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When Mike posted his comments regarding Gold Bond Powder, he brought up the subject of barber versus stylist. I think he brought up a good question. So....what is it? Barber or Stylist?
I prefer a barber. I go to a barbershop in Mid-town Memphis called Mid-City Barbers. Sam told me about them. There are three gentlemen who cut hair and do wetshaves. Two are well into their 70s and the other one is a young guy, probably 50ish I love going there. Nothing fancy, just a great old fashioned atmosphere where I get a great haircut for $9 or if you want a wetshave, that will only cost $5.
I wanted to find a place that reminded me of the barbershops I went to as a kid and find someone (preferably a man) who knew how to cut a "high and tight". I found that place.
Danny
Danny
"Because I prefer the cool, clean sweep of the tempered steel as it glides smoothly--" Cary Grant as he is shaving in a scene from "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
I've been going to the same barber since 1989-- he's been in business for 50+ years, but looks hardly older than 60 and has impeccable grooming (unlike so many of the barbers when I was a kid). He's slowly retiring-- cutting back on days per week and will be all done in a couple years. I don't know what I'll do then, but I won't go to a stylist.
Scott---I know what you mean. I don't know what I will do when my guys retire. It took me forever to find this place. I hate to start over again finding another barbershop. I "jokingly" tell my wife that I should go to barber school and open up my own shop.
Boy, would it be great! I can picture in my mind what it would look like.
Danny
Danny
"Because I prefer the cool, clean sweep of the tempered steel as it glides smoothly--" Cary Grant as he is shaving in a scene from "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
rustyblade wrote:I wouldn't be caught dead at a stylist, but I fear once all these old barbers retire/go the great barbershop in the sky, that will be all that's left.
Ok...so what did I do with that number to the barber school
Danny
Danny
"Because I prefer the cool, clean sweep of the tempered steel as it glides smoothly--" Cary Grant as he is shaving in a scene from "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
I go to a stylist, but she cuts hair too, so I consider her a barber. She also shaves my nape with my Feather AC, something most barbers or stylists won't do.
Art
"This world would be a much better place if people didn't enjoy being victims so much." - Reggs
notthesharpest wrote:What is the actual difference, other than the sign on the door? I'm not being skeptical, I just want to know.
The main difference for me is that I don't want my hair "styled". I just want it cut. That's all, except for maybe a shave, my ear hair and nose hair trimmed. I just want what we used to call a "regular" haircut. Another difference for me (and I can only speak for me) is that whenever I have gone to a stylist, i.e., Fanstastic Sam's, Sport Clips, etc. when I tell them that I want a tapered haircut or more specifically a high and tight, I get the "deer in the headlight" look. But whenever I have gone to a barber and said the same thing, there were no questions asked from the barber other than maybe how much I wanted to leave on top.
And for me, its not just the haircut aspect. It's the whole atmosphere and attitude of a barbershop as opposed to the styling salons I have been to. I don't want to offend anyone here, but men, I don't want a guy cutting my hair who has more makeup on than my wife. Now, maybe for some men, that wouldn't bother them, but it does me. Plus, I just like an older man cutting my hair so we can talk about stuff like WWII, old movies and such.
Danny
Danny
"Because I prefer the cool, clean sweep of the tempered steel as it glides smoothly--" Cary Grant as he is shaving in a scene from "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"
Chaps wrote:The main difference for me is that I don't want my hair "styled". I just want it cut.
I couldn't agree more (that is before I started doing it myself D: )
... whenever I have gone to a stylist, i.e., Fanstastic Sam's, Sport Clips, etc. when I tell them that I want a tapered haircut or more specifically a high and tight, I get the "deer in the headlight" look.
When I was in the military, I'd always just go to a barber on base and ask for something similar. I visited home and realized I had forgotten to get a trim, so I stopped at a place. But they wanted to know what guard size I wanted them to use. And when I said "Take the same amount off the top," they *left* the same amount on top, about a quarter inch!
My favorite barber, ever, was the one my dad took me to when I was a kid. He was and older gentleman, and everything in his shop was antique, it seemed. And he had the classic set-up, complete with a black-and-white television, a jackelope, and the story of how he chased said animal from the woods of central Mississippi, through Louisiana, and half way through Texas to catch it.
Unfortunately, he died when I was about ten, and my mother insisted on making me have my hair cut my her stylist (my dad was killed when I was young, so I had no way to protest).
I go to a father and son barber shop. The dad said he had to teach is son how to cut hair after he got out of barber school. They use clippers only around the ears and neck. All else is done with comb and scissors, and they both keep the scissors "clicking" as they comb and cut your hair. Kind of reminds me of Floyd on Andy Griffith. A great place to go and shoot the bull even if you don't need a haircut. They use Clubman Talc, Jerris Hair Dressing, Pinaud Clubman After Shave. Only the father can do straight razor shaves because shaving is no longer taught at our barber schools. Definitely a MAN PLACE.
notthesharpest wrote:What is the actual difference, other than the sign on the door? I'm not being skeptical, I just want to know.
From what I have been told is that a Stylist and a Barber have two different kinds of licenses. In North Carolina a barber and a stylist sharing the same store front would have to be put in separate rooms due to this licensing and health regulations. It appears to be some kind of bureaucratic crap. It makes no sense to me.
For the record, I was told this by my stylist who happens to be a cute little 24 year old gal that cuts my hair better than anybody else has in my entire lifetime. I'm glad she's young because I won't have to worry about her retiring in the near future!
