"HAIR CUT SIR?"

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 22 September 1925, Page 5

"HAIR CUT SIR?"

THE CHANGING CLIP.

WHAT DO MEN WANT ? SCALP CUT IN" VOGUE.

Jhe successful barber must be a man of parts, adaptable, alert, patient and polite. His business in life is to please his customers. It matters not a jot to bim what the man in the chair demands, so long as the job is finished satisfactorily —from the customer's viewpoint. To the baraer, or anyone else, the man who has just had his fad by a hair cut of unusual appearance may look a blithering idiot, and anyone with half an eye could tell him that another style would suit him better. That has nothing to do with it —he has got what he wants, and it is not the barber's fault that his thatch looks que»r. Just stroll into one of those mirrored pilaces and wait your turn on a busy day. and you will find amusement in listening to the instructions issued, bewilderment in pondering the secret process by which the barber arrives at the desired style without asking a question when his customer is of the strong, silent type, and genuine entertainment in studying the behaviour of the men in the chairs. All men are vain. Age makes no difference. That young fellow there, with the mud of the roads of Kitiwakapuka scarce on his boots, hasn't had his hair cut for six months. It is long, curly, and bulgy in parts, curling up over liis ears and coming down in a bushy mass over his collar at the back. All these months he has not troubled for a moment over his appearance, but now that he is "getting it done" the barber must make a first class job of it, and no bones about it. Electric clippers whirr up the back of his head, spurting hair in all directions, they plough furrows along above his ears, and scissor- snip junks off the top and front. Fifteen minutes later the youth might be a man-about-town. judging by his hair, and overlooking his squash-strawberry shirt, bought at the general store, and his cow-puncher's Sunday boots. Before putting on his old black hat. the youth shyly admires himself in the glass, cogitating, doubtless, on the effect this transformation will have on the backblock belles at the next bop. The Shiny Poll. Now look at that crusty old man over there —the one with "the sticky bald patch. He doesn't want to talk to the barber, so the barber doesn't want -to talk to him, but the old fellow keeps giving hints about leaving the top long co that he can comb the hairs over the indecent part. And he won't have clippers on his head, not he! In the next chair there is another hald man, but a much greater bald man, with a huge expanse of mottled scalp, bordered by a suspicion of grey hair. This thin stuff has begun to wind itself into his ears and play hide and seek in his collar, so the barber must get busy. Of course, the operation need not take long, but the barber, aware of his customer's little vanities, goes to great pains, snipping, snipping, snipping at the borders. Oh. it would be a shame to remove a fraction of an inch without cause! Finally, with a brave optimism he tips some green liquid on to tbe pate and rubs it in till the poll glows with that radiance which alway3 inspires confidence when seen on the heads of pompous people at board meetings. Clip Close, Barber! Still, it is the youthful customer who provides most of the amusement. One "young chap in trousers twice too wide 5s just being wrapped up in the big shroud, despite the fact that his hair has lately been cut, and his weekly shave couldn't hare happened more than two days ago. But he must have the machine clippers run Up the back of his head and along above his ear, for he is a victim of the scalp-close clip, ■ft'hich originated in America, among the pugs. It is just a symptom —like the Oxfords—but an expensive symptom, entailing frequent visits if the white icalp is to be constantly on show. Fair youths affect this style rather than their .darker brothers, for the latter dislike it by reason of the tiny pin-points which show out at the roots, like blackheads. In executing this cut, the barber must take care to let the long hair blend into the clipped part. If he leaves it with the lanky hairs ending suddenly above the mown parts lie has perpetrated what is known as a 'Mack Dempsey,"' and "the best people" think this vulgar. But the nearer the barber can get to this outrage, without actually committing it, the better the gilded youth likes it. Side-Boards Again. Very few men part their hair in the middle to-day. Side-parts and brushbacks are the vogue. Like the walrus moustache and the Kaiseresque adornment of the upper lip. which have given place to the toothbrush "mo," the middle part has given way to short clips, with either a parting on the side or no parting at all. Only the very learned, like clergymen, elderly doctors, judges and a few others, cling tenaciously to this old-time custom. Of course, the kiss curl is as dead as the Dodo. If one looks through an ancient album of photographs, family or otherwise, the tonsorial styles strike one. as odd. However, a few of these old styles are recurring. Take, for instance, the sideboards, popular in Victorian times. In those days this garbiage used to swoop down the cheek, ending up with a Tshape. To-day, in truncated form, one can see the same thing being affected by >the stagey type —not necessarily on the stage. In the Army they have a rude term to describe these sidewhiskers. Those few who are following the fashion to-day let their hair grow down past their ears for about an inch. It suits some, and looks merely stupid on others. The trouble is that if you go to sleep in the barber's chair, he might shave them off in a fit of absentmindedness, or perhaps with the idea that he was doing yoa a service!