Hot Towel Before a Haircut

Hot towel at a barbershop, steamed and wrapped around your face for 30 seconds before the shave, softens the beard hair and opens the pores. Warmth against your skin is a small luxury that signals the cut is about to begin. Towel smells like eucalyptus or menthol, and the steam rises when the barber unfolds it, and that brief ritual separates a $20 haircut from 1 that costs the same but skips the gesture. A few cents of steam and a laundered cotton towel accomplish something that words on a chalkboard menu cannot.