I've been a minor league shave geek for a year and a half now. Two safety razors, huge assortment of blades from a sampler, a dozen or so creams, half a dozen aftershaves at most. Still hard for me to get a superior shave, even when I use T&H preshave oil, T&H West Indian Limes, E Jagger brush and DE razor with 7 o'clock or feather blades followed by Skin Food as my "A Team". But still infinitely better than the multi-blade monstrosities.
So we went down to see the Yankees play Detroit, and beforehand I found Cambridge Chemists, where Scott P. told me I could go a block down to 62nd and Lexington, "Premium Barbershop".
Tiny place. Not the luxury high-end GS Trumper style place I'd had in mind, but not a dump either. Oh well. Sat back in the chair, and the barber (sorry, name escapes me, but a young guy) proceeds to massage some patchouli smelling stuff into my face. His first comment was "tough beard, ha?" So now at least I feel validated about how hard it is to get a good shave. I think part of the idea of massaging the stuff was to learn the grain patterns. Next hot towels and some shaving cream (Lucky Tiger lemon type stuff, I think) and more massaging into my face. Then he proceeds to shave, hot towel, reapply, shave, etc. for 50 full minutes. His solution for my cleft chin was to have me put my tongue in front of my lower front teeth all the way down to fill out the area. Also to fill my cheeks with some air. He stretched and scraped. No pain, really, but I could feel it.
After four hot towels and many passes and touch ups (he REALLY did it like an artist) he gave me a cold towel. He put some sort of balm on me, rubbed that in, and I finally could feel the finished product with my hands.
Fanfreakingtastic. My wife agreed it was like being ten years younger. Smooth as silk. Very nice, humble guy, and very reasonable price, not the 70-odd bucks I was expecting to pay.
I went back to Scott at Cambridge and talked to him awhile about the experience and to spend some money out of appreciation and to broaden my horizons. I appreciated the fact that his biggest advice was "use what you have before it dries out". But I wasn't leaving empty handed, so he recommended Castle Forbes' expensive cream (just a travel size for a trial) as the richest, most moisturizing cream available.
I've used it once since coming back, and it's also incredible. This is the real thing. I could've make enough lather for a week of shaves with a tiny bit on the brush. I now will order from him the next time I need to stock up.
Yanks lost, BTW. I'm a PHillies fan anyway...
cheers
So we went down to see the Yankees play Detroit, and beforehand I found Cambridge Chemists, where Scott P. told me I could go a block down to 62nd and Lexington, "Premium Barbershop".
Tiny place. Not the luxury high-end GS Trumper style place I'd had in mind, but not a dump either. Oh well. Sat back in the chair, and the barber (sorry, name escapes me, but a young guy) proceeds to massage some patchouli smelling stuff into my face. His first comment was "tough beard, ha?" So now at least I feel validated about how hard it is to get a good shave. I think part of the idea of massaging the stuff was to learn the grain patterns. Next hot towels and some shaving cream (Lucky Tiger lemon type stuff, I think) and more massaging into my face. Then he proceeds to shave, hot towel, reapply, shave, etc. for 50 full minutes. His solution for my cleft chin was to have me put my tongue in front of my lower front teeth all the way down to fill out the area. Also to fill my cheeks with some air. He stretched and scraped. No pain, really, but I could feel it.
After four hot towels and many passes and touch ups (he REALLY did it like an artist) he gave me a cold towel. He put some sort of balm on me, rubbed that in, and I finally could feel the finished product with my hands.
Fanfreakingtastic. My wife agreed it was like being ten years younger. Smooth as silk. Very nice, humble guy, and very reasonable price, not the 70-odd bucks I was expecting to pay.
I went back to Scott at Cambridge and talked to him awhile about the experience and to spend some money out of appreciation and to broaden my horizons. I appreciated the fact that his biggest advice was "use what you have before it dries out". But I wasn't leaving empty handed, so he recommended Castle Forbes' expensive cream (just a travel size for a trial) as the richest, most moisturizing cream available.
I've used it once since coming back, and it's also incredible. This is the real thing. I could've make enough lather for a week of shaves with a tiny bit on the brush. I now will order from him the next time I need to stock up.
Yanks lost, BTW. I'm a PHillies fan anyway...
cheers
