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Hairdressing & barbering

Completely sympathise Lady P. Was a major job to get the stuff out. What a relief when the lighter hairsprays came on the market. I could get through a can of the stuff in no time (well actually my mum's cans of spray!).

Wouldn't want our male members to feel left out. A couple of products that might be familiar. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Back to the ladies. Remember these. They claimed you could sleep in them due to the soft sponge. Wrong! They were still uncomfortable. However a vast improvement on the earlier spiky rollers with pin to secure it. Think the sponge variety came in about mid-1960s/70s. My mum also had some round rubber curlers with each end collapsing into the other to secure the hair. Never saw her use those. Don't think she can have liked them. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Viv, I think they were called "Spoolies". I had some but damp hair didn't dry inside them and dry hair didn't curl!
My mother used to put pipe cleaners in my hair, usually one side would look like a poodle and the other side was straight where they came loose in the night.
rosie.
 
I didn't suffer with pipe cleaners Rosie, but I did look glamorous on a Friday night with my hair put into rags. I held one half of the 'rag' over my head while Mom wound a long lock tightly round the other half then the half I'd been holding would be wrapped even more tightly over the hair. This was done all round my head. I would start the week with a dozen ringlets but they would diminish as the week went on until I was left with one long one by the following Friday.
 
devonjim said:
I notice that a local hairdresser is offering "Hot towel shaves". Long time since I have seen that. I suppose they have introduced disposable razors. I last had such a shave in a village shop in the High Pyrenees, early 60's. Cost all of 6d!
Does anyone else remember when a hairdresser would pass a lighted taper over to seal the cut ends at the back of the neck?
Click to expand...
About once a month in 1953/4 a group of us used to go to a guy called 'The Prof who would ensure we all had flat tops with DAs but on a trip to London, by train from Snow Hill, a King hauling 12 passenger coaches and one composite, we found the barber's at Paddington Station, shave, hot towels, haircut after shampoo and the final touch the burning taper, horrible smell but no pain and my goodness we were the best, booted and suited, we then went to see the lad himself Tony Hancock at the Palladium, came home on a very slow train. The worst part, the cost of those haircuts, but we then found a barber in Town, in the City Centre, cannot remember where, who gave us the same as at Paddington at half the price. Anybody any idea who or where? In comparison to the pounds we paid for this, the Prof charged 2/6d (12.5p) and the barber in Boldmere bottom of Antrobus Road charged 1/-...you work it out.
Bob
 
As ever, only just caught up with this page re Hairdressers. My father, uncle and their father (my g'father) before them had Knight's Barbers in Ethel Street (off New Street and alongside the Forum Cinema). The saloon stretched from Ethel Street to Colonade Passage which was alongside the Theatre Royal. Dad told me that he cut the hair of quite a few celebs appearing at the Theatre Royal and the CBSO from the Town Hall.
As a lad I remember seeing the hair singeing and the Knight's Hair Cream ( made on the premises I think). Dried on your hair like cement! Having a Hairdressing Father, I didn't pay for a haircut until I was detained at her Majesty's pleasure for 2 years in Catterick!
Development saw the end of the lease and business in the 1950's
Neville Knight
 
Billy Haden was my barber, his shop across from Harding Bakery on Church Road now a Tesco store or some such. I remember he had condoms for sale!!!
 
Bob Davis said:
Anything for the weekend sir?
Bob
Click to expand...
Further to this remark, I left it without comment, but can remember as naive grammar school boy 1947 to 1952 I went mainly to the barber's on Boldmere Road at the bottom of Antrobus Road and for years I was puzzled as to why the elderly ex military barber's asked this question so many times of all the men in the shop, but never offered us boys anything. More surprising was when instead of 1/9d (they aĺl used to give a florin and keep the change) and then half a crown for their weekend treat. Came back from National Service and the half crown treats were no longer offered, any way you did not get many sweets in those small purple packs. If we had had them they would never have lasted, they would have been eaten before we got home. Well my Dad whose every word I believed told me they were grown up sweets, just for men like those little perfumed cashews my nan ate were for women
Bob
 
Vivienne14 said:
View attachment 106162 This is a right swanky gents hairdressers. It's W J Greatrex on New Street. Quality establishment looking at the fixtures and fittings, as well as a little luxury with the rugs, cane chairs etc. For some reason I imagine it might be linked to a hotel, but it may not be, just a hunch. Viv.
Click to expand...
My father worked there as a barber in the 1920's. Always wondered what it looked like inside. Thanks for the photo.
 
