the barber spa

When you ask for a magazine at The Executive while enjoying a pedicure, let’s say you’ll be offered Car & Driver or Cigar Aficionado or Forbes. Not Vogue or Teen People or House Beautiful. The Executive is a day spa in Atlanta’s Buckhead business district that is rooted not in the beauty salon but in the barbershop, and aimed specifically at the professional man. This client, as the establishment’s marketing material laments, has in the past braved the frilly slippers and girly magazines of the typical spa just to stay groomed and on top of his game. Now he can receive similar lavish treatments without ever being asked to wear a skimpy robe. Instead of plinky New Age music in the background, he’ll hear smooth jazz and R&B standards. There’s a plasma

The Executive
360 Pharr Road,
Suite 3021,
Atlanta, GA
404-869-4000; <url removed>


Screen virtually everywhere he looks - tuned to CNN or ESPN or Bloomberg - and an Internet-ready computer for checking his e-mail or maybe a quick stock transaction. A concierge will be happy to snag him a choice table for lunch or dinner, and order up a limo to take him there. Just like a busy executive, the menu of services doesn’t mince words: It offers no ethereal descriptions, no extraneous choices. You can go upstairs where theres a small lounge, favored by celebrity clients who don’t want to be fawned over, and a private massage suite where you might receive a deep-tissue pummeling by a therapist with a firm touch. Or stay on the main level and opt for a pedicure, a manicure, a haircut, a shave, a shoeshine or all of those masculine necessities. I am amazed to realize, as the first in a sequence of what seems like a dozen hot towels is wrapped around my face, that not only have I never been shaved by someone else, but I have never been shaved with a straight razor. I am simultaneously having a manicure, and as the various blades approach my face and fingertips I quickly decide that closing my eyes and maintaining a deliberate, unflinching repose is a wise choice, if not necessarily a path to wisdom. And really, sitting perfectly still while highly skilled but lethally armed people are working you over does become a sort of meditation, never mind The Executive’s refreshing lack of spiritualist hooey. Is this the smoothest shave I’ve ever had? It’s certainly the most elaborate, and the most fun. It includes a multi-step facial (defoliant, mask, moisturizer), a neck and scalp massage, and no fewer than three rounds of shaving (first with the grain of my beard, then across the grain, then with it again), plus steamy towel wraps between each step - all for $45. All the products used are from Truefitt and Hill, a London barbering emporium that has been tending to aristocratic whiskers since 1805, and fittingly luxurious. Hey, guys. Spa, salon, barbershop÷you can call it what you want. But I call it pampering, and I like it.

- Jonathan Lerner, Sky Magazine