A Kennedy’s Look at a Red Hot Barbershop Treatment

At Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we’re certainly open to different ideas to advance the art of men’s grooming. But we have to draw the line at setting ears on fire. It’s probable that we’d be breaking several federal, state and local laws – and, frankly, although our barbers are incredibly talented, this is one skill their license – and their insurance – doesn’t cover.

Yes, we’ll explain. Recently, we were reading an amazing article in Men’s Health magazine entitled, “Sharpen Your Edge” (you can read it online at http://www.menshealth.com/style/grooming/Sharpen-Your-Edge.php), where a reporter traveled to London to check out the best of the best when it come to English barbershops – barbershops frequented by British royalty and some American royalty as well (John Wayne was a patron – and he was, after all, “The Duke!”). These premier establishments offer amazing barbershop experiences for distinguished gentlemen – the kind we pride ourselves on helping at Kennedy’s – and the reporter was properly impressed.

But, since those upper class barbershops are a bit pricey, he wanted to check out a “regular chap’s” barbershop business in London too. And when you want to find out something in a city…you ask a cabbie. The cabbie sent him to a Turkish barber that did a little something the reporter was definitely not prepared for.

A little bit about Turkish barbers first, however. It’s not a Supercuts operation by any means – haircuts are a national art form and, in Turkey, foreigners are not even allowed to become barbers. Apprentices often spend years watching their bosses without being allowed to touch one hair on a customer’s head.

The whole process of getting a haircut at a Turkish barbershop usually takes about two hours. The first hour is all about the waiting. You sit in the barbershop, watching TV or reading the newspaper, being served Turkish tea and possibly getting a shoulder or arm massage from an assistant. Nice and relaxing.

When it’s finally your turn, the barber will wash your hair if it’s needed – then he will ask you how you want your hair cut and trim the areas around your ears and your neck. He’ll then give you a wet cut on the rest of your hair to your specifications and a great straight razor shave similar to what we provide at Kennedy’s. Nothing unusual so far, right?

Now it gets a little more interesting. Any extra hair on the face that isn’t where it should be is either waxed with a pine resin or yanked out with tweezers or string. A cotton thread is twisted and the resulting loop is opened and closed over the hair to be removed. Yes, you get plucked. Also, nose hair is trimmed with small scissors. The Turks are very thorough.
And perhaps very crazy. Because what happens next can be somewhat alarming if you’re not prepared for it.

The barber dips a ball of cotton in a flammable liquid, lights it – and brings the flame over close to your ear…to burn away the hair.

See? We’re not making this up!

And, coincidentally, this is the exact point where the Men’s Health reporter got up and ended the haircut, leaving him with only one properly groomed – and, apparently, suddenly very sensitive to wind – ear.

The thing is, if you are prepared to have your ear hair burnt off, these barbers actually know what they’re doing – and can singe away your ear hair in a second. You can watch the entire Turkish haircut process in the video below (for all you action fans out there, around 4:40 is where the “Burning Ear” is performed).

Yes, it’s probably a great and very efficient technique – but for now, at Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we won’t be bringing balls of fire close to your head. For all our other great services, locations and franchise opportunities, though, check out our website at http://www.KennedysBarberClub.com . And please, we feel it’s our duty to advise you – don’t try the “Burning Ear” at home!

How Men First Began Cutting Their Own Throats

At Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we’ve been very successful in bringing back the beloved straight razor shave. What’s not to like? While the barber goes about his business, you get to completely relax and get the cleanest shave possible.

So, if it’s so great, why did it go away to begin with? That answer is pretty obvious – the inventions of those twin demons of men’s grooming darkness, the safety razor and the electric razor. The former is now up to packing five blades in its ongoing effort to give men a decent shave, and the latter…well, the best we can say about that is it’s fast and you can make use of it while you’re driving. But we could say the same about McDonald’s cuisine.

But, while those new-fangled convenient razors have histories only decades old, the straight razor’s got a resume that extends back millenniums, way beyond the first barbershop. You know all those caveman drawings – where all the guys have beards and all the women have lumps on their heads from where the guys hit them with clubs? Well, we can’t vouch for the lumps – speaking for ourselves, we generally find ourselves on the receiving end – but the caveman beard is one of those well-worn clichés that’s not necessarily true.

