Wednesday, March 12, 2008 White sidewalls, please? By Jigs Arquiza
I REMEMBER when, as a young boy growing up in the seventies, my dad used to take me to the barbershop near our house in Malate, Manila. It was a one-man affair with one barber’s chair, but offered the full range of services. In those times, a barbershop was where men went to get a haircut, a shave, or a good massage. Back then, the beauty salon was solely the domain of the feminine, spas were non-existent and a massage was something a man rarely went to a massage parlor for.
While they still exist, fewer and fewer barbershops offer the services that make for a good one. Some barbers nowadays don’t even know how to give a decent shave, what more a massage? Lucky for me, there’s one just down the street from where I live now. It’s called Barbershop 2000, located along Sotero Cabahug St., Mandaue’s main drag. You can’t miss it, it’s in the building adjacent to a hamburger outlet.
Haircuts are supposedly limited to regular crew cuts, flattops, opao and semi-opao, but the barbers are experienced enough to follow directions if the customer is going for a particular look. The haircuts don’t take forever either, so there’s only a short wait until your favorite barber is free.
When you’re done, the barber usually gives you a short neck and shoulder massage, which feels great after holding your head still for 10 minutes or so. (Note: the barbers did not want to be identified.)
For a really nice experience, go in for a shave. It’s done the old-fashioned way, with hot towels, and shaving cream, if you’ve got a beard or particularly heavy stubble. The barbers now use a new kind of razor. It resembles the conventional barbers’ straight razor made of stainless steel, but instead of a solid blade, disposable blades are used, doing away with the act of stropping (rubbing the razor back and forth on a strop, or leather strap). Still, it’s reassuring to see them using the barber’s razor. You finish up with a short, maybe three-minute head-, neck-, and arm massage, and you come out feeling refreshed.
Full massages, as before, are done on the barber’s chair. It’s reclined to a fully horizontal position and the customer lies down. The massage is done in plain view; of course, the customer is still fully clothed, but if the barber knows what he’s doing, the clothes won’t get wrinkled or dirtied. There are no scented body oils nor light touches in a barber’s massage. It’s a man’s massage, with hard, karate chop-like movements pummeling your body, but that’s the way it has always been done in a barbershop.
The popularity of the beauty parlor and spa has definitely made a dent in the barbershop industry. More and more men are now patronizing beauty salons and spas, and the advent of the metrosexual has contributed even more to the decline of the barbershop’s eminence. But as long as there are men who follow tradition, places like Barbershop 2000 will continue to exist and I hope, like rock & roll, never die.
