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We Tried the Father & Son Grooming Package at Fox and the Barber, Hong Kong's Most Dapper Barbershop – Review
- Rob Garratt
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
HONG KONG
All images courtesy of Fox and the Barber.
The Pitch
Why Fox and the Barber? It really should be Fox the Barber. Once upon a time (well, in 2015), British hairdresser Paul Fox decamped to Hong Kong and founded a classic barbershop inspired by a hazy romantic vision of better days gone by. Think an imperial, Anglo-take on Jazz Age machismo. It’s all very Peaky Blinders – staff are pictured online clutching whisky tumblers and garbed in waistcoats. Scowls and slicked-back fringes are apparently also part of the dress code. In short, it’s the place for the distinguished gentleman and urban traditionalist – and this writer was ready to upset The Fox’s poise in more ways than one.
The Match
I arrived at the top of Graham Street with two challenges in tow. One, was a rowdy shoulder-length blond bop too frequently compared to Kurt Cobain, left untrimmed for at least a year; the other was a two-year-old child visiting a Proper Barber’s for the first time in his life. We’d booked The Father and Son package (HK$1,050; 90 minutes), to kill two birds with one stone – and to test our barbers’ patience as well as scissormanship.
The team was ready and unruffled. My son was instantly assigned Paul Rawling, a grandfatherly figure with the patience of a saint and the jocular nature of an old family friend. While our last attempt at a home haircut was aborted after half a dozen snips and a bucket of tears, Paul – a part-time blues drummer – had the little fella seated, calmed and sharply trimmed up in record time – with yes, a little help from mummy, who was rewarded with an “island pour” G&T.
Meanwhile, Bradley Thornton sized me up in seconds and decided what I needed was a fashionably flowy, swept-back “European wave” – a style which sounded and looked suspiciously like what was on the barber’s own head. Why? Because despite my melodramatic hankerings for a buzzcut, it would, he convinced me, be a shame to part with all that hair at once. Moreover, as my mane spent so much time tied back in an outmoded man-bun, it had already been trained to be brushed vertically. And, hell, I was in a gangsta-swagga joint, so why not get with the programme?
So I sat back, supped my complimentary Belgian IPA, and let Bradley go to work.
“As everything this year is going longer and more flowy style, we’re going to put layers into the hair, keep it clean around the ears and the neck and add some texture and movement,” explained Bradley, before finishing his work 45 minutes later with a spray of sea salt and a handful of soft clay.
The Score
The transformation was apparently dramatic. The day after my haircut, a group of swooning Gen Z classmates told me I looked 10 years younger. Now, exactly a month after my visit to Fox and the Barber, I too reluctantly conclude that Thornton was bang on the money. The promised movement and flow are there in spades, and experimenting with a variety of different products has yielded a wide range of looks and textures. It was ballsy to keep the fringe longer than anything else – and occasionally irritating in its habit of flopping into view – but this gives the overall cut an organic weight that I've grown to dine out on. Hell, who doesn’t love cinematically sweeping one’s hair back in moments of solemn contemplation? Close up, please!
Fox and the Barber is not a place for subtlety; blunt dramatic decisions are dyed into its DNA. They know what they offer, and they offer it with pride and unwavering conviction. “Without sounding too big-headed, I think we're in a bit of a league of our own,” adds Bradley. “There’s no one doing anything like what we are doing – the sophistication of it, the clean look – I don't think there's anyone really doing that.”
Location: 41-43 Graham Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong | Phone: +852 2405 6880 | WhatsApp: +852 6896 1102 | Instagram: @foxandthebarber
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