Shark’s teeth, clam shells and flint were all used by prehistoric men to create primitive razors, according to unearthed evidence. Apparently, prehistoric women were already complaining about beard burn, so the guys decided it was worth possibly shredding their own faces to get a little more action. Thus was born the first Kennedy’s Barber Club Cave.

A little more recently, if you can consider 4000 BC more recent, ancient Egyptians apparently used straight razors made of gold – they’ve actually been unearthed by contemporary archaeologists. Since Gillette is now making safety razors out of platinum, we figure uranium blades will be the final shaving frontier in the barbershop frontier.

In 6th Century B.C. Rome, King Lucius Priscus introduced the first Roman razor – and barbershops in that famed city became elite gathering places for the leading men of the time. Just as Kennedy’s is today!

Men’s Grooming Kit, circa 6 BC

It wasn’t until 1740 that the first modern steel razor was introduced and shaving became a more regular and widespread habit for men. As a matter of fact, daily shaving wasn’t really a fact of life until American men began doing it in the 20th Century. We chalk that up to the invention of the shaving commercial – and the immediate airing of it every ten minutes, over and over and over and over….

The straight razor shave was easily the most dominant form of shaving until the 1950’s – when, as noted earlier, we as a people made another one of our ill-advised trades of convenience for quality and switched to electric and safety razors. And thus put the first nail into coffin of the classic barbershop experience – the last nail was put in, we believe, by some pretty bad “chop shops.”

But we at Kennedy’s never say die – and that’s why we brought back the straight razor shave along with our successful barber club franchise. Instead of losing a great tradition, we’ve done our best to continue it and improve on it – offering modern grooming products, free amenities and a relaxing atmosphere so today’s man can escape the relentless pace of today’s modern world for just a little while.

Check out our great Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® locations at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com/kennedys-all-american-barber-club-locations and see for yourself what one of our licensed expert barbers can do for you! And become part of our amazing success story by opening your own Kennedy’s franchise – find out more about that great opportunity at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com/open-a-kennedys-all-american-barber-club.

Oh, and no worries about our straight razors. They’re made of the finest metal – we promise, no clam shells or shark’s teeth are involved!

The Good, The Bad and The Funny

At Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we’ve compiled a list of “The 100 Greatest Movies Any Guy Must See in His Lifetime” – please feel free to check it out and add your own nominations here

In line with that, we would like to also salute a sub-sub-sub-movie genre that’s more appropriate for us – great Barbershop Movies. To be fair, there aren’t many movies that completely revolve around the Barbershop…except, of course, Barbershop…but a lot of memorable scenes with some of the greatest stars of all time happened around a haircut. In any case, here’s a look at some great cinema in which barbers played parts both big and small.

Let’s start with Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), or, as we like to call it, “When Haircuts Go VERY Wrong.” The story of Sweeney Todd first circulated in the 1850’s – and, to be honest, the bloody saga of a barber killing his customers and turning them into a cheap lunch isn’t very good publicity for a barber club franchise such as ours. However, we can take some comfort in the fact that the character is completely fictional – and you can rest assured that no Kennedy’s would ever employ a barber who used his own tricked-out chair to slit our patron’s throats. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…not good for business!

The Barbershop also had a memorable – and bloody – cameo in one of the great films of all time, The Godfather (1972…and one of our 100 favorite guy films as well, naturally). That’s where Vegas chief Moe Green (played by Alex Rocco) got a bullet right through his glasses during the epic film’s climax. That was a real eye-opener.

Who remembers John Wayne’s last movie, The Shootist (1976)? If you do, the scene you probably think of is the Duke’s final shoot-out in the huge, elaborate saloon. Earlier in the film, however, Wayne, playing a famous gunfighter close to death, heads for a haircut at the town Barbershop. There, the town undertaker comes in and offers to take care of his funeral for free. Wayne, knowing the guy is preparing to sell tickets to see his body, instead turns the offer around to where the undertaker pays him for his funeral. The chastened undertaker slinks out of the Barbershop.

A minute later, as Wayne is leaving, he turns to the barber and tells him he probably could make a profit selling his hair clippings, too. The barber laughs, but after Wayne’s out the door, he thinks a moment and starts picking up the cuttings to make a fast buck later.

