VICTORIAN STYLES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 18

VICTORIAN STYLES

ANCIENT HAIRDRESSING

Forty years ago the Lancashire barber was not by any means the equal in style of the torisorial artist of today. Nor were-his fees for professional services on the same exalted plane, says a London writer. The Lancashire working man of that day would consider himself robbed if he paid more than twopence for a hair-cut and one penny for a shave. If the barber had asked whether he wished to have a face-massage, shampoo, singe, or hair treatment, he would not have been understood. . ■

As a matter of fact, the hairdresser was generally a weaver too old for his looms, or some other, retired craftsman. There was no pretence of indulging in all the now well-known refinements of the toilet. All that was wanted was a thorough straight-for-ward "pow" which left the scalp tingling and as bare as a well-plucked chicken. The would-be dandy might, on request, be allowed the privilege of sporting a grippablc tuft to adorn liis forehead. Here was-the germ of the "quiff" so much in voguo in later years amongst the smart young men of Blackpool promenade, when four dajs

ivas spreading into the full week as the common annual holiday of .the cotton workers of the country. '." The Eton crop was well anticipated by the young girls of that age, but more as a matter of expediency than as a mark of distinction. Small girls and small boys alike were taken by the hand to be operated upon by the local artist. As the small boy also wore petticoats, it was difficult to distinguish brother from sister when helped down from the chair. As an affair of economy, the pair would be next door to being scalped before the wise parent gave the signal to desist. It meant a few days longer, between then and the next visit. And coppers were scarce and needed. For children the; price was threepence, and one gener-1 ous barber always returned one half.penny to the young victim. It was good business, as the youngsters were always anxious to double their weekly allowance, if only once hi a whUfi. As the jyoung girls reached their teens their hair was allowed to grow and be plaited or alternately curled into "wrinklets." There was a good hour's painful twisting and turning before going to bed in rags or curl-pap-ers, after a thorough raking fore and aft with the small tooth-comb. At nineteen or twenty proud maiden achieved the glory of having her hair "put up." She was emancipated, and her bair was from now her own concern. And then she would have been horrified at the suggestion that she should leave,: it at the barber's shop.