I do miss the feel of an old barber shop but then again I DO like to watch the female type clientele as I am waiting for my haircut. I don't mind not talking to them because I'm usually too busy drooling anyway.
I suppose I have a bit of vanity in me. I don't want to get a haircut that looks like I just joined the Marines. I might add that my stylist trims my ear hairs and eyebrows. Yes, eyebrows. My wife can't stand bushy eyebrows ala Einstein. She has given explicit instructions regarding that area of my face.
In summation I say "what ever floats your boat". We're all here to be happy during this short pony ride called life.
Good topic. I've gone down both roads in my time ( writer rocks in his chair and pets his coonhound ). When I was a kid, growing up in a small, but rather spiffy, town in NJ, I, of course, went to the local barber. He was a middle aged Sicilian gent named 'Bruno'. Rough as hell on little boys, but he knew what he was doing, and I used to watch him shave some of the men with his stropped open razor. And Bruno would come out to our house, and give my grandfather a haircut and shave when he couldn't get out anymore. Well, I graduated HS in'66, and went off to the U of Wisconsin....and it was time, therefore, to grow my hair long. For a few years, it was simply long....didn't do anything with it....my girlfriend's mother tidied it up every now and again. But in the early '70s I started working ( very much against my will, I might add ), and so something had to be done. Barbers had no idea how to deal with hair as long as mine, so, I was one of the first generation of American males to go off to the 'stylist'....which were really 'beauty parlors'....except in NYC, where the 'stylist' trip was already starting....places like MacGregor's in the East Village. And these are the kinds of places I continued to go to until sometime in the '90s. Then one day, I was sitting, waiting at the stylists, smelling the perming solution in the air, etc. and I thought, "what the hell am I doing here?.....I don't belong here.....not anymore, anyway....". So, I went off in search of a decent barber. And I found a few, but eventually settled on this older gent, again originally Sicilian, at the other end of town. And that's where I've been going ever since. Unfortunately, this fine fellow passed away two years ago, but his son is almost as good. And there is one or two younger men working there as well, so I feel pretty secure. Even turned one of them on to high end English shave creams. But the neat thing is, just two weeks ago, I was back in my old home town, and I went to the same shop that I'd gone to as a lad. It was still tiny, and the barber was still Italian....he had bought the business when Bruno retired years ago. And, he was just as good; did almost the whole business with scissors, talked about the local HS football season, etc....and he wasn't as rough as Bruno used to be ( chuckle ).
Regards,
Gordon
A barbershop will have have no women (although there are some women barbers), it is a place where you tell your only barber "just a trim please" and he will remember and understand what you mean. No appointments, no dying or perming solutions, just the sounds of scissors, clippers, gents chatting, and the smells of traditional aftershave and talc (not nail polish and burning hair).
I've never been to a stylist in my life. Always the little barber shops like Gordon mentions. And yes, they've always been Italian ( they speak English, of course, but it's nice to talk to them in the dialect). I go in, say hi, shoot the s**t, sit down, they cut my hair perfectly without me telling them anything about it.
Bruno
"Shhhhhaving cream, be nice and clean
shave every day and you'll always look keen."
Nitrox wrote:. And yes, they've always been Italian ( they speak English, of course, but it's nice to talk to them in the dialect).
Italian, of course. I don't think I've ever had a barber that wasn't.
My last barber's English was so shocking that I just kept quiet most of the time because I could only understand 25% of what he said (most of the customers were Italian). Part of what I understood is the time he said to me "you eat-a patato". Good times though he was a little strange all round. My new barber is Italian as well but his English is miles better.
The place where my son and I go together is a kind of hybrid barber/stylist, I reckon.
Capelli's in Tampa is owned by a second generation Italian barber, my barber is called Art and is sufficiently grey haired etc.
I can get a straight razor shave, Art uses a Latherking and shaves the back of my neck, and uses the clippers on me as we talk about sports and ESPN is on the TV, I can buy T&H products including brushes.
At the same time, Capelli's offers all sorts of (not sure what the term would be) "new age" services not seen in a traditional barbershop, like massage, laser hair stimulation to "combat baldness" and the like. In some respects it reminds me of a male oriented Aveda salon the likes of which my wife enjoys. You can buy American Crew and Anthony Logistics Trucking supplies, and so forth.
So, in conclusion - my answer is yes.
Give us the luxuries, and we will forgo the necessities.
Give a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day.
Set a man on fire, he'll be toasty for the rest of his life.
Dominic
notthesharpest wrote:What is the actual difference, other than the sign on the door? I'm not being skeptical, I just want to know.
In my experience, about $100 at current exchange rates.
rustyblade wrote:Gordon, I had no idea you were a hippie.
Of course he is. Why, only recently he admitted he had a beard. Now we know he had long hair. And have you noticed how often he (chuckles)? Chuckle, my foot. That's giggling. That's weed-induced giggling. It's all going to come out, bit by bit. You wait and see.
Back on topic: only two places I'll get my hair cut now. One's a very pricey joint in Clerkenwell, London, and the other's a back-street barber on a very small Greek island. I used to go to Trumper in Curzon Street but I've sort of gone off their self-parody schtick, as I may have mentioned. (Still an experience a man should try once, though.)
Michael
People say it's never too late. How wrong they are. --Felix Dennis
I love going there. Nothing fancy, just a great old fashioned atmosphere where I get a great haircut for $9 or if you want a wetshave, that will only cost $5.
