Old-fashioned shave-and-a-haircut men's barbershops were making a comeback in Las Vegas the last time we addressed this topic; but that was back in 2005, and this aspect of the luxury pampering business seems to have been hit by the economic hard times, while salons and spas aimed more at females have shown no such signs of decline. We'll leave you to draw your own sociological conclusions, or not.
The point is, there weren't that many options back then within Las Vegas hotels, and in the interim we've lost Truefitt & Hill, formerly located in the Forum Shops at Caesars, and the Tropicana Barber Shop, once home to master barbers and hot-towel straight-blade shaves.
Still, you lose some, you win some and, no pun intended, the Salon at Wynn offers complete barber services, with the Classic Hot Lather Shave starting at $65. (Note: the Salon at Encoore does not offer barber services.)
To the best of our knowledge, your only other option lies at the the far south end of the Strip at Mandalay Place, Mandalay Bay’s mall, where The Art of Shaving offers a 45-minute $55* "Royal Shave" that sounds like the facial equivalent of a wrap and rub at the spa. The process involves, in order: hot-towel wrap, oil massage, warm shaving cream, alum block, another hot-towel wrap, rejuvenating mask, mask removal with lemon-scented sea sponges, lavender-infused cold towel treatment, rose water and an after-shave balm massage. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of all that, your face is shaved twice, both with and across the grain. For something that sounds less like it came from the kitchen of Wolfgang Puck, a 30-minute standard shave is also available. 702/632-9356.
* We were both impressed and amazed to learn that this price has held steady since we called them, back in 2005.
