Hi all,
Well, after my wonderful experience at Efe Barbers in London (see here), I decided to try my luck in New York City. My original plan had been to visit Paul Mole or Frank's Chop Shop, by tonight, whilst wandering through Little Italy, a small, beautifully decked out barbershop caught my eye - Barber's Blueprint. The sign said $18 for a hot towel shave, and the two gentlemen inside were speaking to each other in Turkish (good signs so far!).
Edit: Some googling has demonstrated that my grasp of languages is rather poor - apparently it was Russian, not Turkish!
I asked how the shave was done, and was told that whilst they did use a straight edge, it was a disposable blade system - not ideal, but understandable.
After a bit of a hard sell on their part, I sat down in the chair and George lathered me up. Whilst in the chair, he upsold me to a "Royal Shave", for only $8 more - I'm only here once, so I thought 'what the hell' and said 'sure'.
I was a bit concerned at being lathered up first, but he followed this with a hot towel. "Ah", I thought, "here is someone who has read the old school barber's manual about pre-shave lathering!". George left the towel on for a few minutes before whisking it off and covering my face in a pre-shave oil, and then a new layer of lather with a large boar hair brush (I think). He then pulled out the shavette and went to work. He was alright with this instrument. The cheeks went smoothly, the chin less so - he didn't pinch and pull the skin taught as those at Efe had, but on the whole I was quite happy. I closed my eyes as he relathered me with a moisturising cream, and then was somewhat confused when I was shaved again, somewhat less smoothly, on the cheeks against the grain.
I opened my eyes in horror to see a disposable Bic single bladed razor in his hands. Not wanting to cause alarm with this against my skin I closed my eyes and pretended to be elsewhere whilst he scrapped it against the underside of my neck, against the grain in a problem area for me. My neck began to burn. He then gave a vigorous rub of some kind of cream into my neck, against the grain, making it feel far more painful.
George then applied a cold, moist towel, which was a relief, before applying a facial mask to my neck and face. This was left on for a few minutes, whilst George asked how it felt. "My neck is rather painful", I said, to which he replied "Oh, that'll be okay in a minute, I've just put some special lotion on it".
A few more minutes later A hot towel was applied, followed by an electric massager (which I must say was rather nice). Then came the styptic pencil on the 20 or so cuts I had, the aftershave, and a neck shave.
I told George his service would be perfect if not for the Bic. He said "No, I only use the Bic for the problem areas".
I asked about the burning/pain, and he said it wasn't the Bic, but because I 'hadn't had a hot towel shave before', which I pointed out wasn't true, especially as I shave with a hot towel and double edge every other day.
The service here has a lot of potential, but the Bic, and more the attitude to constructive criticism (plus the fact that my $18 shave ended up costing me $30 somehow!) left me rather irritated, and not wanting to come back.
I'm not sure if I'll risk another hot towel shave outside of Efe again, unless someone here can recommend a good one!
P
Well, after my wonderful experience at Efe Barbers in London (see here), I decided to try my luck in New York City. My original plan had been to visit Paul Mole or Frank's Chop Shop, by tonight, whilst wandering through Little Italy, a small, beautifully decked out barbershop caught my eye - Barber's Blueprint. The sign said $18 for a hot towel shave, and the two gentlemen inside were speaking to each other in Turkish (good signs so far!).
Edit: Some googling has demonstrated that my grasp of languages is rather poor - apparently it was Russian, not Turkish!
I asked how the shave was done, and was told that whilst they did use a straight edge, it was a disposable blade system - not ideal, but understandable.
After a bit of a hard sell on their part, I sat down in the chair and George lathered me up. Whilst in the chair, he upsold me to a "Royal Shave", for only $8 more - I'm only here once, so I thought 'what the hell' and said 'sure'.
I was a bit concerned at being lathered up first, but he followed this with a hot towel. "Ah", I thought, "here is someone who has read the old school barber's manual about pre-shave lathering!". George left the towel on for a few minutes before whisking it off and covering my face in a pre-shave oil, and then a new layer of lather with a large boar hair brush (I think). He then pulled out the shavette and went to work. He was alright with this instrument. The cheeks went smoothly, the chin less so - he didn't pinch and pull the skin taught as those at Efe had, but on the whole I was quite happy. I closed my eyes as he relathered me with a moisturising cream, and then was somewhat confused when I was shaved again, somewhat less smoothly, on the cheeks against the grain.
I opened my eyes in horror to see a disposable Bic single bladed razor in his hands. Not wanting to cause alarm with this against my skin I closed my eyes and pretended to be elsewhere whilst he scrapped it against the underside of my neck, against the grain in a problem area for me. My neck began to burn. He then gave a vigorous rub of some kind of cream into my neck, against the grain, making it feel far more painful.
George then applied a cold, moist towel, which was a relief, before applying a facial mask to my neck and face. This was left on for a few minutes, whilst George asked how it felt. "My neck is rather painful", I said, to which he replied "Oh, that'll be okay in a minute, I've just put some special lotion on it".
A few more minutes later A hot towel was applied, followed by an electric massager (which I must say was rather nice). Then came the styptic pencil on the 20 or so cuts I had, the aftershave, and a neck shave.
I told George his service would be perfect if not for the Bic. He said "No, I only use the Bic for the problem areas".
I asked about the burning/pain, and he said it wasn't the Bic, but because I 'hadn't had a hot towel shave before', which I pointed out wasn't true, especially as I shave with a hot towel and double edge every other day.
The service here has a lot of potential, but the Bic, and more the attitude to constructive criticism (plus the fact that my $18 shave ended up costing me $30 somehow!) left me rather irritated, and not wanting to come back.
I'm not sure if I'll risk another hot towel shave outside of Efe again, unless someone here can recommend a good one!
P
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