Rather than post this in the new brush acquisition thread I thought this was an unusual enough experience to put here separately.
I'm currently in Toronto for a short business trip and it's my first time in this rather wonderful city. In the small mall beneath my hotel there is a traditional barbershop and they had some Kent badger brushes in the window. As you all no doubt know, Kent hasn't made badger brushes in years, but there are always some sitting forgotten in shops somewhere. These guys had quite a few on display. Lately I've come to favour very soft brushes with old-style, fine 3-band silvertip hair, and I do have a BK8 Silvertip that was my first shaving brush and my only brush for years. I think it is such a pity that Kent decided to abandon badger when their badger brushes were so iconic and unique.
I walked into the shop to ask if they were selling these brushes. That was the wrong question and it confused them. What I should have asked, I now realise, is whether they have ever sold a shaving brush. They would have answered no, but that they do all have price stickers on them and they could, in principle, be purchased if a customer was so inclined. It had just never actually happened.
They didn't know anything about the brushes and kept trying to hand me an Omega brush instead because the Kent ones were so much more expensive and, as far as they knew, all the brushes were the same. They had difficulty too understanding why even the Kent brushes had different prices, and when I tried to tell them it was because the brushes were different sizes (and I thought this was hard not to notice), it still made no sense to them and I could not shake their conviction that the price stickers must all be wrong. In the end they asked me where I was from, I said I was English, and this seemed to be enough of an explanation for my behaviour that they just let me take over, open all the drawers, and look at whatever brushes I wanted.
I bought a whopping BK12 Silvertip, a BLK8 Silvertip and an H4 Pure Badger. All brand new, in their tubes, and sealed. The two silvertips have really uniform, white tips and they feel like lovely knots. The assistant was so shocked at the idea of selling not only one, but three of their brushes that she took a photo of them to send to her boss before she would put them in a bag for me. She said she thought they were all ridiculously overpriced and the brown one (the H4) was especially horrible. I got the sense that this was by far the biggest sale in the history of their business, for understandable reasons, and all because of one utterly insane Englishman. I suppose I could have told them all the prices must be mistyped and the zeros at the end should be deleted, and they would have sold them to me for a tenth of the price, but I sort of felt sorry for this empty barbershop with the nice brushes and I wanted to feel that they might still be open next year and maybe the year after as well. I was just happy to be able to purchase these brushes that are not made any more.
I don't know if the world of modern commerce has bypassed the whole of Toronto, or if it was just this shop, but I found it all rather charming. I really love this city - it is beautiful, the sun is shining, and everybody is so relaxed and friendly.
Anyway, here are the brushes and here is the view from the street outside the hotel.
I'm currently in Toronto for a short business trip and it's my first time in this rather wonderful city. In the small mall beneath my hotel there is a traditional barbershop and they had some Kent badger brushes in the window. As you all no doubt know, Kent hasn't made badger brushes in years, but there are always some sitting forgotten in shops somewhere. These guys had quite a few on display. Lately I've come to favour very soft brushes with old-style, fine 3-band silvertip hair, and I do have a BK8 Silvertip that was my first shaving brush and my only brush for years. I think it is such a pity that Kent decided to abandon badger when their badger brushes were so iconic and unique.
I walked into the shop to ask if they were selling these brushes. That was the wrong question and it confused them. What I should have asked, I now realise, is whether they have ever sold a shaving brush. They would have answered no, but that they do all have price stickers on them and they could, in principle, be purchased if a customer was so inclined. It had just never actually happened.
They didn't know anything about the brushes and kept trying to hand me an Omega brush instead because the Kent ones were so much more expensive and, as far as they knew, all the brushes were the same. They had difficulty too understanding why even the Kent brushes had different prices, and when I tried to tell them it was because the brushes were different sizes (and I thought this was hard not to notice), it still made no sense to them and I could not shake their conviction that the price stickers must all be wrong. In the end they asked me where I was from, I said I was English, and this seemed to be enough of an explanation for my behaviour that they just let me take over, open all the drawers, and look at whatever brushes I wanted.
I bought a whopping BK12 Silvertip, a BLK8 Silvertip and an H4 Pure Badger. All brand new, in their tubes, and sealed. The two silvertips have really uniform, white tips and they feel like lovely knots. The assistant was so shocked at the idea of selling not only one, but three of their brushes that she took a photo of them to send to her boss before she would put them in a bag for me. She said she thought they were all ridiculously overpriced and the brown one (the H4) was especially horrible. I got the sense that this was by far the biggest sale in the history of their business, for understandable reasons, and all because of one utterly insane Englishman. I suppose I could have told them all the prices must be mistyped and the zeros at the end should be deleted, and they would have sold them to me for a tenth of the price, but I sort of felt sorry for this empty barbershop with the nice brushes and I wanted to feel that they might still be open next year and maybe the year after as well. I was just happy to be able to purchase these brushes that are not made any more.
I don't know if the world of modern commerce has bypassed the whole of Toronto, or if it was just this shop, but I found it all rather charming. I really love this city - it is beautiful, the sun is shining, and everybody is so relaxed and friendly.
Anyway, here are the brushes and here is the view from the street outside the hotel.
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