Shave and a haircut

Progress being made Straight razor work
More context A finishing hot towel and mechanical face massage

I had let myself go. To get ready for Northern Voice I needed to clean up, quickly and cheaply, and only a skilled Italian barber could help me.

The classic barbershop shave, in particular the refined Italian variety laden with hot towels, is tragically growing extinct. Young barbers are not even trained with a straight razor anymore. Every chance to get a professional barbershop shave is to savoured.

All my photos tagged shaveandhaircut…

About Brian

I am a Strategist and Discoordinator with UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. My main blogging space is Abject Learning, and I sporadically update a short bio with publications and presentations over there as well...
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13 Responses to Shave and a haircut

  1. Jon says:

    Oh, very cool. It’s been a long time since I had a barbershop shave–which was in Bluefields, Nicaragua. I will head to Sorrento post haste.

  2. Brian says:

    Jon — ask for Massimo, or ‘Mino’ (the Anglicized version), he’s awesome.

    He claims he can cross-converse in Italian if you speak Spanish, might be worth a try. My Spanish is so bad it’s hard to tell one way or the other.

  3. Brian says:

    Oh yeah, I’m duly envious of your Bluefields experience.

  4. Gardner says:

    Shame about the beard, but the experience looks savory indeed. Who was the photographer? Good job documenting the show.

  5. Brian says:

    Gardner- not everyone can live up to a beard full-time.

    All photos taken by myself in the chair. Massimo was very understanding.

  6. James says:

    I’m a big supporter of beards & getting them shaved by other people… but I put it to you that your traditional Italian shave is *nothing* compared to a full-on Japanese cut ‘n shave… forehead (and pummelling) included!

  7. cheryl says:

    I have been a salon owner and stylist/barber/teacher for 28 years now. I love cutting men’s hair and the old fashioned hot towel shaves. I am a woman and was hoping for some feedback from all u men out there as to your feelings about a woman barber giving a hot towel shave. All sincere comments will be appreciated.
    Cheryl

  8. Evan says:

    Hi Cheryl, just saw your post and wanted to comment. I love going to a barber shop and getting a shave and haircut by a lady like yourself. I think females are more attentive to grooming a guy. I see the barber shop as a spa for guys, and I prefer to be pampered by a lady! I have found that the barber must be confident though, because I have had some shaves by some ladies that didn’t turn out well because they were not confident using a razor. If you want to chat more, send me an email. I would love to try one of your shaves (hopefully you live close) – I can already tell you love your job!
    Evan evanp65@hotmail.com

  9. Kathy says:

    Would like to info on becoming a barber do you really need to be a full cosmetologist or can you just be an aesthetician and specialize in shaving and skin care.

  10. mc says:

    Let’s face it–that was a neat exposure!

    Who is/was that masked man?

  11. The spinning barber shop stripe sign used as a loading status bar, along with the website’s URL, were enough to tie this all together. It’s a site dedicated to male grooming. All the outright and unwarranted abuse of my facial fuzz fashion fax pas aside, my experience with barberbrigade.com was a good one.

  12. donson says:

    Who was the photographer? Good job documenting the show.

  13. Brian says:

    As noted above, I took all the photos myself in the chair. My baraber was very nice about it.

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