Dirty Pawz: The barber

Feeling better and will be back at the laird tonight, doing cuts and raising money for Switchboard Vic.

Make an appointment at Nuggets Bar-ber @ The Laird - 149 Gipps Street - Abbotsford | Fresha Scissor cuts, buzzcuts and beard trims at the Laird Hotel

Make an appointment at Dirty Pawz - 149 Gipps Street - Abbotsford | Fresha Cuts, trims and shaves in the Nuggets bar at the Laird Hotel

Due to upcoming stage 4 restrictions, i am having to stop doing cuts at The Laird after Wednesday this week and will be closed for the next 6 weeks.

As such I will be working from 11am-7pm and will be getting the help of Matthew Shepherd who will be available to do buzzcuts and smooth head shaves.

Book in quick and reserve your spot at http://bit.ly/Nuggetsbarber

Masks, sanitizers and gloves will be is use throughout all appointments.

Make an appointment at Dirty Pawz - 149 Gipps Street - Abbotsford | Fresha Cuts, trims and shaves in the Nuggets bar at the Laird Hotel

Shaving at home, Part 2.

Shaving cream/foams.

Ok so general foam-in-a-can and gels are somewhat decent, they are quick and simple to use, specially if you don't use a brush to apply it to your face, the downside being that where one might work great for you it won't for the next person, so you have to do abit of trail and error to find something that works for you.

If you do use a bowl and brush then this is where it gets interesting. Before we talk about brands and the best place to shop, lets talk simple mixing. Use hot water, just nice hot water a little bit at a time as you mix until you get a nice consistency of foam thats easy to spread, if you hold your brush over the bowl the foam should very slowly start giving in to gravity.

Product recommendations.
Most people would know the brand Proraso, barbers have been using it for years and it's... ok, it's a soap powder based shaving lather that needs to be mixed perfect, too little water and it dried into a mess of pasty powder too fast, too much water and it just runs everywhere before eventually turning to a thinner mess of pasty powder. This is where shaving oils come in, some apply it to the face to keep the face lubricated during a shave, others add it to the foam to stop in drying out as fast. It's not wrong, but why should you have to add anything?

There are other brands out there that have natural oils in the mix so you don't have to add anything such as the London based brand 'Taylor of old bond street' (again not sponsored but not saying no), great range of products, easy to use and some wonderful subtle scents. For those in Australia these and similar locally made lathers can be found at http://www.mensbiz.com.au/ (not sponsored)

Baxter of California(not a sponsor) have a wonderful shaving cream, that you mix like a lather but goes on much softer, great for sensitive skin. It is sold in a few shops but for those that would rather buy online it can be found here http://bit.ly/2wMgKUr

Aftershaves, like most of the gels and can based foams can usually depend on the person, the only one i personally have really grown to love is the after shave here http://bit.ly/2vkMwHy by Baxter of California (not sponsored), it's very gentle, calms the skin and even helps close of the pores, i can even suggest Baxter's Shave tonic here http://bit.ly/2xFSnE0 that can be used before and after a shave.

A little something for those with a beard who just want to shave in your cheek lines, you can't go past Milkman's(not a sponsor) Razor rail which can be found here http://bit.ly/2giMEAT. It's a clear soap free shaving gel so you can see what your doing and is very gentle on the skin, this can also be used for a full face shave, but can get abit runny when warmed by body head on a large area of skin.

Shaving at home.

Recently I've been having a few customers asking about shaving with an old style safety razor, what razors are best and what we would suggest for shaving cream so i thought I'd make a few recommendations.

1. Razor use in general.
-If your using a safety razor like the one shown in the pic below, change the blade every shave(or if you only use one side per shave, then every second shave).

Where as in the past before plastic razors you didn't need to replace the blade as much, these days razors are made from a slightly different metal and are sharper before use than the old one's but blunt-en much faster.

-If your using a plastic razor, you need to weigh up your options. Every time a razor goes over your skin it takes skin with it(for the sake of argument we will call it a layer), a 3 blade razor with take 3 layers of skin with each pass, if your someone with thick hair, you will go over the same patch of skin multiple times and sometimes from different angles, that's a lot of skin.

I suggest using the single blade razors, you may go through 2 or 3 more razors in a single shave but it means always having a sharp blade, which will cause less damage to skin. When i used to shave at home i used single blade razors, one for each side of the face and neck(shaving down) and a third razor for my lip and chin, then i would use another 1 or 2 razors to shave up.

Yes this means using more razors but you should be using a new razor for every shave. A mach 3 razor for example should have it's head replaced after every shave you do. Now for the boring math, you can usually buy a 10 pack of replacement mach 3 heads for approx $20, that's $2 a shave(if you only use one razor head. Or you can buy a 20 pack of Bic single blade for approx $7, even shaving the way i do thats $1.75 a shave, you will take off less skin and run alot less risk of razor rash as you would from a multi blade razor getting blunt by the time you get to the end.

-Do not buy those disposable razor sharpeners, yes it might grind and sharpen the blade down but without being able to grind the underside of the blade as well you will end up with microscopic metal barbs that could get embedded in your skin, if you have every worked with grinding metal you will know how this can cause rashes and some skin problems.

-Buying double edged razors. Yes it's always cheaper to buy online but i would recomend avoiding ebay and such sites as there are some cheap knockoffs that will just get blunt right away and rip you to shreds(i made this mistake myself).

If your in Australia check out https://www.beardandblade.com.au (not sponsored, but happy to happy to negotiate XD) they have a great range and postage is free for any order over $20. The brands Astra and Derby are good and cheap, but Feather are much better, but twice the price. There are more expensive brands light Solingen and Wilkinson which have a great rep, but overall Feather are the best combo or quality vs price.

Can you make me look like Daniel Craig?

Yes, yes i can.

I want hair like Justin Timberlake.

Annnd done.

Before and after.

Medium backswept hair, tapered down to a little over finger length at back and sides for that tidy yet textured look.

Short back and sides(tapered from 3 to 2) and forward graduated pho-hawk.

Styled with Baxter hard clay.

Cut and styled at