It seems it is becoming more and more of a rarity. Do they even have barber colleges anymore? sigh It seems a really good hair-cut is hard to find.
I used to love the hot lather they’d put on the back of the neck before they shaved the hairs.
I’d be willing to pay for the real deal, if I could find it around here! But most of the “barber” shops around here seem to be run by women who are, in fact, cosmetologists, not barbers.
Are you looking in small towns? Every small town around me has an old fashioned barber, and the nearby collage town has an actual barber college.
We’ve got quite a few Black barber shops around here. They’re still around.
I recently found one, by accident, that was run by a bunch of old, retired, army vets.
You walk in the shop and it’s like taking a step back in time.
The walls are covered in old newspaper clippings. And right by the register is a pinup girl (50’s style) right there on the wall.
I’ve only been there once. But when I went, the place was packed with not a single woman in the place.
Ooh, I’d kill for a classic shave with hot lather and a straight razor!
There’s a place by my house that still does it. But it’s not a bunch of older guys. It’s a couple of young tattooed girls.
I started going there when I grew a beard and didn’t want to go to the cheap chain barber shop (Sport Cuts etc) anymore for fear they’d butcher it. I’ve yet to have them strait razor anything other then the back of my neck, but I know they do it.
ETA: it’s in Bay View if you’re interested.
Our area is FILLED with them- seriously, I could fling a cat and hit four, and that’s before I got very far down the road. One is run by a former Marine, is staffed and patronized primarily by African American men, and has a list of hilarious, wonderful rules on the wall (including ‘no swearing’). The boyfriend has his ‘other girlfriend’ that he sees every week who does the hot lather-straight razor shave AND a neck/shoulder massage at the end (sure, he could save money if I learned to do a high-and-tight, but why not boost the local economy? 
). Perhaps you need to move to a military area?
Thanks, but that’s a bit out of the way for me. There are a few places within 20 miles of me, but I’m too lazy to get to them lately.
This is why its no longer a common thing. Going to a Barber is not stylish. You have to go to a Supercuts or somesuch franchise. It’s like the corner candy store. It use to be every block had a candy store and barbershop. And every two blocks had a tavern.
I work next door to a barbershop that offers all the old services, including straight razor shaves with a hot towel. It’s not stepping back in time because they cut women’s hair, too, and they’re busy from opening to closing but they have real barbers.
Damned Hippies and their long hair…
No, really. Have you seen pictures of what guys looked like in the 70’s? Can you picture the guys in Battlestar Galactica getting their haircut at their dad’s barber shop? Nope, they needed blow dryers & product.
You might also want to look in Asian neighborhoods. The Korean neighborhoods in Tacoma have a lot of hole in the wall places with haircuts as cheap as $5. Their English is not very good and I don’t know if they do straight razor shaves, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask around. In fact, since Tacoma is next to two huge military bases it’s a hotbed of traditional barber shops.
They’re still around, but you have to look.
Growing up in Toronto, I went to the same barber from about age 5 onwards. His was a classic barber shop, offering haircuts, hot lather straight-razor shaves, and beard trims; in addition to the newspapers, comic books, Sports Illustrateds, and Daily Racing Forms that were available to waiting patrons. (There were also Playboys, but you had to ask for those.)
I left Toronto when I was in my 40s, but in subsequent travels, never found another barbershop quite like it. I do get back to Toronto from time to time, and I always make it a point to stop in. The barber still remembers me, and we catch up while I enjoy a trim and a hot lather neck shave.
I don’t know about the service, but there is one barber shop in town that really looks quite oldish except for the foot in a meat grinder in the window. It’s called Sweeney Todd.
There’s one two blocks from me. My son will walk over after school to get a haircut, and my husband gets a hot shave now and again.
I’m white and live in a majority-African American city, and there’s an excellent barbershop downtown whose employees are all black, and clientele is predominantly black.
And it’s a great place. Very relaxing. You walk in there, and even if you have to wait, they’ve got a nice long couple of padded benches to sit in. There’s a vending machine, a Ms. Pac-Man machine, and they’re usually playing Soul Train or something. Everyone’s very friendly, and I’ve never felt like I wasn’t welcome.
And I like the shave and a haircut I get there, too.
Last time I was in a Barbers, which was about a year ago, they had faded pictures on the wall of cool looking men with brylcreemed hair from the 1980s. They all looked like George Michael and Roger Taylor from Duran Duran. It was such a ridiculous cliché I had to promise myself never to go back.
Yes, most of these old time places are gone. Where I live (Boston area), most shops were run by elderly Italians and Greeks-these guys are retiring now. One interesting factoid-antique barber chairs are worth a fortune these days-most were made by a firm called “Emile Paider” out of Chicago-anybody in ChiTown know if that firm still exists?
They’re coming back into fashion, like most things. There are two in my neighborhood, but I haven’t been to either one. One of them seems to be staffed exclusively by tattooed young women who stand outside smoking much of the time. As a non-smoker, having someone who reeks of stale smoke standing that close to me for the duration of a haircut is a non-starter.
You could try a Jude’s barbershop. They have young attractive girls cutting your hair instead of Floyd from Mayberry but the service is very good- they shave the back of your neck with a straight razor and offer full shaves too.
The Twin Cities area is completely full of them. We have the chains here too (Great Clips, Sport Clips, Fantastic Sams, Super Cuts, et al) but we have an abundance of the corner barber shops too. I’m frankly surprised how many the area can support.