The Barbershop, fortunately, has also had a lot of lighter moments on the silver screen – thanks to some classic comedians. If you’re a Marx Brothers fan, you can enjoy Harpo and Chico torpedoing a ship officer’s hair and moustache in a cruise ship Barbershop in Monkey Business (1931), Charlie Chaplin portraying a barber who gets mistaken for Hitler (never a good thing!) in The Great Dictator (1940), and the ever-reliable Bugs Bunny doing his own cartoon Sweeney Todd on Elmer Fudd in the brilliant Rabbit of Seville (1940).

A snippet of memorable lyric from that animated opera:

Bugs: Now we’re ready for the scraping
There’s no use to try escaping
Yell and scream and rant and rave
It’s no use, you need a shave!

Elmer: (as Bugs slashes with razor] Ooh! Ouch! Ouch! Ow! Ooh! Ooh! Ouch!

No, it’s not Stephen Sondheim – especially Elmer’s part – but it does get its point across.

You won’t find singing rabbits or Hitler lookalikes at any of our Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® franchises…we’re assuming you’re more interested in our guarantee of getting “The Best Haircut and Straight Razor Shave You’ve Ever Had or It’s Free”™!” – not to mention a relaxing getaway from your hectic workday. For that, you can go to the nearest Kennedy’s location near you – find out more at http://www.KennedysBarberClub.com .

How to Get the Most Out of Your Barbershop Experience!

At our sizzling-hot franchise, the Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, we’ve seen first-hand how guys are excited to have the classic barbershop experience available again and made even better – with a more modern, upscale environment and great amenities.

We also recognize that some men are afraid to get too into their grooming – that’s regarded as “sissy stuff” in some quarters. But let’s face facts – as Billy Crystal used to say, “It is better to look good than to feel good.” So make sure your haircut is up to snuff by following our top nine haircut tips!

1. Make Your Haircut Picture-Perfect

Again, this is something girls are much better at than boys. If they see a new hairstyle in a beauty magazine that they just looooove, they cut it out and bring it in to show to their stylist. You can do the same. You see a haircut you like in a magazine? Hey, rip out the page and bring it in to the barber (maybe buy it first – when you do that in a store, it’s frowned upon by the management).

2. Know What Makes a BAD Haircut

We’re not talking about an obviously bad haircut here – like the one that prompted a woman in a Swedish hair salon to actually bite the proprietor in retaliation – we’re talking about the subtle barbershop basics that a bad barber doesn’t bother with.

For example, with a fresh haircut, you shouldn’t see visible lines between sections cut with clippers and sections cut with shears. It shouldn’t look “blocky.” Instead, you should see a properly blended, straight not crooked, transitional line, and not something that resembles an interstate on a road map.
Look for expert tapering, good blending and clean trimming around the ears. Or look for a new barber!

3. Be Realistic About Your Head

Barbers aren’t miracle-workers when it comes to your basic looks – so don’t expect yours to turn you into George Clooney if you more closely resemble his aunt Rosemary Clooney (the later years). Also don’t insist on a haircut that doesn’t suit your head shape – or the amount of hair left on your head, if Mother Nature is in the midst of taking more than a little off the top. A good barber will gently guide you to what’s best for your scalp’s situation – and, since he knows his business, let him go about it and make you look as good as possible!

4. Find the Right Barber

What’s the best way to find a barber? You know how, when you’re in a restaurant, you see someone eating something that looks really good and you tell the waiter, “I’ll have that!”? Same principle. You see a guy with a great haircut that’s your style, just ask him where he got it.

Also, go to a place with real men’s barbers – for example, maybe…a Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®! You want someone who only cuts men’s hair – none of this unisex salon stuff. Cutting men’s hair and women’s hair are two different disciplines – so always seek out the specialist!

That’s it for now – we’ll be back later this month with the second half of our Top 9 Tips on Getting a Great Haircut. In the meantime, be on the lookout for the kind of haircut you’d like to have – and stop by a Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® location for a free hair consultation from one of our licensed expert barbers! You can check out our locations at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com/kennedys-all-american-barber-club-locations – and if there’s not one near you, think about opening your own franchise! Find out more about that great opportunity at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com/open-a-kennedys-all-american-barber-club.

