barbers have to know how to use the razor (and, I think, not refuse someone who wants a shave and can pay for it). However, come to think of it, until recently I’ve hardly ever been in a traditional barbershop since I started shaving, before which there were no sideburns and probably no back-of-the-neck-stubble of which to speak.
So for you men who go to barbers, is the straight razor treatment at the end typical in your experience? I suppose I could have made this a poll, but it’s really not that important to me to have numbers. I’m merely interested in anecdotes and such.
The last two barbers I’ve had did not use straight razors to remove hair from the back of my neck they used electric clippers. One of them didn’t offer to shave faces at all while the other was a state champion at some point. No, I had no idea they even had competitions for shaving in the 21st century. The problem with using a straight razor is that in many states it has to be disposable if you’re using it commercially. It seems like a lot of trouble to toss out a blade every time you want to shave the back of someone’s neck. Easier to use electric clippers.
I don’t always get the straight razor finishing-up, but so far it’s been about every other time or so. I don’t ask for it; but apparently the barber seems to think I can use it on those occasions. The price of the haircut stays the same either way.
My dad goes to a small town barber every couple of weeks (he used to get my mom or one of us kids to cut his hair with the clippers). He usually gets the whole treatment: face shave, head shave, ear, nose and eyebrow trim. His barber uses a straight razor on his face and head.
As a woman, I go to a salon where my hairdresser is a both a licensed cosmetologist and barber. She uses a straight razor to trim the back of my neck.
Sometimes they use a straight razor, sometimes the barber inserts a razor blade into a holder that is shaped like a straight razor for the back of the neck. A traditional barbershop cut is far superior to a unisex salon cut imho.
I usually go to an Arabic barber called Yussouf and always get the straight razor, not only to my neck but my cheeks, sideburns, and once to my forehead (!I don’t think I have a hairy forehead!).
I normally have my head shaved to a grade 3. The last barber I went to was out to lunch, so I was invited into the unisex salon next door to get a cut for the same price. The woman cutting it was way too gentle - she didn’t wield the electric shaver anywhere near brutally enough - so the cut is pretty damn uneven now. And no razor action. So, yeah, barbershop every time.
The barbers I go to dates from 1912 and is very traditional. Hot towels, straightrazors etc. You get a great cut and the guys in there aren’t too chatty if you don’t want it which I really like.
I’m very particular about barbers, not really about the quality of the cut but with the quality of the silence while I’m in the chair. I hate smalltalk. So a barber that just stands there and cuts and talks when there is actually something to talk about is great but the whole “Are you going on holiday this year?” and the like just bug me silly.
I feel the same way, but even that’s way better than going to SuperCuts and listening to some 19-year-old 6 months out of cosmetology school talk about her boyfriend for 20 minutes.
My uncle has been a barber in a small town in Pennsylvania for over 40 years, and, yes, he uses the straight razor on all of his customers. He uses it on the backs of their necks, and if they’re getting a shave and a haircut, he’ll shave them with it too. He’s got a big leather strap he uses to maintain its sharpness between shaves.
Uncle Larry’s been doing things the same way for 40 years, so I’d definitely call him “traditional.” And he’s kept a lot of the same customers for all of those 40 years, so it must be working.
I now go to an old-fashioned neighborhood barber shop after having gone to styling salons for my whole life. (As I get older and my hair gets thinner, it just doesn’t matter as much anymore and there’s not much you can do with it anyway.) It’s a traditional American shop with the exception that the owner and all the barbers are Vietnamese. They always shave the back of my neck with a disposable blade in a straight-razor handle, sometimes also clean up my (short) sideburns. And then wipe me down with a hot towel–that’s the best part.
It might look like a strap to the casual obsever but it’s a strop.
The barber in the town where I grew up used a straight razor on the back of my neck, along with heated shaving cream (which felt very pleasant). I think the one I go to now uses an electric clipper on my neck.
Strop, strap, yeah Uncle Larry calls it a strap, but that could be his central PA accent kicking in, the one that turns “coal” into “cool” and “eagle” and “league” into “iggle” and “lig”.
My barber shop (three barbers, no waiting!) still uses hot later and a straight razor on my neck. However, they stopped giving shaves years ago. I asked them why, and the owner said there were just too many rules about blade disposal, having to wear latex gloves, et al, so they had quit giving shaves to anyone but long-time, elderly customers, and as they gradually died off, had quit entirely.
There’s a chain here in Denver (and, as I understand it, elsewhere across the United States) called Floyd’s, and shaving the back of your neck with a straight razor is part of the package (as is a shoulder massage with an electric palm massager).
I miss Charlie. He retired and, as far as I know, was the last barber in town that used a straight razor.
Now I consider myself lucky to have found a stylist that doesn’t feel compelled to fill every quiet moment with chit-chat.
One of these years I’ll break down and see about shaving myself with a straight razor. I’ll post here before I attempt it so that everyone will know what happened if I suddenly stop posting.
I’ve been wearing my hair as a flat-top for the past 17 years or so. I have learned that, while female hair dressers are usually much nicer to look at, they just don’t know how to do a proper flat-top. Therefore, I go to a barber, since they have much more experience in that area. It generally comes down to numbers. The 4 barbers I have gone to in my town have probably done tens of thousands of flat-tops in the past 30 years, whereas most of the hair stylists might only do 10 or 20 a year.
The barbers I normally go to do not use a straight razor.
And then, I was in a small town on the eastern border of Indiana and needed a hair cut. I went to a barber shop and was totally surprised to find that the barber was a woman. I think she had taken over the shop from her dad. She gave me one of the best flat-top haircuts I have ever had. And then, she shaved the back of my neck with a straight razor.
If she wasn’t 750 miles away, I’d make the commute!
Uncle Larry calls it a strap, but that could be his central PA accent kicking in, the one that turns “coal” into “cool” and “eagle” and “league” into “iggle” and “lig”.