Although electric shavers and disposable razors are very efficient and inexpensive, none of them can match the close precision of a wet shave at the barbershop.
People have to purchase a wet shave just to experience it for themselves. The barber uses a remarkable set of tools to make the face feel as bare as a baby’s bottom.
A face shave begins with the barber tilting back the head rest and reclining the chair. This gives him or her the ease and comfort to shave closely on the face with a single-edge straight razor. After applying a hot towel onto the face for a few seconds, the barber usually applies a cleanser to the face. This opens up the pores of the skin so that the face is nice and clean for a shave.
Then the barber lubricates the facial hair with a warm lather. This mix consists of shaving cream and hot water, typically mixed together in a basin known as a scuttle. The barber then applies the warm lather onto the skin using a barber brush.
Once the barber has sufficiently lubricated the face, he or she begins to carefully shave the face using a single-edge straight razor. Unlike cheap shavers that are shaped like a garden hoe, the barber’s expensive single-edge folds out in the same manner as a pocketknife. The barber carefully grazes the blade along the wet skin to remove the hair.
The barber glides the blade on the skin multiple times, to cut the hair as closely as possible without actually injuring the skin. Although each barber has their own preference on how close he or she cuts, the barber tries his or her best to keep the surface as clean as possible. Throughout the shave, he or she has to periodically wash the blade in a wash basin to the side, to remove all the hair off the blade.
Once the barber is finished shaving down the neck and the sideburns, the person then applies a cold, wet towel onto the face to close off the pores of the skin. This smooths off the shaved surface of the skin and cools down the wet face’s surface. The barber then finishes off the job by applying whatever other lubricants that he or she finds suitable for the after-shave treatment.
At first glance, a single-edge straight razor looks dangerous. People often have a pre-conceived image of the barber slitting a persons’s throat, in the same manner as Sweeney Todd. Thankfully, most barbers are sensible enough to keep the blade from cutting into the skin. The last thing a barber wants to deal with is a lawsuit from a seriously injured customer.
The straight razor shave is the closest shave as a man could possibly get. I had my face shaved at the Expert Barbers shop in Southern California and my skin hardly had any rough hairs along the smooth surface. It is the type of close cut that every man dreams of.
Although straight razor shaves may seem like a bit of a rarity nowadays, there are still shops that offer these types of services. If anyone sees a face shave option at a barber shop, they have to try one out at least once. It is a smooth cut that men have to experience at least once in their lives.