Why Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® Isn’t Called Kut-Rite

What a business names itself can make or break it. For every brand name like “Xerox” or “Kleenex” that has entered our everyday language, there’s a failed one like the Chinese Chocolate they decided to call “Swine” or the Greek soft drink labeled “Zit.”

And for some reason, when it comes to local shops and stores, puns are always the go-to method when the owner wants to raise the cleverness bar. For example, there’s the accountant who named his business “Brass Tax” – not to mention the self-explanatory “Royal Flush Cesspool Sewer & Drain Cleaning” – and the inviting Canadian fast-food chicken place, “Lick-A-Chick.”

The ante is always upped when the pun is combined with deliberate bad spelling. And this happens on a national level. There’s “Rite-Aid,” the drugstore chain, “Qwest,” the phone company, and “Tastee Freez,” the ice cream franchise.

But frankly, there is only one all-time champion when it comes to continually combining bad spelling and outrageous puns – and that’s the barbershop and hair salon industry.

Think of “A Cut Above.” Or “Hair and Now.” Or “Hair We Are.” You get the idea. There are so many different bad barbershop and salon names, that there are endless opportunities to categorize them.

For instance, maybe classic rock is in your groove. Then go with “The Grateful Head,” “Hairway to Heaven,” or just a generic “Choice Cuts.”

Or perhaps you like classic movies? Try “Dye Hard,” “From Hair to Eternity” or “Best Little Hair House!”

Of course, there’s also classic literature, where you can invoke “Julius Scissors,” “Ali Barber” “ShearLocks Homes” or defy the Romans with the rallying cry, “I’m Sparti-Cuts.”

Maybe you just want to pretend you’re not a barbershop. No problem! Try “The Locks Smith,” “The Hair Port,” “Hair O’Dome” or “Hair Force One.” Better yet – don’t!

Why hair equals hilarity for the barbershop owners who resort to these painful names isn’t quite clear. What is clear is there is an apparently endless list of them already in use.

If you don’t believe that, here’s just a few names actually in use here in the good ol’ USA: American Hair Lines, Clip Joint, Clippity Do Da, Cliptomania, Cut Me Loose, Cutter Shark, The Cutting Edge, The Hair-After, Hair Apparent, Hair Loom, Hair-O-Dynamics, Hairoscope, Hair of Respectability, Hair To Stay, Hairs Johnny, Hair-Riffic, Hairs To You, Heads You Win, Locks of Luck, The Mane Attraction, Mane Street, The Million Hairs, Now Hair This, Shear Delight, Shear Happiness, Shear Joy, Shear Luck, Shears To You, Soul Scissors, Upper Cuts…and for all of you who fondly remember Joe DiMaggio…The Yankee Clipper.

Had enough? We thought so. That’s why, when it came time to name our barber club franchise, we went through Shear Torture. But Hair’s the Thing – in the end, we knew we wanted to have a name that actually meant something.

Since we were going to offer the classic barbershop experience for men who wanted to feel like men again, we wanted to have a classic name – so we decided on Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club.™

You can find out more about who we are, check out our locations and find out about our tremendous franchise opportunities at http://www.KennedysBarberClub.com. We’ll Cut to the Quick if you don’t.

The Man Who Dared to Take On Dandruff

Dandruff. We’ve all seen enough commercials about that minor malady to last a few lifetimes. For those of you who don’t know the dictionary definition, dandruff is simply pieces of dead skin shed by your scalp that exit from your head either in a minor flurry of flakes or, in some unfortunate cases, a major blizzard.

In either case, dandruff prevention shampoos have been big business over the years – and we at Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® would like to honor the man who struck the first real blow at dandruff for the first time ever. He was, of course, a barber – a man who faced too many flakes over his illustrious career and decided action needed to be taken.

His name was Frederick W. Fitch, a barber in Madrid, Iowa, and he himself suffered from chronic dandruff. We’re not saying his dandruff was so bad that he flocked his Christmas tree by shaking his head over it, but it was bad.

He studied the problem in medical texts and also analyzed dandruff treatments at the time. His research revealed that most of them actually made the flaking worse – and that the only way to really go after dandruff was to dissolve the flakes and make them disappear.

