The words you are reading are mine. During the time you spend on this site, I take full credit for every chuckle, split gut, pucker of displeasure or goofy grin. If the time you spend here is but a second, well, thanks for stopping by. If you've enjoyed what you've read, feel free to come again.
If what you find here leaves you wanting to know more, please drop me a line. I'm an Ottawa-based writer and aspiring author.
This pen for hire.
I woke up one typical morning in May 2008 to notice, as I checked out my face in the mirror, that I was way past due for a haircut: my sideburns were starting to look like puffy lambchops and the back of my neck was getting shaggy.
I mentioned out loud that I should book an appointment with my hair salon when my girlfriend pointed out something that should have been obvious as I tend to keep my hair relatively short. "There's not really much styling going on."
As I contemplated the $40 a month I've been spending on my hair, I realized that's nearly half a grand a year. And what have I been getting? Well, the scalp massage and shampoo job was nice. And they were always kind enough to offer me all sorts of expensive products. Oh, and the scenery's generally pretty fantastic.
I've never been comfortable with barbershops. Afterall, everytime I've walked past them, the barbers have never had particularly good looking hairdos. And the places often look a little dodgy.
That said, I decided to take a leap of faith, accept the fact my hair doesn't really need a stylist, and try out the barber shop route.
If you're at all curious, you can follow along with me each month as I try out various Ottawa barber shops. As we go along, I'll try and work out some basic criteria and, down the road, I'll sort out some sort of rating system. I'm a pretty curious guy so I'll dig up a few facts along the way.
For now, my rating system is something like this: The next day, what is the reaction I get? Mockery or alarmed comments would be a bad thing. No reaction will be considered fine. Positive feedback, well, you get the picture.
My first impression of barber shops is that they cut hair and give you a shave. Afterall, "barber" stems from the french word for "beard." So I had thought that one of my rating criteria would be to see if they offer to give me a shave, or if I need to ask. However, I read a wikipedia entry that explained that these days barbers pretty much just stick to cutting hair. The entry goes on to say that barbers are different than salon stylists in that they don't normally do any fancy styling. Another neat fact I read was that, in the old days, barbers also did some surgery and dentistry. Yikes!
Click here for the full list of barber shop reviews
1102 Wellington St. W.
(613) 759-8897
Last month, as I headed down Wellington St. on my way to Super Men's, I noticed a couple of barber shops in Hintonburg. This is a good thing because I thought the barber shop project was going to come to an end soon because I was running out of places to review. I built up my list from doing online searches and what I'm quickly discovering is Google searches only reveal the tip of the iceberg. That's where the iconic barber's pole comes in handy. You really do need to drive around a neighbourhood to find the local barber.
After a bit of a warm spell in Ottawa, it was a crisp morning. But luck was on my side…rock star parking right in front. I checked the time. It was 8:50. Although the shop's hours are 9 a.m. on Saturdays, the neon "open" sign was turned on. I tried the door and walked on through.
Inside, the place is relatively small but not cramped. There are two chairs, although only one was in use. Its nice and bright as there's a large window in front. The waiting area was comfortable, not that I needed to wait. I was the first client. Part way through the cut, another client arrived. Seeing that I'd brought a book, the barber said, "I guess you were planning on having to wait. It seems to be busy in the morning every second Saturday."
WHAT TO EXPECT: When I started this column back in '08, I mentioned that I'd see what kind of criteria I could use to evaluate my experiences. I'd always pictured the barber as a place where good conversation happened. Maybe as a consequence of too much Leave it to Beaver as a kid. But that hasn't always been my experience.
I thought of the "quality of conversation" criterion at The Burg's because the barber, Bob Hayes, was quite a good conversationalist. We started talking about the tragedy in Haiti, of course. But he changed the topic after a bit and asked where I worked. I told him I worked on Sussex Drive and he asked about parking. The conversation turned to transit and the subway debate.
Turns out Bob first came to Ottawa from Montreal in 1968 to work as a barber at the Chateau Laurier. It was his first barber job. He told me that there were six engineers staying at the hotel who were studying the feasibility of a subway for Ottawa. They'd see him every morning for a shave. According to Bob, they'd ruled out running the subway down Rideau Street because of the train station and so had determined that Laurier Avenue would be the best bet. "That was 41 years ago and look where we are today."
THE CUT: I told him what I wanted, made sure to mention "not too short," and he got to work. The cut zipped by. I hardly even noticed that he was cutting my hair.
COST: $12 (plus tip).
THE RESULT: I liked the cut. The sides were just right. There were no surprises. After a shower, it still looked good, although my wife thought it could have been a bit shorter in front. Before I'd left, I asked for Bob's business card. On the bottom, it read "Always a Good Cut. At a fair Price."
Click here for the full list of barber shop reviews
©2002-2010 Kyle Nunas.All rights reserved.
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Follow along for the "Barber Shop Project" as we explore Ottawa area scissor specialists.
Who is Kyle Nunas and why is he writing?
