Retrograde Cut ‘N’ Shave

The latest curl in men’s hair care is turning the clip joint into not just a pit stop, but also a destination. Melrose’s Barber Shop Club lures hip-hop stars and studio attorneys alike with its 1940s-style old-school shop, modeled on owner Woodrow Lovell’s grandfather’s Kansas City store. Mahogany furnishings, vintage barber chairs and brown-and-tan checkerboard floors capture a men’s clubhouse feel for the regulars who stop in for a trim or to gather around the TV on fight night. Across town, Gornik-Drucker’s of Beverly Hills, the store that gave Bugsy Siegel his final cut, Ronald Reagan that brilliant pompadour and Rat Pack classic “Ocean’s Eleven” a setting for its opening sequence, keeps the spirit alive. On a typical afternoon, young agents flock in alongside the Friars Club lunch crowd for a classic shave, haircut, shoeshine, manicure and scalp massage. “Men don’t want the glitz,” says Lovell of his store’s classic appeal. “They are looking for secure, role-setting environments.”