BIG PREMIUMS AND HAIR

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 5, 2 November 1925, Page 45

BIG PREMIUMS AND HAIR

r J 'HERE is a serious side, it -*■ seems, to hairdressing. There are false pretences to be found in the business as well as false hair, and many a young woman has found this out to her cost. And some of the cases are rather pitiable. Put quite crudely, the trouble in the hair-dressing business is that certain members are taking pupils at a premium and guaranteeing to teach them the art in three or six months and to turn them out ready for a situation at £3 to £4 a week. Now, it cannot be . done. These people might as well promise to make their pupils into University graduates in six months as fullytrained hair-dressers. My guide, philosopher and friend in matters relating to the hair tells me that during the war he was approached by a representative of the Governmenta woman —who talked airily of hairdressing as “a nice easy business to learn” and asked for information as to where girls could be trained in six months to

earn their living. My friend’s reply was to show her the work of a hairdresser in all its different phases and send her away a sadder and a wiser woman. CO widely is this inefficient train- _ Hg in exchange for a big premium being practised to-day, and so great is the extent of the evil wrought through the inefficientlytrained themselves turning round, when they find their money gone and a situation as far off as ever, and practising the same hoax on others, that some steps should be taken to put a stop to such practises. The scandal of taking premiums has been gone into thoroughly by the Incorporated- Guild of Hairdressers, Wigmakers, and Perfumers of Great Britain, and although plans are still under discussion the members seem to be agreed that an apprenticeship of three to four years is needed for men’s hairdressing alone and a period of four years at least for women’s work, which is more difficult.