The Razor’s Edge
In honor of a gentlemanly new blog in the neighborhood, Definitive Beards, authored by David Coggins of Exit Lines fame, I am profiling a trendy spot with old world charm in New York City that, were I a man, or a bearded lady, would regularly frequent.
At F.S.C. barber, an offshoot of the Freemans Sporting Club men’s fashion brand, shaving is fetishized by hipster barbers with gorgeously trimmed beards and retro tattoos. Under lighting from the Depression era, clients sit in 1930s barber chairs to look into handsome wooden mirrors flanked by ornately carved back bars. And the services are as old-school as the surroundings.
F.S.C. (freemanssportingclub. com/nyc_barber.htm) offers a range of straight-razor shaves, all using products that reach back to the late 1800s: rosewater astringent, shaving oil from Portugal and heated shaving cream from chrome machines that, sadly, have long since gone out of use.
But the razors are most striking. Made by Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons (Purveyors of Dark and Uncommon Goods) in NYC, they have handles carved from 10,000-30,000-year-old Siberian woolly mammoth tusks. For the princely sum of anywhere between $2,500 and $4,500, one can be yours.
And there are more royal attributes. Consider the handle of the Mammoth Razor personalized with an engraved scrimshaw monogram and a small quartz lens. Hold the lens to the light and you see a tiny photograph inside — not surprisingly, turn-of-the-century erotica comes as standard, but feel free to substitute your own personal perversion. Each blade is vintage and restored to be shave-ready. All you need supply is a steady hand guided by the first rule of thumb: Be Not Afraid.
