Blood, teeth, razor blades and 1980s pawn mags...

[Sterillium]

Does anyone else remember going to the barbers in the 1980s? I do, I was a kid and I vividly remember the place was filled with smoke, cut-throat razors, and a coffee table straining under the weight of dirty magazines... bizarre.

Anyway, you know on TV when some barbers trim facial hair with what looks like a set of hair clippers?

What the hell are they that appear to shave as close as a wet razor? Or are they pretend?

And was my childhood barber just a dirty pervert?

[Bob-iylho]

My barbers as a kid was 2 shops in one, barbers / fishing tackle, half way through the haircut an angler would wander in and ask for a quart of maggots, he'd be served (no gloves in those days) and then back to the haircut with a whiff of sawdust in the air. Selection of condoms on the counter as well.

[FredClogs]

Didn't grow up in Blackburn did you?

[Butter Face]

I remember a sign saying ‘we will not shave tramlines into hair of under 16 year olds without a letter from your parents’

Tramlines

[Taglioni]

Thanks, I thought I’d buried the memories of feather cuts and Mary millington

[psi310398]

Sterillium said:

Does anyone else remember going to the barbers in the 1980s? I do, I was a kid and I vividly remember the place was filled with smoke, cut-throat razors, and a coffee table straining under the weight of dirty magazines... bizarre.

Anyway, you know on TV when some barbers trim facial hair with what looks like a set of hair clippers?

What the hell are they that appear to shave as close as a wet razor? Or are they pretend?

And was my childhood barber just a dirty pervert?

I remember them well in the 70s/80s. Lino floor. And the glass jar with a greenish liquid in which the razors and combs were sterilised. And eau de Portugal - where did that go?

I was especially aggrieved as we teenagers weren't allowed to peruse the grot mags but were charged full price for our cuts. And, of course, there was the inevitable furtive "something for the weekend, sir?" later on in our teens.

Happy days

[anonymous-user]

psi310398 said:

And the glass jar with a greenish liquid in which the razors and combs were sterilised.

I'd forgotten all about that. Used to get a puff of talc on the back of your neck after it had been shaved as well.

And what is the origin of 'something for the weekend?' - did people only have sex at the weekends in the olden days when the world was in black and white?

[TheChampers]

Bob-iylho said:

My barbers as a kid was 2 shops in one, barbers / fishing tackle, half way through the haircut an angler would wander in and ask for a quart of maggots, he'd be served (no gloves in those days) and then back to the haircut with a whiff of sawdust in the air. Selection of condoms on the counter as well.

Barry’s Barbers and Fishing Tackle, just off the Stratford Road, Hall Green Birmingham was mine

[Levin]

psi310398 said:

I remember them well in the 70s/80s. Lino floor. And the glass jar with a greenish liquid in which the razors and combs were sterilised. And eau de Portugal - where did that go?

Was it Barbicide? My barber uses it but I've no idea if it is the same stuff.

[psi310398]

Levin said:

Was it Barbicide? My barber uses it but I've no idea if it is the same stuff.

That's the badger! I assume it is some Dettol-like substance.

As for "something for the weekend", I assume that in repressed Britain pre-Thatcher, a bit of slap and tickle had to be rationed and scheduled for after the pub on a Saturday...

Anyway, proper barbers and a refreshing absence of "product" except Brylcreem and eaux de various things. Gene Hunt would have approved.

[psi310398]

Mine for many years, before I took control of my tonsorial destiny out of the hands of my father, was in Shepherd and Woodwards on Oxford High Street, although sadly lacking in grot mags... (Those were found in an establishment on the Cowley Road (now long gone).)

What was slightly alarming was having the finishing touches done with a cut-throat razor by an elderly man with reasonably advanced Parkinson's or something similar.

[Doofus]

My dad used to take me to a barbers when I was a kid. Saturday morning, once a month. After we'd both been done, we would get home at 7.30am

[wibble cb]

my barber

https://drivenbarber.com/

and yes, they have a shelf of 'interesting' mens magazines at the back.....