HAIRDRESSING. ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7068, 9 April 1901, Page 2

HAIRDRESSING. ANCIENT AND MODERN.

THE SORRY PLIGHT OF THE BARBERS.

A TIME-HONOURED CALLING-

ORIGIN OF THE BARBER'S

POLE.

["Stab." Special.]

At the sitting of the Conciliation Board on Thursday several witnesses were called to give evidence why the demands of the men for better conditions of labour and higher wages should be granted. •One -witness, who had worked at the business for a number of years, was asked if he thought that 3d was too small a charge for shaving a man

He neaiilv exploded with indignation. "Too small," he exclaimed; "too small," as his voice rose to a higher key; "why it's ridiculous!" The wages of the assistants seem to have been very low, ■ranging from 30s to not more than about £2, and the hours h-a^e heen long and tedious, extending from eight in the morning till eight at night on ordinary days, and up till eleven at night on Saturdays. The Conciliation Board, however, has fixed the ordinary hours from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., and the hours on Saturday from 8.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m., the minimum wages being £2*lo- a week. The statements made before the Board show that for many years the art of hairdressing has been declining. This is -accounted for by changes in -taste, fashions and ideas, and the habit men have got into of sharing themselves. Fine hair is no longer esteemed a thing of very great beauty, nor is baldness now looked upon as a sign of divine anger, as it was -n the days of Isaiah. Absolom, who was so much praised for his beauty, used to cut his hair at the end of every year; and it is locorded that it weighed 200 shekels. When the haughty daughters of Zion went about with stretched-forth \necks and wantoh eyes, " walking and "ntiincing as they went, and making a tinkling with theii-. feet," they were threatened in the terrijble curse that their crisping-pins «.nd wimples would be taken away from them by way of condign punishment. The Greeks held the hair of their head in such importance that they often dedi? c-ated it to their deities, sharping off some of their locks for that purpose. The Athenians cur-led their hair, and dTessed it with small golden ornaments shaped like grasshoppers, in token of their being sons of the earth. Gold, pearls, precious stones, flowers and ribbons were employed to ornament the tresses, and one of their coiffures is described as an immense tower of .bows and curls.

The Roman women were particularly addicted to frizzling and curling their haii?, raising it into stores of curls, some of which were of great height. The arb of arranging the hair was a matter of great importance to them. Slaves frizzled and adjusted it, and a number of women learned in the art of the coifftire superintended the process, while the fair dame hereelf watched the growing edifice of curls, gold.-, precious stones and crowns of flowers inia mirror of polished steel, brass, tin or si^vS. Among tbe Turks, Arabs, Persians, kad many other nationalities, the removal-* Of the beard is still regarded as the deepest degradation, while Moslems still swear by the beard oi the prophet, and by their own.

But in these days different ideas haf* brought in different customs. The ten^ dency is to leave the man. himself to choose what kind of natural ornament he will wear on his face. Whiskers and beards seem to be going out of fashion. Clean, shiny faces ar-3 seen at each turn Even the moustache is disappearing from the faces of young men. "Side-boards,'' long a characteristic of the 'English race., as. indicated by old engravings, are seldom seen now. .

For generations there have' been particular fashions in regard to the beard among churches, regiments, trades and professions in England. It is claimed that 'Bishop Ryle, of Liverpool, who lived in 1880, was the first bearded prelate for many a day, The Worcestershire Militia claims that it was the first English regiment to adopt the moustache, which it did in 1798, having taken, the idea from the Austrian army.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the vocation of the hairdresser and barber has fallen from the important position it held in former times. One of the best stories in the "Arabian Night Entertainments " has been put into the mouth of a barber. He was a garrulous, prattling man, who told wonderful taleswhile he shaved his customers, but was a good fellow at heart. It was he who extracted the fish-bone from the hunchback's throat, and brought him back to life. The barber insisted on being given the title of " The Silent," and made so much noise about it that one sultan told him_to take the title, 9 but to leave the country forthwith and never again return.

In mediaeval times in England, barber. 5 were surgeons. Besides razors and scissors, they carried about- with them sets of lances and knives, with which they performed operations, sometimes in a very crude manner. The twisted or spiral ribbons on bar' bers' n-oles even in these days symbolise the winding of ,a ribbon round the arm previous to blood-letting. There -was a time when the barbers of London had a much more influential association than the unions of the present time. The Company of Barber-Surgeons was first incorporated by Edward IV. in 1461, but in the next century its name was changed to "Company of Barbers and Surgeons," and the practitioners of v barbery " were restricted to the drawing of teeth. Later on, again, the two callings became further separated, and it was decreed that the trade or business of a barber was foreign to the practice of surgery and independent of it. The connection between the two bodies was then, in 1545, dissolved for ever. But the barbers of London retain their ancient privileges and rights, or, at any rate, the semblance of them, and annually they msefc in the old hall in MonkweU Street, Cripplegate, which they possessed before the surgeons were disunited from them.

Barbers have lived in every age, every climate, -and nearly eveiy civilised country. They are mentioned' in numerous standard works of literature, from the Book of Ezekielto Rossini's opera," Figaro," and many people will remember that it was-, a barber's basin which good old Don Quixote used as a- helmet.

Nowadays barbers follow a much humbler calling than formerly, though they can boast- of havine; given rise to the great Army Medical Corps and to the College of Surgeons. * Even their present humble calling is not what it should be. Besides tht decadence of taste in hair-dressing, private Shaving is prevalent, and some particularly degenerate men get their wives to cut thenhair. " And I hope this practice won't become universal," said a master hairdresser solemnly to the Conciliation Board on Thursday.