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There's
a time and place for the bearded face-it's hard to imagine
the 1970s, Abraham Lincoln or two-thirds of ZZ Top any
other way-but trend analysts and barbers agree that the
naked chin is in.
"The
last trend was to have a day or two of growth," says Henri
Soucy, a Beverly Hills barber for two decades. "And goatees
were in for the last couple of years as well. But that's
all starting to fade away now." Today's twenty- and thirtysomethings
are going for the cleaner and fresher look that comes
with keeping the face clean-shaven.
They're
also increasingly willing to stick their neck out for
a trained professional. Since 1805, British barbershop
Truefitt & Hill's client list has read like a who's who
of the well-heeled homme-including Oscar Wilde, Frank
Sinatra, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. Says Guy Cartwright,
president of Truefitt & Hill's North American operations:
"In the last two to three years we've seen the straight-razor
shave business double as a percentage of our business."
For
any half-awake man who has dragged a razor across his
face, Grant's visage in particular inspires a sort of
wonderment. Was that famously dimpled chin a sand trap
in the leisurely golf strokes of the morning shave, or
could he deftly navigate the cleft with nary a nick?
Audrey
Hepburn gets right to the point in the 1963 movie "Charade,"
when she flirtingly touches his chin and asks: "How do
you shave in there?" Hepburn could have answered her own
question by watching 1959's "North by Northwest." In a
key scene from that movie, Grant hides from the cops in
plain sight behind a face full of lather in the restroom
of a train station. Armed with only a tiny safety razor,
he glances jealously at the man next to him, who's engaging
in luxuriously broad strokes with a straight razor.
The
folks at Truefitt & Hill were short on the specifics of
Grant's patronage except to say that he did stop by the
London shop to get a shave when he was in town. But they
know exactly what he experienced. CEO Cartwright says
the Truefitt process has remained "virtually unchanged"
over the decades. "It's nine hot towels and three separate
shaves," he says. "Once with the grain, once against and
once back with the grain." Unfortunately, if you're looking
to duplicate the experience, you'd better have some frequent-flier
miles-the company's only North American outposts are independently
owned and are in Chicago and Toronto.
Still,
it's possible to get a Grant-worthy straight-razor shave
in Los Angeles. If you want to give your visage the VIP
treatment, check out these barbershops. Be sure to call
ahead for an appointment.
¥ÊGornik
& Drucker's in Beverly Hills has been a local institution
since 1936. Autographed photos of Frank Sinatra, Dean
Martin, George Hamilton and many others crowd the wall,
making it look as though Grant was one of the few celebrities
who didn't darken Drucker's doorstep at least once during
his Hollywood heyday. There, $35 to $40 will buy you the
Cadillac of shaves, followed by a face full of pure cocoa
butter, a bracing splash of bay rum after-shave and a
cold towel to close the pores.
¥ÊThe
Larchmont Barber Shop opened in the 1920s, which makes
it even more of an L.A. institution than Drucker's. Currently
run by Jerry Cottone, a genial barber with a gentle touch,
crossing the threshold of the shop is like stepping back
into another era. A shave here will cost you $21. For
your money, Cottone tips you almost horizontal, primes
your face with hot towels and spreads on a thick cream
from a hot latherer. After a first pass with the straight
razor, he repeats the process, slowly feeling his way
across your face to make sure he hasn't missed a hair.
¥ÊPhil's
His and Hers Barber Salon is a great place to get your
facial forest pruned if you're in Burbank with an extra
20 minutes before your guest appearance on Leno. Located
in a mini-mall diagonally across from the Burbank district
offices of AAA, and sporting '70s-era male-female symbols
in the front window, Phil's looks like the last place
you'd expect to find a great straight-razor shave. But
what it lacks in clubby barbershop ambience it makes up
for in experience. The namesake owner, 62-year-old Phil
Nunez, has been wielding a straight razor since 1958.
Cross his palm with $11 and he'll cut you so close that
four days out you'll swear you still don't have any stubble.
¥ÊFred
Segal Beauty in Santa Monica is the place to pamper the
face while the better half boutique-hops her way through
retail therapy. Thirty-year-old Nate Richard manages to
meld old-school traditions of the barbering trade with
the new cool of surfer dude demeanor, complete with barber-themed
tattoos. For $35, this young gun will shave you once with
the grain using hot lather, and once across the grain
with the eucalyptus-scented Proraso shaving cream, with
hot towels in between. When finished, he'll send you on
your way with a splash of bay rum and a complimentary
cigar.
No
matter where you ultimately choose to go under the blade,
the truth is that all the cocoa butter, bay rum and straight-razor
shaves in the Southland won't turn you into a dimpled
Cary Grant. But they can make you feel like your chin
just got the star treatment.
Gornik
& Drucker's, 9740 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310)
274-7131. The Larchmont Barber Shop, 142 ? N. Larchmont
Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 464-6659. Phil's His and Hers
Barber Salon, 932 W. Alameda, Burbank; (818) 843-4707
or (818) 846-4331. Fred Segal Beauty barbershop, 420 Broadway,
Santa Monica; (310) 451-5155.
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