Fenwick & Tallow Barbers

Fenwick & Tallow is a six-chair shop three blocks back from the river, in a building that spent forty years as a hardware store and still has the shelving to prove it. Two of the chairs are kept free for walk-ins every morning until eleven, because the best haircut in the world is worth nothing to a man who cannot get one on the day he needs it.

We cut with clippers, scissors and a comb, and we finish with a straight razor at the neckline. There is no product pushed at the end, no membership to sign, and no upsell dressed up as advice. If a cut takes twenty minutes we charge for twenty minutes; if your hair needs forty, you get forty at the same price, because we would rather do it properly than do it twice.

The wet shave is the thing we are most careful about. It is three hot towels, a badger brush, a proper lather worked in for a full minute, two passes with the razor, and a cold towel to close everything down at the end. It takes forty minutes and it is not something we hurry. If you have never had one, say so when you sit down and we will talk you through what is happening as we go.

We cut children from about four years old, and we keep a booster board for anyone who needs one. Fathers and sons back to back is our favourite booking of the week. If your child has never sat in a barber chair, come in first without an appointment, let them watch someone else get cut, and book for another day. It costs nothing and it makes the first time far easier.

Booking is by phone or by walking in, and that is deliberate. A barbershop where you can see who is waiting and roughly how long it will take is a better barbershop than one where an app tells you a time that turns out not to be true. Call and we will tell you honestly whether it is a ten-minute wait or an hour, and whether it is worth coming back after lunch instead.

If you are getting married, or standing up at somebody else's wedding, book two appointments rather than one: a cut a fortnight before so the shape has a chance to settle, and a tidy two days before the photographs. We can also open the shop early for the whole party, put coffee on, and get six of you through in an hour and a half.