So, in 1892, he created “Fitch’s Dandruff Removal Hair Tonic” and put it up for sale. It was an instant sensation that was suddenly a must-have in barbershops and beauty salons across the country. When he turned the tonic into a shampoo, it became so popular that a catchphrase was born in many haircutting emporiums for when things were going well, they’d say, “Now we’re shampooing with Fitch!” Not exactly a phrase that rings a bell nowadays, but apparently, it was the cat’s pajamas back in 1910.

Back then, men would only get their hair shampooed every other week at the barbershop. Believe it or not – grease was definitely the word back then. So Fitch put out a “wash-at-home” version of his shampoo to try to get guys shampooing every single week. That way, evidently, their hats wouldn’t slide off every time they tried to put them on…plus he could sell more shampoo with heavier use.

Fitch’s hair products sold incredibly well until after World War II – then, in 1946, the death blow came to his company. Seems they went a little too far by advertising their anti-dandruff products as being able to remove every trace of dandruff forever. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled that those claims were, in fact, “very false.” The FTC also stated that dandruff was a normal condition and Fitch was deemed a flake himself for making those claims…even though his tonics and shampoos actually seemed to be effective at alleviating the condition temporarily.

In 1949, he sold the company to Bristol-Myers, who kept the Fitch brand name alive for decades after that. Nowadays, dandruff treatment product companies are a little more careful about how they advertise their benefits.

Our Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® franchises don’t carry the Fitch line – well, no one does anymore, actually – but we do have a full array of 2009’s best grooming products available for the distinguished gentleman who’s looking for the classic barbershop experience. Check out our locations and find out about our amazing franchise opportunities at http://www.KennedysBarberClub.com .

Welcome to the Men’s Haircut Hall of Shame!

Some haircuts just shouldn’t happen. We’ve all had bad ones at one time or another – usually not too over-the-top horrible, just some barbering that went slightly off-course that ended up correcting itself after a few days’ of your hair growing past the glitches.
Other haircuts, however, are a bold statement – of just how insane the person who requested it is. The Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® proudly presents our Final Four of manly hair mistakes throughout history. You usually can’t blame the barber for these – people have to ask for this kind of abuse. If a barber actually talks a patron into the following four Sweeney Todd specials – and, rest assured, it won’t be a Kennedy’s barber! – legal action should be taken to strip the perp of his barber’s license.

1. THE MOHAWK

This haircut has the most ancient roots of our Final Four – but age in this case does not equal wisdom. Up until 2003, we all assumed Native Americans came up with this singular style – but that year, in an Irish field, someone dug up an incredibly well-preserved prehistoric chap, dubbed Clonycavan Man ( as seen in the upper left photo) – who, by default, received the dubious distinction of being the founding member of the Mr. T fan club. Not only did this refugee from 300 BC actually have a ‘hawk – researchers also discovered remnants of an ancient hair gel (no lie) in the hair used to make it stand up on end.

2. THE QUEUE

This is probably the most creative of our Final Four. Here’s how you make it happen in a nutshell – shave the entire front of your head, but leave enough to simulate a fur yarmulke on the back of your head, and then grow a giant ponytail that extends down your entire back. Finally, spend the rest of your life braiding that giant ponytail (as you can see from the above left picture, you have the option of “circling the wagon” with the ponytail instead of merely letting it swing to and fro, undoubtedly injuring innocent pedestrians on either side of you).
This is the hairstyle the Manchurians forced the Chinese to adopt when they invaded in the 17th Century. And every male that refused to succumb? Well, instead of getting their hair cut, they got their neck cut. Let us pause and honor the memory of those who resisted this crime against personal grooming and paid the ultimate price – their lives.

3. THE POMPADOUR

The 17th Century gave us the Queue – and the 18th Century gave us the Pompadour. Not exactly progress. Originated by the fashionable Madame de Pompadour in France, this upswept hairdo swept over the continent like a tidal wave. Unfortunately, since hair gel was in short supply back then (apparently they had no access to the Clonycavan line of hair care products), innovative grooming aids such as bear grease were used to keep those locks up, back and pasted down in place. Nothing like a little animal fat on your head to keep you stylin’.
It may have been King Louis the XV’s main squeeze that made it happen in the first place, but it was the King of Rock N’ Roll, Elvis himself, who helped the hairstyle to a big comeback in the 50’s. He should’ve taken the advice of one of his hits – “Return to Sender!”

