BARBER’S BANISHED BRUSHES

Evening Star, Issue 20253, 14 August 1929, Page 12

BARBER’S BANISHED BRUSHES

MACHINERY THAT WENT OUT IN THE WAR

‘ In olden times before the war one of tho compensations of a small boy’s first visit to ■ the barber’s was to see the big two-handled circular brushes winded about the heads of elderly customers, who sat attired in pinafores . and bibs. The big brush was operated by belts from pully wheels on the ceiling. Today these pulley wheels and shafting survive, rusty r and derelict, in the barkers’ shops. "No barber uses them; no | customer wants them. They arc among - tho things that were. “They went out during. the war,” said a member of Messrs Oobbett and jfildew, the hairdressers, to a ‘ Star ’ ! reporter who sought to probe the mystery. “The primary cause was tho objection to using electric curent unnecessarily, Then bristles, an expensive item in themselves, became scarcer and scarcer. Finally, after the war, doctors decided against them on hygienic grounds. “ her one thing, it was difficult to ! wash them properly owing to the brass fittings and the fact that the wood might shrink or warp. “Tho whirling discharged minute particles of hair and skin in the faces of both customer and assistant, which was extremely unhealthy for both. “ Thei’o were so many things against these brushes. They were discovered to bo a cause of baldness, the long hairs on the top of the head being so roughly treated, especially by unskilful or careless operators, that they weakened. ‘ ‘ For one reason alone the trade was glad to drop them. Good brushes cost £lO each, and with four or five brushes in a shop the cost of renewal was pretty heavy. “ It was certainly a pleasant sensation after a shampoo, but after all the same effect may be obtained from two ordinary brushes skilfully used.” These brushes were decidedly the dernier cri when they were introduced to London in the early ’nineties. They were for a long time the stand by of comic artists and writers, and they even found their, way into pantomime skits. In the first days they were operated by hand, the barber’s boy turning a wheel at the side of the shop. They were subsequently even driven by steam and hydraulic pressure, electricity becoming the agent in the early part of tho present century.