Walked into my old barbershop from 1998 and felt like a time traveler

Was back in my hometown last weekend for a family thing and swung by the shop I used to get my flat tops at back in the 90s. Same cracked barber pole, same guy Tony still cutting, same smell of Clubman powder and hot towels. But the differences got me thinking. Tony used to hand me a comb and scissors to hold while he talked sports. Now he's got this tablet on the counter playing a YouTube video of some fade tutorial while he's doing a skin fade on a kid who probably wasn't born when I got my first cut there. And the price, $12 back then, now it's $35. I asked Tony if he misses the old days and he just shrugged and said "the clippers are quieter but the small talk is deader." He used to freehand everything, no guards half the time, just feel. Now he's got a whole system with like 5 different clippers and a razor edge machine. He still does a great flat top but I noticed he checks his phone between clients way more. Made me wonder, do you guys feel like the craft got better or just more complicated? I'm not knocking the new generation of barbers, I see the work on here and it's insane, but is there something lost when every cut needs a tutorial and a lineup stencil? Has anyone else gone back to an old shop and felt that weird mix of proud and sad?

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keith94329d ago

Damn that hit different reading this. I went back to my old shop a few years ago and the guy who cut my hair since middle school had retired, his nephew took over and it was all clippers and screens everywhere. Felt like walking into a different world even though the chairs were the same. Tony saying the small talk is deader is real though, I miss the days of just shooting the breeze while somebody worked by feel, not staring at a tutorial mid-cut. Still glad you got to see him and that flat top still works, that's something.