How would you describe it? (not by using a product!)
What exactly is the "old barbershop" smell?
- Thread starter heybatter
- Start date
Bay Rum
Maybe a little stale cigar smoke, cedar wood, and a mixture of barbicide and baby wipes. And of course the instant time portal for me is Clubman...
The closest products that replicate that smell for me are Gillette Foamy Barbershop Clean and Clubman.
Clubman for sure...
Anytime I smell a scented talc, that transports me back.....And, Anything that I smell and think about my grandpa.
If I wasn't to name a product. Powdery soap would be the base.
I little bit of eucalyptus, a little menthol (a wintergreen, basically), a dash of cedar and a pinch of leather.
Powder. Exactly like Clubman.
Wintergreen Alcohol, Bayrum and Tacl Powder
Talc, spice, vintage, classy, manly, grandfather...yeah Clubman/Old Spice like. Sometimes I smell a product and it makes me think.."Barbershop!" even though it doesn't fall into the Clubman category though (i.e. Floid Vigoroso).
A mixture of powder,spice and menthol.
Clubman, Floid Amber, Vitos
Yeah, how could you answer this without naming names?
My most memorable early boyhood barbershop experiences were on the boardwalk at Asbury Park and Bradley Beach, on the New Jersey shore, where my grandfolks lived. Grandpa (and sometimes Dad) would take me for hair cuts and to show me off to his extended buddy crew (from the barbershop, fishing, poker, business, and who knows where else), while they went for shaves and haircuts and to schmooze with the guys. The place was an intoxicating mix of barbicide, hot soapy shaving creams scented with menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor and Noxzema (which the barber would rub on the back of my neck and shave with his straight razor), witch hazel, Pinaud Clubman products, most memorably Lilac Vegetal, Bay Rum, Portugal and Quinine hair tonics, Old Spice, Aqua Velva, scented powders.
But this olfactory story wouldn't, couldn't be complete without describing the bigger picture: the smell of men and their sweat and the colognes they came in with, cigars, ocean breeze and whatever aromas happened to be wafting and walking in with it off the boardwalk at that moment -- morning dew, salt spray, the ultra-coconut/cocoa scent of Coppertone suntan oil, hot dogs with mustard and pickle relish, grape, lemon, lime, birch-beer and butterscotch lollipops and salt-water taffy, popcorn and corn on the cob with butter, deep-fried clams, even fresh caught fish someone would pull out of a cooler to show-off, brag about, leading to other iced fish displays and fish stories, which, of course, led the beer, liquor and liqueurs to flow as a few bets were settled and new wagers made. All serenaded by the scissors snipping, clippers buzzing, the hum of the fan, burble and hubbub of conversation, a game or big bands on the radio.
In addition to all the brands and scents I'm discovering via B&B now, these scents of my childhood I look forward to re-acquainting myself with as I get into DE shaving. Now that I think of it, if I could find products scented like traditional Coppertone oil, Meyer lemon and Kiefer lime, corn on the cob and popcorn with butter, fried clams, various liquors (wow, how about pastis, Tanqueray, Frangelico, Kahlua, Jägermeister, Chartreuse, Jameson... this is a promising line of exploration), or simply the sea-shore, they'd immediately be on my gotta-try list.
So, that's why, with my initial gearing up, I've gone for (or find I'm enjoying) because of scent:
Williams Soap -- besides being very inexpensive, the citronella scent reminds me of summer
Proraso Green Cream, Pre-Shave, and Noxzema for that essential eucalyptol, menthol, (and camphor) tingle and freshness
Proraso Red for the sandalwood
Speick soap has a pleasantly old fashioned spiciness to it (I wish the scent were even stronger).
Gotta try it list:
Pinaud Clubman products (they should offer a product sampler)
Penhaligons
Tabac
La Toja
Cella
the three T's
(and the list keeps growing)
My most memorable early boyhood barbershop experiences were on the boardwalk at Asbury Park and Bradley Beach, on the New Jersey shore, where my grandfolks lived. Grandpa (and sometimes Dad) would take me for hair cuts and to show me off to his extended buddy crew (from the barbershop, fishing, poker, business, and who knows where else), while they went for shaves and haircuts and to schmooze with the guys. The place was an intoxicating mix of barbicide, hot soapy shaving creams scented with menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor and Noxzema (which the barber would rub on the back of my neck and shave with his straight razor), witch hazel, Pinaud Clubman products, most memorably Lilac Vegetal, Bay Rum, Portugal and Quinine hair tonics, Old Spice, Aqua Velva, scented powders.
But this olfactory story wouldn't, couldn't be complete without describing the bigger picture: the smell of men and their sweat and the colognes they came in with, cigars, ocean breeze and whatever aromas happened to be wafting and walking in with it off the boardwalk at that moment -- morning dew, salt spray, the ultra-coconut/cocoa scent of Coppertone suntan oil, hot dogs with mustard and pickle relish, grape, lemon, lime, birch-beer and butterscotch lollipops and salt-water taffy, popcorn and corn on the cob with butter, deep-fried clams, even fresh caught fish someone would pull out of a cooler to show-off, brag about, leading to other iced fish displays and fish stories, which, of course, led the beer, liquor and liqueurs to flow as a few bets were settled and new wagers made. All serenaded by the scissors snipping, clippers buzzing, the hum of the fan, burble and hubbub of conversation, a game or big bands on the radio.
In addition to all the brands and scents I'm discovering via B&B now, these scents of my childhood I look forward to re-acquainting myself with as I get into DE shaving. Now that I think of it, if I could find products scented like traditional Coppertone oil, Meyer lemon and Kiefer lime, corn on the cob and popcorn with butter, fried clams, various liquors (wow, how about pastis, Tanqueray, Frangelico, Kahlua, Jägermeister, Chartreuse, Jameson... this is a promising line of exploration), or simply the sea-shore, they'd immediately be on my gotta-try list.
So, that's why, with my initial gearing up, I've gone for (or find I'm enjoying) because of scent:
Williams Soap -- besides being very inexpensive, the citronella scent reminds me of summer
Proraso Green Cream, Pre-Shave, and Noxzema for that essential eucalyptol, menthol, (and camphor) tingle and freshness
Proraso Red for the sandalwood
Speick soap has a pleasantly old fashioned spiciness to it (I wish the scent were even stronger).
Gotta try it list:
Pinaud Clubman products (they should offer a product sampler)
Penhaligons
Tabac
La Toja
Cella
the three T's
(and the list keeps growing)
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All of the above.
Plus, near the cash register, the smell of lime green lollipops wafting out of a glass bowl.
And a blend of all the popular colognes men in suits wore to work.
Ozone from the electric trimmers.
And sometimes windex on the days the mirrors and glass were cleaned.
Plus, near the cash register, the smell of lime green lollipops wafting out of a glass bowl.
And a blend of all the popular colognes men in suits wore to work.
Ozone from the electric trimmers.
And sometimes windex on the days the mirrors and glass were cleaned.
What's the scent of a kid trying to sneak a peak at the Playboys in the pile of magazines while Dad gets a haircut?
That scent is called "Adventure".
Gotta go with Clubman and the Clubman Special Reserve...
