Chances are the way you shave is wrong. The right way is strictly in the downward direction, except for the stubble below the Adam’s apple, which can be shaved upward. And while you might be tempted to do a finishing upward pass of the razor to get a closer shave, over time it will age the skin on your face faster.
This lore came from my barber at Truefitt & Hill, the oldest barbershop in London and, according to Guinness World Records, the world. For my grooming routine, I long ago gave up not only the dispiriting American pharmacy offerings—an insult to one’s dignity if there ever was one—but also the trendy hipster products. Why go to Williamsburg and buy into a nostalgia-driven imitation when one can go to London and get the real thing? Making the rounds of traditional London barbershops, stocking up on shaving creams and other grooming products, has been one of my treasured travel rituals for the past 20 years.
Such shops are concentrated in the St. James’s area of London. It is a gentleman’s heaven, with establishments specializing in suiting, booting, and grooming (and the occasional hunting rifle) that unabashedly let a man reclaim his right to take care of his appearance, which is as rooted in genuine historic tradition as the neighborhood’s Georgian architecture.
Walking into Truefitt & Hill, at the base of a limestone mansion at 71 St. James’s Street, is an exercise in time travel. Its beauty is unapologetically Victorian, all wood paneling and paintings of aristocrats in red coats. None of this is meant to evoke some ill-conceived pining for a bygone empire, but to signal expertise through experience—they have been in business since 1805, and as a former supplier to H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, they are holders of a Royal Warrant. In the small front room, one can pick from a score of its house products, from a pre-shave oil to a flawlessly elegant shaving set. They are also well known for their colognes, of which I am partial to Sandalwood. And in the back room, one can get a shave, a haircut, or a manicure.
Reader, getting a hot-towel shave from a professional wielding advice and a straight razor is life-affirming. What you do in the comfort of your home with pharmacy-bought equipment is akin to reheating a supermarket pizza, whereas a proper shave is a straight-out-of-the-oven Neapolitan pie. But if you can’t make your way to Truefitt & Hill in London (there is also one in Chicago) or any of their worthy, friendly competitors, you can buy their shaving products online and elevate your home-grooming routine.
Up the street from Truefitt & Hill, at 29 St. James’s Street, stands D. R. Harris Chemists & Perfumers (est. 1790). It does not have a barbershop inside, but its distinction is that it’s also an actual pharmacy. It holds not one but two Royal Warrants. And the names in their range—Arlington, Windsor, and Marlborough—seem like they might come from actual customers rather than some marketer’s bag of aspirational-sounding names.
I am partial to their Arlington range myself—both the shaving soap and the aftershave milk smell and feel lovely and will last you a year. (If you wish, you can opt for a set). The soap makes for a smooth lather with a brush, and the milk gives you a pleasant, lively tingle without the astringency of baser stuff.
If you prefer your aftershave not to have any sting at all, head around the corner to Taylor of Old Bond Street, at 74 Jermyn Street. I have yet to find a more magical mixture than their Luxury Aftershave, which I am confident was concocted at Hogwarts. And while they are presumably not allowed to advertise their obvious affiliation with that school, they offer an Eton College range, inspired by the old barbershop there. Don’t miss their beautiful, German-made manicure sets. Should you want to get a shave or a haircut, the well-respected Jermyn Street Barbers offer their services in the back room.
A short walk away, at 9 Curzon Street in Mayfair, is Geo. F. Trumper’s flagship store (there is also an even closer, but less vast, St. James location). Established in 1875, Trumper may be younger than some of its siblings, but it is more famous: Evelyn Waugh, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré have made nods to the shop in their books.
Behind its dark wood and glass vitrines you will find everything from shaving creams and hair brushes (I use their black beechwood travel-size brush, which easily fits into a jacket pocket) to flasks and walking sticks. Their Eucris shaving range is my perennial favorite, not only for its distinctive black packaging but for its inimitable sandalwood-and-jasmine scent. And their razor sets are small works of art.
Really, there’s no better place to end your tour than at Trumper. It is there that I, like so many others, fell in love with London’s grooming traditions. And though lords, dukes, and kings might try to keep such secrets for themselves, I would never be so selfish.
Eugene Rabkin is the founder and editor of StyleZeitgeist and the author of Stone Island: Storia. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Business of Fashion, and other publications