4. THE MULLET

Our last hair horror is one we can’t blame on ancient man, invading Manchurian armies, or French royalty. No, the Mullet is a monster created in modern times, begat by Bowie (who somehow got away with it) and replicated by hundreds of ‘80’s hard rockers. The haircut was not officially named, according to no less a source than the Oxford English Dictionary, until the Beastie Boys released their ode to the “business in front, party in the back” hairstyle, “Mullet Head” in 1994. Even now, you’ll find millions of mullet tributes on the internet – because, somehow, just like a horrible car accident, we just can’t make ourselves not look.

The Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® does not condone or endorse the above hairstyles – that would be a direct violation of the Kennedy’s code, “The Best Haircut and Straight Razor Shave You’ve Ever Had or It’s Free!”™ Check out our locations and find out about our amazing franchise opportunities at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com .

When you step into a salon or barbershop, you naturally expect all the styling to take place on your head. But take a close look at what your locks are being trimmed with – or what your face is being shaved with – it might just take your breath away along with your hair.

The Freebird Shears company (http://www.freebirdshears.com) has just launched a new line of innovative hair stylist tools that are specially designed to showcase the haircutter’s personality in addition to functioning as finely-crafted state-of-the art shears and razors.

These weird and wonderful implements were created after years of research and development by a 4th generation German Master Craftsman named Maurice Stoll (who interestingly enough, also apparently has a Master Mind – he’s a winner of the USA National Memory Championship four years back, and no, you won’t find that event being broadcast on ESPN).

Stoll had the genius to team up with Elvis Crocker, a leading American tattoo artist, who is responsible for inspiring the distinctive patterns that are intricately cut into the handles, giving the Freebird Shear line an amazing one-of-a-kind look.

The Freebird “Butterfly Kisses” design

The shears are hand-forged from the world’s finest steels to give them top-of-the-line quality – and stylists are also able to adjust them to their individual hand size and grips with variable screws and hand rests. They can also be custom-ordered in terms of colors, length and different handle options.

You’d expect such designs as “The Star of Elvis,” “Dancing Dolphins,” “The Dragon” and “Skull and Crossbones” to show up on someone’s arm (or other body part), rather than on the handle of scissors being used by a barber to snip away at your head. But, you’d have to know you’re in the hands of one cool cutter if he laid out the big bucks for Freebird Shears. A top-of-the-line “Platinum” pair goes for a whopping $599 – but the product itself is a shear delight.

Modern versions of the barbershop experience, however, are big business and expensive extras like the Freebird Shears enhance that experience. For example, the Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® franchise is incredibly successful with its combination of classic barbershop features such as the straight razor shave with modern grooming aids and amenities. You can find out more about Kennedy’s locations and franchise opportunities at http://www.KennedysBarberClub.com.

And be sure to check out the video showcasing all the Freebird Shear designs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELCW0QTrio . You’ll instantly see why these haircutting instruments are definitely a cut above the norm.

Make an Appointment with the Internet Sensation!

Many successful establishments today are bringing back the classic feel of the best products and services from the past with the nostalgia that we all long for. Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® franchise is a perfect example of this growing trend. Kennedy’s™ offers a classic barbershop experience with an extra layer of modern comfort and amenitie. . Let’s face it, guys like the ambience and feel of a good old-fashioned straight razor shave and a haircut – at a place specifically designed for guys. So they try to get one as often as they can.
There are only so many times you can get a haircut at your favorite barbershop, however … but maybe you really, really just can’t get enough of that comforting barbershop vibe. Well, you’re in luck – all you need is your laptop or desktop and a pair of headphones for an amazing cyber-haircut experience.

Check out the website at http://ccgi.bluerabbit.plus.com/virtualbarbershop and visit the insanely-popular “Virtual Barbershop.” Although created only as a sound file, the YouTube version of the “Virtual Barbershop” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA has garnered over four million hits since it was posted. Not only that, people have recorded their own YouTube reactions to visiting the Virtual Barbershop – and even those have gotten tens of thousands of hits.
What’s so special about this audio clip?

