I just realized something weird, and am seeking an explanation

[WilliamPitt]

When I was a kid, I'd go with my dad to the old-timey barbershops he liked, sometimes in Boston, sometimes in New York, sometimes in DC. They were always the same place - big mirrors, white counters, old chairs, old men, Playboy magazines.

The places always smelled the same, a high sweet smell I never smell anywhere else.

Yesterday, I went out and bought a bunch of incense sticks. The scent was 'opium,' one I'd not tried before. I just lit one in my apartment, and the place now smelles EXACTLY like those old barbershops.

Why would old-fashioned barbershops smell like opium? What in there smells like opium? Some kind of hair tonic or shave cream?

Just curious. It seems kinda odd.

[Paragon]

1. The diamond trade and barbershops are well-known for opium funding.

:silly:

[skypilot]

Shhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Don't you know that opium dens have been disguised as barber shops for years now?!?

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. All the old-fashioned barber shops I've been in...

smelled like Lucky Tiger hair tonic. Maybe that's the scent you remember.

[StClone]

3. Witch Hazel and Barasol?

I can attested that the olfactory area of the brain has deep and potent recall but it can be mistaken.

[JCMach1]

4. it's the barber's powder they used

The traditional barder does still exist in the southern US and in the rest of the world...

[efhmc]

Bay rum. Not sure that is what opium smell likes but that is what most

barber shops used. That incense may not even smell like opium any more than the perfume does.

[johnnie]

5. It's that tonic stuff they used

I went with my dad to the one on the corner. His name was Otzi (or something like that). He was an older man, and it's hard to think of him having an Opium parlor in the back...Hell who knows?

[Tom Kitten]

6. Bay Rum

I think that's the old barbershop smell.

on edit...Drat! That was my 500th post and I didn't even realize it!
I was going to use it for something special, like starting my very own cat thread or something like "Who here at DU doesn't like bummers"?;(

[JCMach1]

12. different, I have bay rum... I use it regularly

I still say it's that powder they slap on with the brush.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. maybe its this

Opium scented cologne and aftershave...

oops....link messed up...hold on

[THUNDER HANDS]

okay...this

and


VERY HARD TO FIND! If You're An OPIUM Fan (Or Know One Who Is), This IS The Best! A Soothing, Conditioneing After Shave Lotion With The Wonderful Scent Of OPIUM...Now At A Great Sale Price...Nicely Boxed!

[RoyGBiv]

8. Witch Hazel

Old timey barber shops smell like witch hazel (hamamelis virginiana), which is an ingredient in many of the tonics they used. Some of those tonics are actually just witch hazel with some coloring or tiny portions of other herbal ingredients.

Since it is doubtful your incense is actually made of opium, it might be that this herb was used in its creation.

Or your dad may have been taking you around to opium dens that were fronted by a barber shop. :-)

[WilliamPitt]

9. He *did* always leave kinda sleepy...

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan," he'd whisper as we left, "a stately pleasure dome decree...hzzzzzz...let's get a hot dog..."

:)

[TrogL]

16. Get a haircut - punk!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

10. It's barbicide, is it not?

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. A hairstylist's answer: It's the blue stuff in the jar...barbicide.

Smell's quite the same. But I don't think I ever got high off of it. Wait...come to think of it...;)

[WilliamPitt]

14. I thought barbicide was when the barber fell on his own scissors

:)

Thanks for the answer!

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. ROFL...Many a time I wanted to do that...

Which is explains why I no longer wield the scissors, except for my own family. ;)

[XNASA]

13. Clubman Vanilla Hair Tonic?

I remember that the barber had a bunch of Clubman lotions and tonics.

But the smell I remember most, was witchhazel and talc.

[JCMach1]

15. here is a link to some possibilities: Vermont Country Store

http://www2.shopping.com/xDN-Fragrance---the_vermont_country_store~V-