The Art of Shaving.

[rating:4]

For sometime now I have been meaning to get to the “Art of shaving.” I’ve called a few times on a whim and had no luck in booking a spot, but I finally managed to get here for my professional spa shave.

I have to say that this place has a very upscale feel to it, the ambiance definitely feels like you stepped back in time. The wooden furniture is a nice touch, the old style big band music playing in the background even further accentuates the feeling of “you fancy now.” It’s pretty cool.

My shave specialist was an older gentleman named Boris. Jokingly I thought of the film, Eastern Promises as I sat down. I silently hoped that I hadn’t offended Boris in this lifetime. You know, cause he’s about to put a straight edged razor blade to my neck and all. Lol. Even my wife joked about that movie before I went down to the city.

Boris said he recognized me, and he asked me if I had been there before. I said yes, probably over a decade ago, and he said that’s why he recognizes me. Boris has been working there for seventeen years. He states that he is this company’s first employee. Pretty cool Boris, just be careful and please don’t slit my throat.

The spa has two options, the regular shave for $35, and the royal which is $55 and includes a facial of sorts. Since this is something I do every other decade, I decided to go all in and got the royal.

The overall experience is pretty cool, I mean, who doesn’t enjoy being pampered like a spoiled rich person every once in a while?

We started with a hot towel on the face, to open up the pores. Then comes some special lotion, followed by the shaving lather. All products in here are their brand by the way. After perfectly and evenly lathering you up, you then get that super close shave. This is followed with another two applications of lathering and shaving. Then some more lotion, and another hot towel, then some more lotion. Eventually you get to a cold towel and a spritz of a cooling mist.

Let the record show that you should not quote me on the exact steps, cause I was chillaxing and could easily mix things up. But this is an overall idea of the process. Haha.

At the end of the process, as I run my fingers across my face, almost all of it feels super smooth. Only the area below my bottom lip feels a little rougher, and a bit of the area by my neck. These are hard areas to get, and he did try though, I felt it. My neck did sting a little bit due to the lotions, but it wasn’t unbearable and passed pretty quick. I didn’t see any bleeding, but I have two or so little nicks on my face. Though at times the blade didn’t glide perfectly smoothly, overall it did.

This was a cool thing to do, nice experience, with a nice gentleman. If you want to treat yourself like royalty, and you have the cash, why not? Try it out, I think you’ll enjoy it.

They also do haircuts here, but judging by the look on Boris’ face when I said “a fade,” your best bet is sticking to your regular barber for that kind of a cut. I learned long ago that a proper fade cannot be done by just anyone. There is a reason I’m heading over to Filthy Rich Barbershop back here in queens! My man Rich, my girl Kazz, my musical homie 360, and everyone there knows how to do that proper fade!