It's a man's world

The spicy scent of bay rum, the hum of hair clippers, the Playboy magazines. It’s indeed a man’s world, if only for the hour or so spent here with a lathered-up face and an earful of gossip — yes gossip — in the company of brothers. Such are the goings-on in the sacred space — one of the few left in this age of gender equality and political correctness — where a man can, without shame or restraint, be a man.

“A guy can cuss, scratch his junk and talk about private things,” says Richie “The Barber” Cortezzo of Smooth’s Barber Shop in Ventura (the Oxnard location was voted “Best Barber Shop” by VCReporter readers), who has been providing the services associated with the age-old trade of barbering for more than a decade. The barber shop, says Cortezzo, is “man’s last stand.”

A more gruesome profession in days of yore, barbers served as ad hoc surgeons and dentists, often performing services such as leeching and bloodletting in addition to haircuts and shaves. The barber’s pole, a visual representation of the trade’s strange history, is red and white (blood and bandages, or surgery and barbering, depending whom you ask). The alliance between barber and surgeon was officially severed in 1745 by an act of Parliament.

The barbershop was, and remains, a social environment where men engage in political discourse, talk sports and shoot the shit about pretty much anything — under the equalizing influence of straight razors and sharpened scissors. “A lawyer can sit right next to a punk rocker and get a haircut,” says Cortezzo, who catered to a whole spectrum of clientele in San Francisco before relocating to Oxnard to live with his girlfriend. Everyone from civic leaders to local musicians and the occasional celebrity spent precious time in his vintage 1930s barber chair. The relationship between barber and client is not unlike that of the bartender and his customer. The barber chair can be akin to the therapist’s couch — a safe place, a refuge for secrets and dreams. “You build a rapport with your clients, you remember the previous conversation and talk to them about how they’re doing.”

While classic gentleman haircuts and straight-razor shaves may conjure images of old men in baggy trousers, the simple pleasures of such services are catching on with younger men, whose patronage is stimulating interest in an otherwise waning profession. Since experiencing the benefits of the barber shop, Nicholas Anderson, 19, says he and his friends are completely sold on it. “I recommend it to all guys,” he says. “When a man can get a man’s haircut, tailored to him specifically, he feels like a million bucks. It’s a good fresh feeling.”

Cortezzo offers a complete range of men’s cuts “from mild to wild,” businessman and flattop styles to Mohawks, fauxhawks and liberty spikes, but it’s his straight-razor shave that consistently wows customers. Last year he was voted “Best Shave” by SF Weekly readers. “I very much enjoy his shaves,” says Anderson. “With the hot towel treatment, you feel the muscles in your face un-tense.” Besides being a thoroughly relaxing, almost tranquilizing experience, the straight-razor shave is unmatched for closeness and precision. It lasts longer than other types of shaves, and Anderson says there is no 5 o’clock shadow. And then there’s the blade. “It’s different, very personal. You can feel how sharp it is,” he says.

As it’s taught in barber school, there are 14 steps to the straight-razor shave, beginning on the left cheek sideburn. But Cortezzo, a ninth-generation barber (excluding his father, who was a motorcycle racer), learned from his professional elders to adjust the shave to the shape of the face and the direction of hair growth, which varies from man to man. It’s a skill not for the faint of heart as there is little, if any, room for error. Cortezzo’s seen 85-year-old barbers’ hands tremble until they grip the blade, at which point it’s, somewhat astonishingly, steady as she goes.

Once a highly esteemed profession, considered an art form in ancient Greece, barbering has seen its share of ups and downs. According to Cortezzo, a self-described “super barber geek,” barbering took a big hit in the late’60s and ’70s with the rise in popularity of longer hair styles for men and then again in the’80s, when homophobia set in. While he’s seen a resurgence in interest in the past few years, he says more barber shops are closing than opening. “There are more salons than there will ever be barber shops.” Trends in fashion and hair style have been influenced by a surge in nostalgia for all things mid-century, as is evident with TV shows such as Mad Men, which Cortezzo says has had men clamoring for conservative, tapered haircuts since it premiered.

Whether or not barbering continues to attract men looking for a basic haircut and shave in the unpretentious company of other men, Anderson’s loyalty will not fade. he says. “I think it’s a lost art and an essential thing. I probably wouldn’t go back to a salon.”   

Smooth’s Barber Shops are located at 2676 S. Ventura Road, Oxnard, 240-3222, and 3737 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 650-7222. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/smoothsbarbershop.

michel@vcreporter.com