Truefitt and Hill, Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Truefitt and Hill, also known as the Oldest Barbershop in the World, as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records, offers the finest grooming products and services to the discerning gentleman.
I sat down one day to try 2 of their signature services: The Royal Hair Cut (30-45 min; RM$95) and the Ultimate Shaving Experience (45mins; RM$110).
My grooming professional Ashkan sat me on one of their sturdy leather barber chairs and he took out a haircut robe from a zip-lock bag. I learned from Ashkan that their robes are sent for laundry and sanitized daily. Similarly, as Ashkan takes out combs, brushes, scissors etc, he tells me that they are also sent for sanitisation daily and later carefully wrapped in zip-lock bags for use later.
Ashkan starts to cut my hair. He takes off the sides first. Looking at Ashkan, he seems to be the perfect poster boy for Truefitt and Hill—-his beard and hair are immaculately groomed and coiffed. Ashkan is careful to take off my hair bit by bit, so as not to take off my hair too much. He suggested adding “shadow” to my sides to make my cheekbones more prominent. I agreed to his suggestion. Indeed, as he meticulously works through my hair, my eyes, nose and cheekbones seemed to “pop” out. Instead of tired and scruffy, I looked energized and 2-3 years younger. Ashkan did not leave out details—-he cleaned up my temples where I have a lot of baby hair with an electric razor. In the last stage, he brushed the bits of hair off my hair with a badger hair brush. God! It was soft! Finally, when my haircut was completed, I look so neat and groomed. My hair looked like a Hollywood star ready for the red carpet.
It was time for my shampoo. Ashkan turned the barber chair around and reclined it so that my head was over the shampoo. Gently, slowly he massaged shampoo into my hair. With 2 fingers on each hand, he also gently massaged my temples. Heaven! Unfortunately, the shampoo was all too short. The shampoo lasted perhaps 1 min. While Ashkan massaged my hair, I wished he massaged the shampoo into my scalp as well. Ashkan sat me up and placed a towel on my hair to absorb my hair. He then blew my hair with a hairdryer and a brush to give my hair some volume. Lastly, he applied some wax and hairspray on my hair.
With my hair taken care of, I started on my Ultimate Shaving Experience. With my chair reclined back, Ashkan covered the front of my body with a towel. On top of this towel, he placed a small square towel on my chest.
Firstly, Ashkan gently massaged pre-shave oil into my skin to soften the skin and bristles. He then wrapped a hot towel around my face for a few minutes to further soften my skin and open up the pores. With the towel unwrapped, Ashkan applied shaving cream over my face with a soft badger brush and carefully dabbed cream over my philtrum with his finger.
The actual shave begins. Ashkan shaves in the direction of the hair, slowly, lightly, so as not to cause the skin too much abrasion. Surprisingly, he shaves in small strokes, bit by bit, rather than one long stroke seen in Hollywood movies. When one round was done, he applied cream again and this time, he shaved against the direction of hair for a really close shave. Back and forth, back and forth, Ashkan felt my skin with his fingers, feeling for any bristle and roughness. When he feels any roughness, he would slowly chip away at that part. He was like alternately a Dutch diamond cutter with its precision and a Japanese Zen master carefully tending to his miniature bottle garden.
When he finished shaving, he applied after shave (it stung a little) followed by a hot towel wrapped around my face for a few minutes. Then came the face massage. With an emollient face cream, Ashkan gently massaged my face with his fingers for a good 10 mins. He massaged every part of my face. Finally, a cold towel was wrapped around my face to cold my pores and to soothe my skin.
My face was the smoothest it has ever been. I had my shave at 11am. By 11pm, I still could not feel any roughness on my face. Surprisingly, my face was also the softest it has ever been (it felt like baby skin), but it was not oily. I guess that is a testament to the quality of cream used on my face. Having experienced myself, Truefitt and Hill truly lives up to its reputation of quality service and quality products. Amazingly, though they are targeting the discerning male with buying power, the grooming professionals are not snobbish at all. They are extremely polite and unassuming. I also popped into their outlet at JW Marriott KL simply to look around with no intention of using their service at all. They are also very, very friendly. Top class customer service.
I will definitely be back.
