The Difference Between A Hair Stylist And A Barber

[DonRocks]

When I was a young child, younger than ten, my father took me to downtown Silver Spring where I used to get my haircuts.

The man cutting my hair (a first-generation immigrant who had been cutting my hair for over a year) found a tick embedded deep in my scalp.

He called my dad over and showed him.

Then, he took the cigar that he was smoking, and put the burning end against the tick.

No more tick.

Painless, like he had done it a hundred times before.

He was a barber.

[Al Dente]

I went to The Art of Shaving once on Conn Ave as I'd never had a straight razor shave. The shave itself wasn't that great-- some spots were smoother than others, but the friendly barber who did it made it a spa-like experience-- of course, a very manly spa-like experience. They had the old-timey barber chairs, black and white tile floors, and everything else was dark wood, steel, and chrome. I suppose it wasn't the totally authentic experience as you described Don, but at least I didn't have ticks.

I bet one of those barber chairs weighs as much as a small car.

I haven't trusted a barber with my coiffure since my days in Europe when Luigi the International Barber butchered my locks, but I also hate hair salons. They're so damn girly. I feel like I I'm trespassing just as I do when I'm in a Victoria's Secret (with a romantic female interest of course).

[DonRocks]

I went to The Art of Shaving once on Conn Ave as I'd never had a straight razor shave. 

A question to ponder: does this make it a barber, or a hair stylist? I can see it going either way, but anything with the word "art" in the name leans strongly towards "hair stylist."

I'm almost certain that within the past few years, someone asked - either here on the forum, or in a PM - where to get a straight-razor shave, and I vaguely recall that nobody could come up with an answer. Now we know.

Last week, I was in Long Beach, CA, and went to the coolest place - Floyd's 99 Barber Shop - and was surprised to find out it's a large, national chain. I guess it makes sense because it's too professionally decorated not to be - it has a rock-n-roll theme. There are even a few in this area, as it turns out; I had no idea, as I simply drove up, and got a decent cut on the (semi-)cheap. I guess this place is like the Hard Rock Cafe of hair stylists (you can also tell I know as much about hair styling as I do about sewing - I suspect true professionals wouldn't take this place too seriously. If you think about it, at Hard Rock Cafe, everything is kind of cool ... except the food).

[lovehockey]

A question to ponder: does this make it a barber, or a hair stylist? I can see it going either way, but anything with the word "art" in the name leans strongly towards "hair stylist."

I'm almost certain that within the past few years, someone asked - either here on the forum, or in a PM - where to get a straight-razor shave, and I vaguely recall that nobody could come up with an answer. Now we know.

I'll mention at the start that I'm a gal, so my knowledge of this subject is not quite 100%.  That being said, my SO gets his hair cut at Kim's Barber Shop on N. Kings Highway in Alexandria, which is pretty much across the street from the south entrance of the Huntington Metro station.  The times I've been there with him I've seen them do his neck and sideburns with a lather and blade.  It's been a while since I've been there with him, which means I haven't looked at the price board lately, but I assume that they do shaves.  Several older Korean ladies work there and a large chunk of their clientele are guys in the military (which is one of the reasons my SO goes there).  For a haircut he pays something around $13 before tip.  They even have the vacuum to clean him up after his haircut!

[JPW]

A question to ponder: does this make it a barber, or a hair stylist? I can see it going either way, but anything with the word "art" in the name leans strongly towards "hair stylist."

I'm almost certain that within the past few years, someone asked - either here on the forum, or in a PM - where to get a straight-razor shave, and I vaguely recall that nobody could come up with an answer. Now we know.

I go to George's barber shop in the little 3 shop strip on Forest Glen (?) right off of Colesville just south of 4 Corners. George was a crusty old guy who has been gone for at least a decade. But the same Vietnamese ladies and gents are still cutting. My buzz cut (and the nice scalp massage I get from the ladies) is all of $15. They do full on straight blade shaves.

[DonRocks]

I go to George's barber shop in the little 3 shop strip on Forest Glen (?) right off of Colesville just south of 4 Corners. George was a crusty old guy who has been gone for at least a decade. But the same Vietnamese ladies and gents are still cutting. My buzz cut (and the nice scalp massage I get from the ladies) is all of $15. They do full on straight blade shaves.

Now *these* people sound like barbers. A traditional, non-salon straight shave. Who knew? This place is on the shortcut I used to take to get to Holy Cross Hospital from White Oak.

[DaveO]

At some point in the beginning of the '70's when I was at my parents home I started to go to this barbershop that was pushing the envelope for men's haircuts and becoming a stylist.  The shop was run by two brothers who were youngish (probably in their 20's) immigrants from Italy.  They were tremendously outgoing friendly fellows.  One of my uncle's and my cousin raved about them.

More relevantly these two brothers were active soccer players in Euro dominated soccer leagues in the region.  They were popular in Italian leagues.  I was part of a long cadre of members of my town's soccer establishment, wherein our high school teams were almost always good and our members played in various ethnic leagues throughout the region.  As players went on to college they continued to play in these ethnic leagues where the skill levels were always dramatically superior to those of native Americans.  The leagues were fun, the players were neat to meet, and the skill levels in the leagues helped all the kids from my town to dramatically improve our own skills.

Our whole cadre of kids from my town went to these barbers and coincidentally started playing in the Italian leagues in our region.  Italian only teams had players with British, Germanic, Polish, Jewish, and Irish surnames...all from my town.  Before that we had mostly played in German-American and Polish-American leagues through our various connections.

The Italian leagues were very spirited and had a strong skill level.   A lot of fun to play in.

....and by the way these two brothers gave great hair cuts.  They put some style into haircuts on heads that had all been subject to traditional short cuts previously.  Of course it was the '70's and longer and longer hair was in vogue.

Here is to those two brothers...where ever they might be.