Is your barber really a barber?
Throughout my barbering career, I've been known to get on my soapbox from time to time. My biggest gripe of all is that of some “modern day barbers” and the services they provide; or lack thereof.
The past decade has seen a resurgence of the Barber shop, with men more meticulous on their particular look than ever. Every major town has a plethora of Barber Shops, ranging from “The old guy my dad used” to the ultra-modern “Trendy” barber shops through to the good old Turkish Barber Shops.
Let it be known that this is only my opinion, and like it or lump it, most of these places aren’t barbers. They are gent’s hairdressers.
Yes, the big burly men with tattoos and beards down to their balls certainly look the part and im certain that when faced with this argument that they’d strongly disagree. After all, it’s their image that’s under fire, but you see when I hear the word Barber, I have an image in my head.
The image of smartly dressed middle aged men, sat round chatting with their starch white tunics, sharpening their razors on strops. Cigar smoke clouding the room. As romantic as it is, the notion sticks with me to this day.
The straight razor. An item of such simplicity, it’s been used in one way, shape or form since man could manipulate metal. In fact, it’s design has changed very little in the last few hundred years.
The days are gone when Father would pass down to Son in tradition, the shaving lesson. The honing and sharpening and stropping of a blade, before finally being taught to put it against their skin to remove the little hair on their face.
So for the select gentleman that enjoys the clean shave and the hot towel experience, it falls to the barber.
“What can I do for you Sir?” asks the barber
“Short back and sides please, and a good, clean shave.”
“I’m very sorry Sir, we don’t offer a shaving service.”
“But you’re displaying a barber’s pole?!”
“Yes, because we’re a barber shop, but we can’t offer shaves.”
And so, the conversation goes.
It is a fundamental skill of anyone calling themselves a barber to be able to at least use a straight razor. I can accept that in this modern era of disposable blades that the need for stropping etc has almost gone the way of the dodo, but there really is no excuse.
To anyone that disagrees, I welcome your debate, so long as it’s put in a well-reasoned argument however, until then, I shall keep providing a high-quality shaving service to my clients and continuing the tradition of honing, sharpening and stropping fixed blades for my clients that want it.
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