I missed this on Barbershops at Instapundit yesterday.
THINGS CAN'T BE THAT BAD FOR THE REPUBLICANS: Traditional barbershops are making a comeback. Well, sort of traditional. Except for the wi-fi and stuff.
I have a brother who is an extremely successful barber, author, businessman and a leading authority on antique barbershop collecting.
The red chair there is from the civil war - very cool. But what you might not know about Barbershops is that, in many cases, they didn't fall out of vogue, they were all but legislated away.
Certain lobbies and Vo-Tech movements in the seventies helped to change the rules. It became all but impossible to become a licensed barber or open a shop without two years of formal schooling with a curriculum which mandated things like manicures, pedicures, hair-styling, and so forth.
In a sense, it also cultivated a certain mindset among graduates who came to look down on barbering. And every new Vo-Tech grad's dream was to have a salon. It didn't matter that, with the right approach and methodology, a good old-fashioned Barbershop could still be a gold mine.
With new, some might say unnecessary health regulations requiring shampoo sinks and much more, even for your basic barbershop, combined with an inability to find people willing to take up the trade after tech school - barbershops everywhere simply started to close. And men had the privilege of paying twice as much for a haircut. Quite a deal for someone, wouldn't you say?
Fortunately for me, when I'm in the area, anyway, along with maintaining one of the world's finest Barberianna collections, my bro also operates an excellent executive barbershop filled with the glass and brass antiques of so many barbershop yesterdays and four comfortable leather chairs.
There may have been a time in my youth when I didn't take to the phrase, get a haircut, kid. But I can tell you that, as an adult, it's actually something an aging gent like me can come to look forward to in this fast-paced day and age.
Sure, the discriminating male has to find the right shop and barber before just walking in. But just because nothing stays the same these days doesn't mean it shouldn't have all along. Barbershops have been making a big comeback for awhile here in the East. I suspect many patrons like to keep it a secret, ... leaves more room in the chair for guys like me.
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