The Death of Unisex

If you are a male over a cer­tain age, then you might remem­ber going with your father on a Saturday morn­ing to the local bar­ber­shop. A black and white tele­vi­sion set was in the cor­ner or an AM radio sta­tion was on. The shop was full of men talk­ing about last night’s high school foot­ball game and the smell of musk and after­shave per­me­ated the air. Somehow, we drifted from this tra­di­tion much like other things in life. Corporate salons like Great Clips or Fantastic Sam’s took over and catered to every­one, male and female alike. Sure you would pass a small old fash­ioned bar­ber­shop from time to time, but they were always empty and this left you with a nos­tal­gic long­ing for those long ago Saturday morn­ings with Dad.

Well things are tak­ing another turn in the male groom­ing depart­ment. Salons for men have popped up, with pool tables, beers, sports chan­nels, and sexy bar­bers. Razzledazzle in Miami, Capelli’s in Seattle, The Men’s Room in Milwaukee, Y Chrome in Portland, and The Boardroom Salon in Texas are such places that are nice…but they lack a true refined gentlemen’s spirit that we grav­i­tate to.

We have pro­gressed from our child­hood excur­sions with our father to a more refined expec­ta­tion in our bar­ber and we most cer­tainly don’t want our groom­ing to take place in a glo­ri­fied sports-bar. What we want is a proper gentlemen’s bar­ber, one that you might find at the end of Saville Row; a final stop after a fit­ting ses­sion at the hab­er­dash­ery. A shop filled with hot tow­els, straight razors, after­shave in real glass bot­tles, and dare we say…a spot of tea! Well we have found two such places across the pond in the United States and our col­lec­tive fin­gers are crossed for more places to emerge.

You might have heard of the Truefitt & Hill brand name of shav­ing prod­ucts. Claiming to be the old­est bar­ber­shop in the world and the bar­bers to British roy­alty, a com­pany shop and bar­ber is actu­ally in Chicago on North Michigan Avenue. Open 7 days a week, this is on our must do list for our next trip to the Windy City.

But our hands down choice as the best gentlemen’s bar­ber in the coun­try that we per­son­ally have expe­ri­enced lies in the Crescent City..New Orleans. A late stroll on Magazine Street one night led us past a win­dow dis­play of antique razors and cuff links. Immediately we knew we had to stop by on the fol­low­ing day and we are so glad we did.

Aidan Gill for Men is the kind a place that we dream about. Greeted by a young man in a bow tie, we were shown the front retail area, full of creams, oint­ments, smells, razors, and every­thing else mas­cu­line. Immediately we made an appoint­ment to come back for a shave on the fol­low­ing day. The next day we were greeted by another young man in a bow tie. Later while we perused the Aidan Gill web­site, Mr. Gill sports bow ties as well, so we sur­mise that this is part of the shop brand. In any event, the shave was an hour of pure heaven. Several rounds of warm shave oil for­mu­lated by Aidan Gill and hot tow­els were applied to our face and metic­u­lous care was used by our bar­ber to give us the clos­est shave we have ever had.

Mr. Gill is an expe­ri­enced bar­ber who is quite the men’s groom­ing his­to­rian. Check out the clips below to see some fas­ci­nat­ing tid­bits of the bar­ber by Mr. Gill. And more impor­tantly, if you are ever in New Orleans, while nurs­ing that Bourbon Street hang­over, head over to his two shops and reju­ve­nate your skin and your soul. In the mean­time until we make another trip back to New Orleans, we will give the postal ser­vice a work­out, by order­ing bot­tle after bot­tle of Mr. Gill’s shave oil for home delivery.

Mr. Gill is unabashedly proud of his gen­der who pro­claims the salons of today should adopt the phrase “Unisex is a dead word”. He is onto some­thing with this con­cept that is way overdue.

Michael Spurrier. HighStreet. Cincinnati