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Pet Peeve - Straight Shaves In Barbers Is NOT A Dying Art!

Okay I need to vent a niggle.:mad3:
It seems that everywhere I read on here people are commenting about how barbers are losing the art of doing straight shaves as they never do them, and tons of barber's won't use a straight/shavette etc.
(and maybe it's true outside of Ireland)

Okay now here, though you have to use a shavette for health and safety laws, MANY, MANY barber do straight razor shaves. In fact I would say 90% of barbershops in Ireland do them. Perhaps not every barber in the shop will but they will have someone who does and who will do them frequently enough.
In fact as I get close to graduating and start to look around at jobs advertised they nearly all say "must be able to do hot towel cut throat shaves" or some such phrasing.
Over here it seems seems to be very popular and the idea of the "barbershop" is still very much well and alive with there being equal amount of barbershops to salons in Dublin as far as I can see (they are often on the same street only a few shops apart). We have a huge amount of Turkish and Polish barbers in our shops too so maybe that helps things?

Okay.. rant over. :thumbup:
 

Legion

Staff member
Hmmm. Interesting.

There are not many salons or barbershops in Australia that can do them. I recommend you move here and open your own shop. You would have guys queuing around the block. :wink2:
 
The thing is that it's a rarity over here, I think there is maybe one place in the entire city (a city of a million people) that does it.
 
I think the problem is much bigger in the US, where we don't have a steady supply of immigrants from places like Turkey and Poland where the barbershop culture-- and particularly the wet-shaving culture-- is still alive and kicking.

When I was in Edinburgh last semester, you couldn't walk a mile in the non-tourist parts of town without passing a Turkish barbershop offering reasonably priced hot shaves. One was even using the Arko man as their storefront sign!

Also, the cartel system that controls licensing for hair-cutting in the US probably has some effect...
 
Hmmm. Interesting.

There are not many salons or barbershops in Australia that can do them. I recommend you move here and open your own shop. You would have guys queuing around the block. :wink2:
Sounds like it'd be worth some serious consideration!

Also I'm shocked to hear only one barbers in Calgary does them. I lived in Calgary for a month and it has a pretty strong rockabilly scene that I would create a bit more of a demand for old school barbers.
 
The only barber in my area that offered shaves retired. My son is planning on offering shaves when he finishes school next year but he is planning on moving to a larger area so I'll have to travel.
 
I'm from Ontario, Canada.....I can go to any ol barber shop around here and get a straight shave....shavette style only....but any ol shop will do em :)
 
We have a much bigger Asian/Polish population here than in Ireland and I'm afraid I'm not seeing a load of barbershops like being described. There's also the fact that the places offering them now are doing so as a sort of pampering/salon experience; faux traditional barbershops that are really more 'salon for men' than barbershop imo (the easiest way to check is price...)

...the sentiment expressed on the boards is valid imo - the 'cutthroat' shave is indeed a thing of the past, at least in the west. The days when barbers used real straights, and did them all day, for men who used the service functionally and not as a sort of spa thing, are over. This isn't really a downer for me - the ability to shave oneself well at home is what sort of sent that type of barber into decline, and thats something most of us are glad for I'm guessing! My gripe with most of the barbers I've visited is the generic buzzcut I get, regardless of what I ask for (thats a whole other thread/topic...) So, I'd say there are likely some places that can give you a decent 'hot towel' shave with a shavette (including our venerable Barber_Eile, but I have to stand for the motion 'they are no more!', I'm afraid :(
 
There are a couple of places in Chesapeake, VA. One is $20 for just the shave. The other place advertises a shave with every haircut. I haven't tried either yet.
 
There's at least 3 barbers where I live that do it.
And our city is small at about 110,000 people.

The only reason I know that is because of word of mouth.

Barbers don't seem to advertise.
Maybe that's more the problem?
 

simon1

Self Ignored by Vista
There are about 2-3 here (town of about 25,000) that do the neck shave with a shavette, but only one that I know of that will do a face shave. They said they would also do a shave with a regular str8 if you brought your own personal one in for them to use.

Haircut: $7

Shave: $6
 
In my particular suburb of Atlanta, and most areas around Atlanta, there aren't a ton of real "Barbers" left. It's mostly either styling salons that will cut men's hair, or a few that advertise as being "Barbers" but are really just cut-and-shampoo shops. The few locally I've found that will attempt a straight shave are doing it with $10 shavettes, cheap blades, towels heated in a microwave, and canned goo... needless to say, the results range from mediocre to downright deplorable. The few in downtown/midtown who are known to do really good straight shaves are also crazy expensive... anywhere from $35 for a shave alone to $70 for a shave+haircut. They're neat places, with all wood paneling, concierge, shoe shine while you're being shaved, etc, but the prices are prohibitive, for me at least.

Strangely, my best ever barber shave was in India from a young metro/bollywood looking barber using goo and an M3, but boy did he know how to work that thing. It was a completely random occurance since we were only in the shop because it belonged to my company's in-country contractor's sister and we needed a way to get cash from an AMEX and my employer won't allow cash advances on company cards... while he was arguing with his sister to convince her to run my card and give me cash, I asked one of her barbers to give me a shave and it was the best I've ever had. A nice luxury in a country that otherwise nearly killed me (Deli Belly, Heat, a ruined pair of J&M shoes).
 
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There are about 2-3 here (town of about 25,000) that do the neck shave with a shavette, but only one that I know of that will do a face shave. They said they would also do a shave with a regular str8 if you brought your own personal one in for them to use.

Haircut: $7

Shave: $6

Those prices are extremely cheap. Cheapest haircut i have seen is $15 and $13 for a shave
 
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