Bob Johnson said:
Pruden's did have a shop on the corner of Icknield st and Cberamden st in the sixties, on the same side as Bulpitt's.
Click to expand...
I assume this was a men's barbers. If it was I used to go there in a lunch time when I was an apprentice at Wilmot Breedons in Camden St in the early 60's
 
devonjim said:
I notice that a local hairdresser is offering "Hot towel shaves". Long time since I have seen that. I suppose they have introduced disposable razors. I last had such a shave in a village shop in the High Pyrenees, early 60's. Cost all of 6d!
Does anyone else remember when a hairdresser would pass a lighted taper over to seal the cut ends at the back of the neck?
Click to expand...
I can remember the smell of burnt hair when other customers had it done but I have never had it done myself'
 
In the 50's my mom went to a hairdressers on the Wolverhampton Rd. opp. Warley Odeon. The ladies sat in cubicles with curtains all the way round. How times have changed!
 
I never had a pudding hair cut, but thinking about it was veering towards the pudding look. Always had a slide or have pictures of me with a ribbon when I was a child.
I remember my first professional hair cut at 15 at a hairdresser in Hawthorne Road, Kingstanding .Hair cut short in a style wasn’t I the bees knees. This was 1962/63
Then you needed rollers, and oh the pain sleeping in them At 16 want to go blonde, my Dad went ballistic, and so I kind of had it lighten bit by but, but never blonde until I was 45.
Husband pics when a child talk about short back and sides, and enough goo on to fry chips, this hair cut remained the same without the goo until it started to fallout, about the same time I went blonde.
So during the lockdowns we became inventive outcome the clippers for my husband seemed simple a no 1 or 2 not sure what, but it was like the next step up from shaving the head. Well after a few tries ,and a little uneven patches, my husband finally gave up on me Sent for some super duper clippers, and he now buzzes his own hair with the occasional tweak from me. He said he’s never going back to the barber as if £5 OAP rate will bankrupt a barber even in these hard times.
I let him cut my hair just once, my solution was to have it cut very short when lockdown was lifted , I know completely white, but have pink streaks in. Oldest son when I was freshly streaked pink says I look like a raspberry ripple, even though he’s 50 what do kids know.
Oh I brought rollers, but not to sleep in. So what goes around come around.
Husband looked horrified what you got in your hair.
All stay safe
Diane
 
Diane1947 said:
I never had a pudding hair cut, but thinking about it was veering towards the pudding look. Always had a slide or have pictures of me with a ribbon when I was a child.
I remember my first professional hair cut at 15 at a hairdresser in Hawthorne Road, Kingstanding .Hair cut short in a style wasn’t I the bees knees. This was 1962/63
Then you needed rollers, and oh the pain sleeping in them At 16 want to go blonde, my Dad went ballistic, and so I kind of had it lighten bit by but, but never blonde until I was 45.
Husband pics when a child talk about short back and sides, and enough goo on to fry chips, this hair cut remained the same without the goo until it started to fallout, about the same time I went blonde.
So during the lockdowns we became inventive outcome the clippers for my husband seemed simple a no 1 or 2 not sure what, but it was like the next step up from shaving the head. Well after a few tries ,and a little uneven patches, my husband finally gave up on me Sent for some super duper clippers, and he now buzzes his own hair with the occasional tweak from me. He said he’s never going back to the barber as if £5 OAP rate will bankrupt a barber even in these hard times.
I let him cut my hair just once, my solution was to have it cut very short when lockdown was lifted , I know completely white, but have pink streaks in. Oldest son when I was freshly streaked pink says I look like a raspberry ripple, even though he’s 50 what do kids know.
Oh I brought rollers, but not to sleep in. So what goes around come around.
Husband looked horrified what you got in your hair.
All stay safe
Diane
Click to expand...
hi..Diana ....since the LD i do my own now a number 0 all over, i try'd to shave my head one night,and when i got up in the morning there was blood all over my pillow.:worried: so never again .when i was a kid we had the basin cut,we looked like the 3 studges. then the short back and sided. and then a boston. .....no shampoo needed now just a quick wash with soap.
i sure have saved a lot of dosh.:grinning:
 
All my life I have hated having my hair cut, so as a child, I always had a "mommy-cut", but she didn't do too bad a job of it. But my childhood friends all knew that my mother cut both my hair and that of my younger brother, and somehow (probably because someone blabbed) I acquired the nickname "coconuthead" at school. I can't say that my head was shaped like a coconut because I've never seen two that looked the same! :) On the other hand........

