Visit to Truefitt & Hill in Chicago
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:09 pm
Gents--
I was lucky enough to be in Chicago this past week on business, less than a mile from Truefitt & Hill's ("T&H") store on Michigan Avenue. I couldn't pass up the opportunity so I made an appointment for a shave and haircut.
I was disappointed with the experience.
T&H is on the 6th floor of the Bloomingdales building, along with a number of other upscale shops. The T&H storefront is rather small; upon entering there are two small retail areas, each perhaps 12ft wide by 6ft feet deep, seperated by a hallway, where they have all of their products on display, along with those of several other manufacturers (I remember seeing Coates and Castle Forbes, plus various "hardware"--brushes, cartridge razor handles and the like; I bought a small tube of Coates Tea Tree and a tube of T&H 1805, and a small free sample of Castle Forbes Limes). I asked if they carried Trumper Lime Skin Food and was told "they're our competition, we don't carry anything from them"--which I thought was interesting since they carried the other products I just mentioned. I noticed the place had sort of an odd, "stuffy" feel to it, to which I attributed to their wanting to come across as "up-scale British." If that was their intention, they failed.
Walking past the retail area, down the short hallway, is their barbering area. Again, its rather small: six small cubicles, three on either side of the hallway. Each cubicle had curtains for privacy. I was greeted by my barber, sat in a comfortable chair, and the shave began. It started out encouraging: hot towels, followed by some kind of pre-shave oil massaged in, more hot towels, hot lather applied (from a latherizer), more hot towels, and finally another layer of hot lather. The barber used a traditional straight razor. It became apparent early-on that the barber was having trouble with the grain of my beard (admittedly, it wanders in several directions, particularly around my chin). But I figured my beard was adequately prep'd so I just sat back and let him "have at it." He did one pass more-or-less with the grain, but re-applied the preshave oil in spots and re-shaved. I thought that was a bit odd, and somewhat unpleasant, but I figured he knew what he was doing. After the first pass, more hot towels, another layer of oil, and another visit from the latherizer for the second pass. The barber seemed to have more trouble with the second pass, using his razor every-which-way, dabbing on more oil and going over the same spot sever times from different directions, which was getting uncomfortable to me. In fact, at one point I asked "having trouble?" and he said "yes." Maybe I should've stopped him then, but I figured it was close to the end of the shave anyway. After the shave I got more (!) oil, a warm towel, then a cool towel. He dabbed a bit of something under my nose which stung a bit so I assumed it was an astringent on a small cut, then proceeded directly to the haircut. The haircut was uneventful: I didn't ask for anything fancy, just told him how I usually had it done and he did it. I should mention that at no time was I facing the cube's mirror (with either the shave or the haircut); I was just shown my hair with a hand mirror held up in front of me.
After I returned to my hotel room I looked in the bathroom mirror to inspect his work: I had a cut of 1/8th inch or so under my nose, one heck of a razor burn on the right side of my neck, and a rather oily complexion to boot. The haircut was adequate but no more. I decided to leave well enough alone and went about my business for the evening. The oily skin finally cleared up about two hours later. After the oil cleared away I felt my beard; rather than being "baby's butt smooth" there were a number of places that had significant stubble. The following day I noted that I probably could have used a shave (but didn't, to let my poor face heal) and my hair stuck out on odd directions so that I had to re-shampoo. I paid almost US$100 for this?? I should've spoken up. So far I have had two shaves from upscale barbers; one at Art of Shaving (AOS) in Las Vegas and this shave. The AOS experience was FAR superior.
I really like T&H products; they're excellent quality. But I will not be recommending their barbering services to anyone. In fact, I plan to send their management a letter version of this posting.
--Mark
I was lucky enough to be in Chicago this past week on business, less than a mile from Truefitt & Hill's ("T&H") store on Michigan Avenue. I couldn't pass up the opportunity so I made an appointment for a shave and haircut.
I was disappointed with the experience.
T&H is on the 6th floor of the Bloomingdales building, along with a number of other upscale shops. The T&H storefront is rather small; upon entering there are two small retail areas, each perhaps 12ft wide by 6ft feet deep, seperated by a hallway, where they have all of their products on display, along with those of several other manufacturers (I remember seeing Coates and Castle Forbes, plus various "hardware"--brushes, cartridge razor handles and the like; I bought a small tube of Coates Tea Tree and a tube of T&H 1805, and a small free sample of Castle Forbes Limes). I asked if they carried Trumper Lime Skin Food and was told "they're our competition, we don't carry anything from them"--which I thought was interesting since they carried the other products I just mentioned. I noticed the place had sort of an odd, "stuffy" feel to it, to which I attributed to their wanting to come across as "up-scale British." If that was their intention, they failed.
Walking past the retail area, down the short hallway, is their barbering area. Again, its rather small: six small cubicles, three on either side of the hallway. Each cubicle had curtains for privacy. I was greeted by my barber, sat in a comfortable chair, and the shave began. It started out encouraging: hot towels, followed by some kind of pre-shave oil massaged in, more hot towels, hot lather applied (from a latherizer), more hot towels, and finally another layer of hot lather. The barber used a traditional straight razor. It became apparent early-on that the barber was having trouble with the grain of my beard (admittedly, it wanders in several directions, particularly around my chin). But I figured my beard was adequately prep'd so I just sat back and let him "have at it." He did one pass more-or-less with the grain, but re-applied the preshave oil in spots and re-shaved. I thought that was a bit odd, and somewhat unpleasant, but I figured he knew what he was doing. After the first pass, more hot towels, another layer of oil, and another visit from the latherizer for the second pass. The barber seemed to have more trouble with the second pass, using his razor every-which-way, dabbing on more oil and going over the same spot sever times from different directions, which was getting uncomfortable to me. In fact, at one point I asked "having trouble?" and he said "yes." Maybe I should've stopped him then, but I figured it was close to the end of the shave anyway. After the shave I got more (!) oil, a warm towel, then a cool towel. He dabbed a bit of something under my nose which stung a bit so I assumed it was an astringent on a small cut, then proceeded directly to the haircut. The haircut was uneventful: I didn't ask for anything fancy, just told him how I usually had it done and he did it. I should mention that at no time was I facing the cube's mirror (with either the shave or the haircut); I was just shown my hair with a hand mirror held up in front of me.
After I returned to my hotel room I looked in the bathroom mirror to inspect his work: I had a cut of 1/8th inch or so under my nose, one heck of a razor burn on the right side of my neck, and a rather oily complexion to boot. The haircut was adequate but no more. I decided to leave well enough alone and went about my business for the evening. The oily skin finally cleared up about two hours later. After the oil cleared away I felt my beard; rather than being "baby's butt smooth" there were a number of places that had significant stubble. The following day I noted that I probably could have used a shave (but didn't, to let my poor face heal) and my hair stuck out on odd directions so that I had to re-shampoo. I paid almost US$100 for this?? I should've spoken up. So far I have had two shaves from upscale barbers; one at Art of Shaving (AOS) in Las Vegas and this shave. The AOS experience was FAR superior.
I really like T&H products; they're excellent quality. But I will not be recommending their barbering services to anyone. In fact, I plan to send their management a letter version of this posting.
--Mark