T.D. & Son Barber Shop

After spend­ing three hours at H&R Block on Sat­ur­day, fig­ur­ing out my tax­es with the guy there, I need­ed a nice bit of relax­ation. I also need­ed a hair­cut. So I final­ly tracked down this hereto­fore unnamed but very well rec­om­mend­ed bar­ber shop on Madi­son in Lake­wood and when I went to The Great­est Bar­ber Shop in the World: T.D. & Son Bar­ber Shop.

The build­ing is quite unas­sum­ing, and the son men­tioned to me that the sign need­ed a new coat of paint, but appar­ent­ly Lake­wood is strange about that and you have to sub­mit pro­pos­als and get approval before you even are allowed to take the thing down.

As soon as I walked in, I was threat­ened with the men­ac­ing “Good morn­ing sir, go get a donut and some cof­fee in the back room.” So I grabbed a donut and took a seat, already lik­ing the style of this place. Their mag­a­zine selec­tion is per­fect for the dis­tinct­ly male space I expect from a bar­ber­shop. Hunt­ing and fish­ing mags, sports mags, a few com­ic books, and gen­er­al men’s fit­ness mags. Not a Red­book or even a Newsweek to be seen. They also had a Playsta­tion and tele­vi­sion set that you could play on if you wished. How frick­ing awe­some is that?

I was 4th in line for a hair­cut, but the time passed by quick­ly as every­one in there was jok­ing and ban­ter­ing and hav­ing a fine old time. I caught on quick­ly and by the time I rolled around for a snip, was joust­ing mer­ri­ly along with every­one else. A small boy was in there get­ting his 2nd hair­cut and was cry­ing and car­ry­ing on like noth­ing. It was fun­ny. But while we all thought it was hilar­i­ous we tried to calm the lit­tle guy. I made mon­ster faces at him, which dis­tract­ed him just a lit­tle bit and the bar­ber was kept say­ing how brave the lit­tle guy was. Mean­while, the father was doing his best to hold the kid in the chair. I made the com­ment that he would pay for this in ther­a­py for the kid years lat­er and we all laughed. The kid had snot drip­ping from his face and was reach­ing for his father, kind of gross, but fun­ny. As soon as the cut was done the kid appeared in his dad’s lap and ceased cry­ing imme­di­ate­ly.

So I got up for my cut explained what I was look­ing for to the atten­tive and earnest son bar­ber and got my cut. It was a good cut and he checked with me sev­er­al times to make sure I was sat­is­fied. The shave your neck with a straigh­tra­zor and warm lath­er. The best part is the mas­sager at the end. They rev up this ancient hand mas­sager and run it along the back of your neck. Very nice. It serves [I think] the dual pur­pose of feel­ing real­ly good and vibrat­ing off the hair that always ends up on the shirt.

All of that for $15 bucks! I left my tip, made my way out, got a card and a healthy round of “seeya lat­er” and went back to my car and my tax­es. I’ll def­i­nite­ly go back.

T.D. & Son Bar­ber Shop
11918 Madi­son Avenue
Lake­wood, Ohio 44107
521‑2828