🇧🇷 Barbering Across Borders: Razors, Friendship and a Month with Danilo Alfonso
By now it’s pretty obvious: a straight razor can do more than clean a face.
It can build friendships that ignore borders, languages and postcodes.
I’ve flown out more than once to meet my own shaving heroes – the people whose work I’d been watching from a distance, wondering how they made steel move like that. The beautiful side effect is that, sooner or later, those visits start coming back your way. Suddenly, the people you once travelled to see are standing in your own shop, behind your own chairs.
This time it was Danilo Alfonso.
Lisbon legend. Open razor obsessive. Someone I respect not just as a barber, but as a human being who really lives this craft.
He came straight from Portugal to Ghent for a full month as a guest barber at ROMAIN. A month sounds romantic on paper. In real life, it’s logistics, planning and a lot of moving pieces. Accommodation, schedules, educational moments, client appointments, making sure the team is ready, the communication is clear, the shop keeps running. It was intense. And absolutely worth it.
A warm reunion
We met again at the airport. No big speeches, just that easy familiarity you get when you’ve already shared razors, stories and too many coffees in another country. Danilo stepped out with his wife, Grazi – his partner in crime, calm and loyal beside him like always.
They landed in Charleroi around ten at night. By the time we drove up to Ghent, it was already past midnight. Most people would crash straight into bed. Danilo did what real razor people do: he opened his case.
Out came the razors.
Different grinds, different steels, a small travelling museum of edges. We stood in the kitchen, two grown men in the middle of the night, hunched over stones, oil, water, strops. Time disappeared. The world outside went quiet. We honed, restored, inspected edges, tested hair, argued about little angles. It was ridiculous. And perfect.
When passion is in the room, you don’t look at the clock.
Mutual learning and the space between two cultures
The real point of these exchanges isn’t just the romance of “guest barber” or a new face behind the chair. It’s learning.
He watches how we run ROMAIN.
I watch how he approaches his work.
We break down details most clients will never notice: how the towel is folded, how the razor rests in the hand between strokes, how the room moves around a busy day, how a booking system actually feels in practice, how the team breathes when things get tight.
Every small adjustment we can make – in flow, timing, service, technique – brings us one step closer to the standard we’re chasing. Not perfection, that’s a ghost. Just better. Honest, measurable better.
But there’s a catch: Belgium is not Portugal.
The rhythm of Lisbon is not the rhythm of Ghent.
What works perfectly in Danilo’s shop might fall flat here. What fits into our Belgian habits and expectations might feel wrong in his world. Prices, timing, client culture, even the way people sit in the chair – it all shifts when you cross a border.
That’s the interesting part.
The goal isn’t to copy each other. It’s to understand each other enough to steal the right things and leave the rest where they are.
We spent that month cutting, shaving, teaching, watching, sharing stupid jokes and serious thoughts. Comparing notes about the industry, about the direction barbering is going, about what we’re afraid of losing and what might still be saved.
In the end, what stays with you isn’t just the work.
It’s the feeling that you’re not alone in this slightly crazy mission to keep real barbering alive in a world that keeps pushing everything to “fast” and “easy”.
Muito obrigado, Danilo.
If the translation for “mega thanks” is off, you know what I mean anyway.
If you want more than just a good story and you’re ready to sharpen your craft or your own look, you know where to find us.
From straight razor training and honing on natural stone to classic shaves and serious beard work in the chair, ROMAIN Barbershop & Academy in Ghent is where it actually happens – not just where people talk about it.
Want to book a service?
https://booking.optios.net/6064/select-location
Want to follow the journey?
ROMAIN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/romain_ghent
Stijn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/desutter_stijn
Stijn on YouTube (more adventures, more razors, more stories): https://www.youtube.com/@desutter_stijn
For Academy info, courses or questions, send an email to info@romaighent.be – and we’ll take it from there.
