The HandleBar Supply AMA, May 22nd, 2016

Why did you decide to get into bartering?

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Hi Gareth, what would be your favorite wet shaving gear and why? Razor, brush, soap and aftershave. Thanks!

The answer to these questions are subjective, so it strictly depends on your personal views.

Q1., If you were a man looking for a straight razor shave and walked into a barbershop, and had to choose between 2 equally skilled barbers, (all things being equal), and you had to choose between a male and a female barber, whose seat would you choose? The male or the female?

Q2., Considering your answer to question one, as an employer, and considering your clientele, how would you choose between 2 equally skilled barbers for a straight razor shave position, one female, and one male, when you only have one position to fill?

I know these are hard questions with no "right" answer.  I do appreciate in advance your answer.

For background, I have seen higher-end shave shops promote the skills of their barbers, some are male, some are female. I have also seen consumers (males of course) cast their opinion as to which they would choose and why. This presents an interesting quandary, and am interested in your views from your perspective.

You're correct. This is a very difficult question to answer, particularly because my mother is a barber.

It would be impossible for me to decide between two equally experienced barbers . I have had shaves from almost every one of my staff members (both male and female), and the expertise and comfort has nothing to do with their gender.
However, both being excellent, often times female barbers arent "afraid" to go above and beyond to make sure their clients have a positive experience. Very few male barbers are comfortable performing a rest facial after the straight razor shave (which all barbers are trained to do in order to get their license in our state of California). It's a very relaxing experience involving massage oils and extra pampering which is very pleasant. I and many other clients have fallen asleep during these services which, sadly, more female barbers provide than male barbers.

It's rare to get a male barber that is comfortable enough with his client and his craft to provide a rest facial to another male patron, and I imagine some clients feel awkward receiving this treatment from another male (which they absolutely shouldn't, it's incredible.)

That's the only real difference I've noticed between male and female barbers, and I hope I've answered all of your questions with this response.

How do you decide what to carry and what not to carry in the store and online?

What's your normal setup at home?

I see the trends in the market, figure out which products people are talking about- contact the maker and test the products myself.
If I like the performance of the product and the experience dealing with the maker of the product, I place an order

A really big factor for me is having a positive experience with the sales rep/company/maker of the product. If they make ordering difficult or if they don't seem interested or appreciative of my business, I looks elsewhere.
This is why I have been gravitating more towards small business and artisan companies. Providing them with my business has more of an impact on their daily lives than spending money with a larger company. Small companies also usually have excellent customer service and it makes it a pleasure to do business with them.

My normal setup at home changes quite frequently, but I've been using my vintage Gillette fatboy, Razorock Babysmooth and Rockwell 6S often. My go-to soaps lately are Chiseled Face Ghost Town Barber, Fine American Blend Puck, and Mason Boutique Lillian.

Hi Gareth, what would be your favorite wet shaving gear and why? Razor, brush, soap and aftershave. Thanks!

My favorite brush by far is my limited run, Beaumont 2013 Silvertip 24mm with a loft of 51mm. It's provides the perfect backbone for me, paired with softness. Second Favorite is my Wolf Whiskers Beehive Ubersoft Synthetic II.

My choice in razor varies, lately I've been using my Razorock Babysmooth, Rockwell 6S, and '59 Fatboy. My favorite blades have been Gillette Stainless (red pack) and Gillette Super Platinum (both black and Russian blue).

I have really been stuck on Chiseled Face products lately, I am obsessed with Ghost town barber and haven't been able to get passed it lately. I use both the aftershave and soap almost exclusively.

Why did you decide to get into bartering?  

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I assume you meant 'barbering'

I personally am not a barber, I leave that to my mother and the other professionals I hire. I run the business and operations, along with my wife. I take care of all the product ordering , hiring/firing, taxes, payroll, and everything that goes into making sure the business doesn't run into the ground.

I just recently explained my entire business history with a vendor friend of mine, and I hope you don't mind that I just copy it here, it's quite long! Here it goes....


It's a long story. Trust me I've tried to shorten it and there's no use. The story will bounce around a lot, I hope you can follow. Here it goes!

It all started around 10 years ago when my mother bought me an Art of Shaving kit for Christmas. She had been wanting to buy me a straight razor shave, but couldn't find a barbershop anywhere that performed them.
Now, you must know my mother to know she wouldn't exactly give up and accept that. She had been a hairdresser for over 40 years and had always been fascinated by old timey barbers doing straight razor shaves. We both had no idea that traditional barbers even existed anymore, and the rumor was that it was "illegal" to shave with a straight razor. That's what all the barbershops in town had told us, that it was illegal to shave people.
My mom didn't stop there.
She called up the state licensing for hairdressers and they not only informed her that shaving was perfectly legal, but that there was even a barber school about a 35 minute drive from home! So, she immediately signed up for the barber course. Around 10 months of schooling later, she graduated and was a fully licensed barber.
During this time, I was on my own journey. I was a young 20 something year old in college with fanciful dreams of having career in art. Pretty quickly that dream faded. Growing up I had always wanted to own my own business, I didn't care what kind as long as it was something I could call my own. Every summer as a kid I would have a lemonade stand selling to my neighborhood, sometimes even selling my mom's garden vegetables! I soon realized owning my own business in some type of art field (of which I didn't know which direction to go anyway) would be a very tricky prospect.

When my mom bought me that shaving kit from Art of Shaving it completely changed my view of mens grooming. Like most folks, I struggled with skin irritation and usually just wore a beard. This is why my mother wanted to treat me to a REAL barbershop shave, which spun this whole new life for us.

Traditional wet shaving literally changed my life.

I became hooked, and little did I know it would lead me down the path of owning my own business.

Several years passed. My mom had a tough time finding work in a barbershop... likely because she was a 60-something year old female trying to find work in a men's barbershop.
So, she continued working at the salon she had been for years, and offering straight razor shaves to her male clientele. They loved it!
Her and I began discussing business, scheming to create a barbershop that didn't exist anymore. A classic, men only, traditional barbershop offering straight razor shave services. With my knowledge of shaving and products, and her knowledge of performing the shave services on clients we felt we had a winner.
So in the spring of 2012, we opened The HandleBar. A four chair barbershop and shave store with ZERO clientele. It was a huge risk on both our parts. We sunk every dollar we had (and plenty more we didn't have) into building a complete immersive experience.
It worked. Business boomed. Two years after we opened, we expanded and opened a second location in the same building for a total of 7 chairs. The end of this month we will have been in business a total of 4 years and business is better than we ever could have imagined. We are currently looking to expand once more and open another shop in a neighboring town.
We have a very loyal clientele in the barbershop. Most of the retail customers are brand new to wetshaving, there's not a big following of hardcore wetshaving enthusiasts locally, that's where my online store helps fill that gap.
Our online store has been growing quite steadily over the last 4 years. Slow, but steady. Other online companies have come and gone, some have opened more recently than my own and have become huge players in this industry. We keep trucking along.
That's about all for the business, I suppose I could go on and on but that about sums it all up!

Nice entrepreneurial story Gareth. Best wishes for continued success!

That's a great story, Gareth. All good fortune to your family and you going into the future.

Thanks guys, that was pretty fun!

That is a beautiful entrepreneurial story, and makes the answer to the question I came to ask quite clear.

Do you see this as your career for life?

If the answer isn't yes, I gotta know why.