So I guess it was when I first started work that I first went to a barber and at the age of 16 got my first obligatory "Something for the weekend, sir?". That set my mind going with "does he think they only do it at the weekend?" or "does he think I'm a sex maniac?". :p National Service gave me my first experience of the "lawnmower cut" and the still cold air of a British late May as the wicked wind whistled around my ears on the parade ground!

By the 1960s, long hair was in, I had moved to Bournemouth, was working as a musician, and it was the in-thing to have longish hair. By 1969 I had my own business and thought it time to at least attempt to smarten myself up a little, although I employed a saleman so had little visual contact with my customers. On the main road just around the corner from my premises, Ann Diamond's sister had opened a unisex hairdressers and I vaguely knew her & her then husband, a semi-pro tenor sax player, so I waltzed in and said "Sue, can you do anything with this", pointing to my hair. She washed it and then said "Why are you still combing is backwards?". So Sue restyled it, not too short at the back, and she cut my hair for the next ten years, and it's bean a variant of that ever since.

To keep this tale shortish. I now have a young Greek lady, Eleni, who comes to the house - she's married with two young children - but during lockdown this has been strictly verboten, so now its getting rather long at the back and I need to give her a call. When the sun is out, she's cuts it on the verandah and the wind disposes of the unwanted hair, and right now I can't wait to get rid of it.

Maurice :cool:
 
In the early 60’s there were quite a lot of men’s hairdresser shops, all of them working full time. My local was Lanes on the corner of Turfpits Land and Perry Common Road, opposite the Golden Cross. These shops would do clipper style cuts all day long and the occasional shave. Lanes had three fulltime hairdressers whereas a young boy, whatever the style of haircut I asked for, I always ended up with a short back and sides.

The barber would spray it with water and Btylcreem and squeeze a little quiff on the firing. The hairs down the back of your neck would irritate you for the rest of the day. With the popularity of the Beatles, I popped in one days and asked for a Beatles cut. I ended up with short back and sides. I am sure my mate’s mom sent him back one day for not cutting it shout enough, so can understand why the barber would scalp you.

As the fashion for long hair grew, the barbers’ shops declined. Lanes Barbers took up permeant residence at Highcroft Hall Hospital cutting patents hair. The shops that survived were the once who adopted to the longer hairstyles, a good one was Brian’s on Stockland Green, he had a place above the ladies shop on Slade Road and then subsequently move to a shop on Marsh Lane opposite the Plaza.

Today, I go to the Turkish Barber in Moseley and have the full works. Head, beard and eyebrows followed by a hot towel wet shave. It quite a teat.
 
Then ...
A childhood memory is watching a barber light a taper and look as if he was going set fire to some bloke's hair. He was of course just singeing the ends.

In my late teens I thought I would be smart and visit a posh hair salon in Lewis's. The head barber looked at my scalp and said if I didn't have some 'electro treatment' he was offering I would be bald by the time I was 30. He was wrong!

Then National Service in the RAF where my first haircut was more like a sheep shearing session with the floor thick with hair.

I got married and my late wife being a hairdresser cut my hair at home for 40 years.

Now ...
I live alone and since lockdown I've trimmed my own hair with computer assistance.

My Kit
W10 computer with 24" screen.
C310 detachable webcam.
Swivel chair.
My late wife's adjustable clippers.

Method
Sit at the computer and do a twirl to see back and sides and record it to see what needs to be done.
Fix the webcam on stand behind chair to clearly see the back..
Set the clippers and trim the back with a clear view on screen and see my hands move the way I expect.
Set clippers to close-trim neck.
Reposition webcam for side views and clip as necessary.
Shower, tidy-up, and vacuum hairs off the keyboard etc ... this was the boring bit.
Put webcam back on the screen and record a twirl to see the result.

Marked myself 9/10 for most recent trim ...:)

I ruffle my hair each morning and if a bit sticks up on top I cut a tiny bit off ... little and often.

When lockdown ends I will go back to the barbers .. they do the tidy up .. :grinning:
 
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