RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 17

RANDOM REMINDER

HAIR DOINGS

It does not require old age and leisure to equip oneself for the role of philosopher, although either is probably an advantage. Musing on the ways of the world is not often possible in a busy life; but if there is one place likely to lend itself to such an exercise, it is the barber’s shop, while one is waiting for a turn in the chair. A friend of ours was so placed the other day. The array of reading material did not appeal, and he could not but help hear the conversation be-

tween the barber and his client, a weather-beaten gentleman with luxurious hair who said in the course of conversation that he was a shearer, and that he had come in from the back country after several months; hence the length of the locks. The charge for the haircut was 70 cents and our friend came to the firm conclusion that the whole business of barbers and shearers was slanted very much in favour of the barber. The shearer earned something like $2O a hundred for shearing his sheep, the barber about $7O a hundred for his

clients. Yet the barber did not have to walk or ride over rough country in the foulest of winter weather, he did not have to manhandle his charges, and he had the added advantage of being able to unburden himself on all sorts of topics to the man in the chair.

Our friend realised that there was not, from all this, a really good case for a reduction generally in the price of hair-cutting. But he thought it reasonable that there should be a special arrangement for shearers having their hair done. Some sort of special cut rate.