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"Barbershop scents" of the world?

elmerPHuD

elmerPHuD

Shave Member
Hi all. It has been awhile since I popped into TSC. I hope everyone is well.šŸ˜€

So we all know how wide and relatively undefined the barbershop scent category is. It reminds me of the Wikipedia article on Heavy Metal sub-genres. As many have noted, what we call barbershop scents in most of the WS community, are really U.S., UK, and perhaps Italian ideas of what a barbershop scent is. I have become obsessed with wondering what barbershops might smell like around the world.

  • Tokyo, Japan
  • Delhi, India
  • Shanghai, China
  • Sāu Paulo, Brazil
  • Mexico City, Mexico
  • Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Karachi, Pakistan
  • Buenos Aries, Argentina
  • Istanbul, Turkey
  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Moscow, Russia
This is an adapted list of the most populated cities. Anybody have any ideas or first-hand experience of what a barbershop might smell like in any of these cities / countries?
 
That is a great question and food for thought. I have only used shave products from one of the cities you listed (Istanbul) - and that was very much in line with what we in America would consider a barbershop scent - but that is a very small sample size.
 
Thatā€™s a tough question to answer in any serious way. There are so many different smells you might encounter at an actual barbershop, as well as countless varieties of barbershop scented shave soaps.

Iā€™ve been to over 70 barbershops in 4 different countries and only 2 or 3 of them smelled remotely similar to each other. Barbershops are a product of their environment, as well as the people in it and the grooming products they choose to employ. When I was deployed to southern Spain for example, I went to 13 different barbershops in 3 major cities and not a single one of them smelled like the others. I had a similar experience in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

I suppose if you muddle it down to really basic terms, you could develop ā€œscent categoriesā€ that represent specific regions. For example, whenever Iā€™m at a barbershop in Turkey, I smell mineral notesā€¦ Like soapy wet stone, but all the other aromas vary widely by location. The very definition of what constitutes a barbershop scent varies quite a lot based on who you ask.

And then thereā€™s outside variables. If a city bus drives by a coal rolls right next to the front door, weā€™ll thatā€™s going to effect the scent in the room for quite a while. If somebody lights a cigarette, or theyā€™re brewing coffee, same thing, etc.

I guess what Iā€™m trying to say is, if a real barbershop smell is Elon Musk building a rocket, then a barbershop scented shave soap is Wile E. Coyote building a rocket. They are always super animated representations of themselves and shouldnā€™t be taken very seriously in my humble grain-of-salt opinion.


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This is always an interesting question that gets a wide range of answers. Making it a question about what is a "barbershop scent" in places we rarely think about (in terms of wet shaving scents) is an interesting twist. It occurs to me that there may be 2 distinct questions/answers within the one you have asked. What do barbershops smell like in those locations? and, What would people in/from those locations consider a representative "barbershop" scent?

@Soap Thing mentioned factors that would contribute to how a physical location might smell (coffee, cigarettes', diesel exhaust etc.). My feeling is that these external factors serve to enhance the character of the location over time but would not be something a "local" would say is part of the barbershop experience. Maybe because those external influences would be present in other places of business and not limited to the barbershop.

At its core, I think the scent(s) that get attributed to barbershops and/or the barbershop scent would be "fresh" or refreshing. I think that "fresh" core might lean towards "spicy", "musky" or "floral" depending on region. Look at 2 of the popular "American" barbershop products ,Clubman & Jeris. To my nose these two products share a "feeling" of being refreshing but they smell very different to me (other than having a very powdery base). Maybe that's the key note, powdery.

Again, interesting take on an age old question. I look forward to some real world input.
 
Iā€™m pulling together my thoughts and inputs from a variety of sources, including this thread, and I will post a write-up here when Iā€™ve got it done.
 
Chris has hit on some of the points I was going to make on this subject. What exactly is "Barbershop" as a scent?

To me it's two different things.

One is simply, what scent would a barber slap on my face after giving me a shave. Generally this is going to be something simple, light, and most of all inexpensive. This is going to vary widely within any given city, based on the barber's preferences and their customer's preference over time. Certainly they are goin to choose something that has wide appeal, or at least is inoffensive to the largest number of customers. This is commonly something like Bay Rum or Clubman. Or they might opt for a more refreshing aftershave that has menthol in it like Osage Rub or Proraso. There are many different scents from makers like Master, Stephan, Gabels, Lucky Tiger, Lustray, and Pinaud that are readily available to barbers. If I repeatedly went to a barber and they used the same aftershave on me every time, it would certainly be a scent I would associate with that barber and the whole experience, especially if it's one of the last things I smelled before I left.

I other thought is that "Barbershop" in itself isn't a scent, it's an idea. One that is interpreted into a scent by the maker. A barbershop scent is one that evokes a memory of walking into our favorite barbershops, from today or possibly just memories from our youth. Scents that contribute to the overall impression could be the clean, fresh, and antiseptic scents of Barbicide, Hair Tonic, and Floor Cleaner. Or maybe what comes to mind is the scent of hardwood floors? Maybe it was a smoking shop and the scent of cedar and tobacco is a large component of the scent memory. Maybe even whiskey is a component? No two barbershops were the same, so that idea can vary greatly. Some makers would take bits of all these notes and blend them together to make their own version of Barbershop.

For me, it Jeris Hair Tonic is the ultimate barbershop scent.
 
All very good points. As I said at the start of the thread, the Barbershop genre reminds me of this: Heavy metal genres - Wikipedia

I am just curious if you would tend to run into particular products in particular countries. So just like you might expect to see Proraso in Italy, MEM (when it still existed) in Israel, maybe Arko in Turkey, and Pinaud & Jeris tonics and powders in the US, I wonder what some other countries might tend to use. I have not traveled much, so my first hand knowledge is limited.
 
I recently saw an advertisement from a rather well known artisan for his Barbershop scent. It was a simple ad just promoting a new release so all he said about the scent was that it was a scent that "Went with everything". I immediately thought that was a BRILLIANT way to describe a barbershop scent. Sure, the "Everything's" might smell different in different regions based on what types of fragrances are most prevalent in that region but I would estimate that the "barbershop" scent for each region would "go with everything".
 
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