ELECTRICITY DOES THE WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELECTRICITY DOES THE WORK.

BARBER ESTABLISHMENT IN PARIS WHERE SCISSORS ARE , , UNKNOWN.

An electrical barber shop is one of the latest attractions at Paris. This does not mean simply that motors are used for driving fans, that the place is lighted By the current, but that hair is curled, cut, and dried by electricity, and many other things done through its agency. It is a hairdressing parlour imfhicU a pair c<f scissors is never used. The tonsorial art advanced some years ago from the scis*-. sors stage' to the clipping stage; now It has fallen like many other'things /under the spell of tne electric current. Haircuttlng in the Parisian establishment is done with an electric cutting comb, which, because of its simplicity and the dexterity with which, it may be used, must soon become widely employed. This comb looks like any ordinary comb, except that a thin wire is stretched above the upper portion of the teeth along the handle. This wire is connected electrically, vrith a storage battery. When the battery, is turned on the wire becomes red hot. Therefore when this, comb is oassed through the hair the latter is burned off by the red hot wire. Of course, the wire can be regulated to stand at any distance above the comb so that the hair can be cut or rather burned* off, at any. length. The whole operation is so rapid that a heavy head of hair may be clipped in a few minutes. Not only this, but the ends of the hair cannot bleed so that the benefit of singetog is. part of the operation. " .

The water with which hair is washed* In this place comes cold from the spigot, is heated as it passes from the nozel of the hand hose. This nozel has in it a coiled wire, which can be made white or red hot by a storage battery. .The advantage of this mode of heating- is that any exact temperature may be obtained ,in an instant, at the pleasure of the castotner. Either scalding hot or tepid water may, be had merely by pressing s. button. A somewhat similar arrangement is employed for the curling tongs. The tongs themselves are slipped into a coil of wire, which may be kept at any temperature. There is no danger of burning the hair with this arrangement. Hair which ha 3 been shampooed is dried quickly by means jf electric fans, facial imperfections are removed with electric needles, and it is understood that the owner of the shop is patenting an electric motor like device which will be used in place of the hands for shampooing. Altogether this is a scientific and fin de siecle barber shop.