It’s something called a Binaural Recording which creates an incredible sonic illusion – and tricks your brain into thinking it’s real. If you close your eyes and put the headphones on, you’ll actually “feel” the tickle when you hear the sound of Luigi, the virtual barber, using his scissors to clip your hair. You’ll also be a little confused when they put a bag over your head for no apparent reason, but apparently, they do things a little differently at the Virtual Barbershop (oh, and no need to cringe – there’s no surprise Sweeney Todd-type bloodletting!).

Binaural Recordings are recorded in such a way as to make your mind think you are where the sounds indicate. They’re made using a special microphone setup which factors in the natural crossfeed and sonic shaping of the head and ear. It’s what happens when we naturally hear a sound in everyday life – which is why Binaural Recordings are so realistic and immersive. But they’re only really effective if the listener is using stereo headphones.

By the way, this technology isn’t exactly cutting-edge – it’s been around since 1881! Special microphones were placed around an opera performance and the audio was fed through the telephone system. Subscribers at home were given special ear pieces to listen through. It’s doubtful it was THX quality, and the concept didn’t exactly catch on at the time, but it’s seen resurgence in recent years with usage in the popular Pixar Disney movies and by some rock bands.
So find out just how cool these realistic recordings are by taking a visit to the Virtual Barbershop. And when you’re ready for the real thing, visit a Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® – where they guarantee “The Best Haircut and Straight Razor Shave You’ve Ever Had or It’s Free”™. Visit their website at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com to find the nearest Kennedy’s location near you -and also discover the great franchise opportunities still available.

Men’s Skin Care Goes Mainstream!

Let’s face it – most men don’t think about their skin care very often. Then again, it may just be a matter of the role models they grow up with. Do they ever see Rambo moisturize? James Bond exfoliate? Nope, men are taught that worrying about dry skin isn’t the most masculine of pursuits – it’s much more important to battle invading armies single-handedly or defeat super villains intent on world domination.

Which would be true if that were actually a modern man’s lifestyle. To be brutally honest, however, the most danger the vast majority of men face in their daily lives is eating three-week old leftovers in the fridge that have potentially turned lethal.

The fact is that men’s skin is more delicate – and more damaged – than women’s. But since men spend about a 3,000th of the time on their skin that women do, you’d think it was reversed.

Why are men’s faces so fragile? Well, shaving every day is actually very hard on the skin – as is the greater exposure to harsh outdoor weather men usually enjoy. Although men’s skin is thicker than women’s (except maybe when someone makes fun of what they’re wearing), it’s also oilier. In short, gents, your skin needs proper care – and even barbershops are recognizing that fact!

For example, Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club®, a booming new franchise that combines the best of the classic barbershop experience with modern grooming services and amenities, includes men’s facials as well as ear, nose and eyebrow waxing as part of their higher-level membership packages. When the barber is doing something with their clients’ faces other than shaving, you know men’s skin care has truly arrived.

So why should men bother with the barber, when it comes to optimizing their epidermis?
Well, sneaking some skin lotion from a wife or girlfriend just isn’t going to do the trick.
Men’s skin care requires different, specialized products than what women use – because their skin itself is a lot different. And a unisex salon or spa just might use the same stuff on everyone, if their clientele is mostly female.

Although facials are important, there are a lot of things men can do in their normal everyday lives to maintain healthy skin. Drinking plenty of water and watching their exposure to the sun are two very important elements. Also, believe it or not, taking multi-vitamins is a big help – particularly Vitamin E.

Exfoliating with the help of a facial, however, does the skin the most good. It gets rid of the dead skin cells on top, allows the pores to breathe, keeps the skin clean and prevents acne outbreaks. Guys may joke about getting a facial – but it can leave you looking and feeling good – and what’s so funny about that?

Learn more about the men’s facial services at Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club® – where they also guarantee “The Best Haircut and Straight Razor Shave You’ve Ever Had or It’s Free”™ – at their website at http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com. You’ll also be able to find the nearest Kennedy’s location near you and discover the great franchise opportunities they have to offer.

And, men, give your barber some serious face time in the near future. You’ll be glad you did.