A tradition maintained.

Electric clippers are anathema to Rafail Gadayev, the owner of the European Barber Shop in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The beautiful interior harkens back to an earler era.

Rafail is a Kazakhstan Jew who somehow managed to escape the anti-Semitic embrace of Mother Russia and its murderous dictator in 1995, coming to Arizona via Israel (where citizenship is guaranteed to Jews from any nation on earth) and New York. Finding the latter too harsh socially and meteorologically, he moved to Arizona where he has been since the late ’90s.

The haircut here is scissors only, takes a good 30 minutes and is both world class and costly. The culture is American sports and, mercifully, I did not have to listen to some moron lecturing me on the genius of the cockroach in the Oval Office. Worth the premium for that alone.

The hot towel treatment is standard.

Back from the day when steel was still cast in Chicago.

I asked Rafail whether any of the five other stations is ever used and he replied that it’s impossible to get caring, skilled labor any more, so no. He works alone in his beautiful shop and is always fully booked.

Baseball, boxing and American football are the focus. This is a place for masculine men.

My son Winston migrates from Yeti to preppy.

Pomades galore.

All snaps on the iPhone 7.