 |
|
|
AS A political journalist who spends his time in the murky world of Westminster, I like to think I know a fair bit about cut-throat characters. But one freezing spring morning I headed a couple of miles up the road to meet some people who can claim to be the real thing. I had an appointment for a full traditional open-razor barber's shave, but not in some stuffy oak-panelled establishment in Mayfair. No, it was off to the City of London, to the traditional-but-trendy Hoffi, which, if you hadn't already guessed, is run by a Welshman. The shop sticks out on Fenchurch Street like a sore, if well-groomed, thumb. At the end of the road is the East India Arms pub, and a few doors down is a Rolex shop where the prices start at pounds 3,000. That combination tells you all you need to know about this part of London. Hoffi is about something else entirely. Run by Steve Powell, originally from Llangollen, it offers the very best in male grooming - be it haircuts, shaves, facials or, as more and more chaps are going for these days, all three - in an atmosphere that feels more like the hipper kind of city-centre bar than a barber's. Traditional and modern come together easily here; there are leather sofas, table football and an X-box, but once you're in the chair the product range is old-school - St James of London. It really is the full traditional works, from the badger shaving brush (gives a more even spread of shaving foam) to the hot towels and the final slap of cologne. I work in a profession where drinking beer from a bottle is considered a bit effeminate, but I'm enjoying this rather a lot. And it seems I'm not the only one - the boom in male grooming has been one of the major trends in the fashion industry over the past few years. How did that happen? "You have to blame Beckham for everything," says Steve. "There was a time when every time he had a new haircut guys would come in and ask for that. When I first started barbering in Cardiff many years ago the idea of putting gel in your hair was frowned on. Now these guys come in and they want a full facial." And don't go thinking this is some phenomenon confined to moneyed types in the south of England, either. "We used to do five to six a day in Cardiff," says Steve. "People often think Wales is a bit behind, but that shows you how far ahead we were in a sense." So much so that he hopes to open his own place in the Welsh capital in the near future. "The average person who comes in here isn't a millionaire, we get people from the stinking rich to the office junior. I live in Brighton, and I did of lot of work in Shoreditch, and I want to bring that messy feel to the posh people. "I wanted to inject a little bit more of an independent feel to the community itself; we're one of only three independent shops in the community." You can't fault them on that front; Hoffi's an entirely different experience, in an entirely different area, from the oak-panelled establishments where a different generation would go for the same service. It's a curious experience, being shaved by someone else. I suppose it's som
|
|
