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Hairdressing & barbering

K

Kandor

Guest
It was a thing back then in the 50's..
Oh I know the saying came from the War years with the forces etc but I can only apply it to the years I first became aware of the stuff my family put on their hair.
My Dad always had this unruly tuft that stuck up at the back of his head, the funny part was Dad only put the brylcream on that bit..
Me and my brothers suffered it too..There were two types of Butchers shops in those days..the ones that sold meat and the ones that cut my hair..
I honestly think David Blunkett could have cut my hair better than these guys..They did two styles...short back and sides and hide in the cupboard for a week...
Then to compound the error they put that much brylcream on me I went home leaking more oil than the Torey Canyon.
Pat Egan laughed at me the one time, oh sure, these days the spikey hair look can be seen on lots of people..but this was the early 60's and I sat there in class looking like a red hedgehog..
Uncle Les used Vaseline on his head, he put that much on him we were kept awake all night as he slid in and out of his bed..
David used soap to hold his down ..not for long though, he went bald by the time he was 30...hmm..I wonder why?
Its the blue rinse brigade that kill me though..
Why anyone decides blue hair makes them look a tad more appealing to other folks is beyond me..
Apologies of course to Pom, Sheila, Grace, Mary and Diana... 8)
 
Hi Kandor, My husband still uses Brylcreme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!But now he has no quiff to curl :lol: He shaves his head very short but insists that using the stuff helps to darken the grey :eek: Jackie
 
Be careful, be very careful dear Kandor. The "Blue Rinse Brigade" on this site are more than a match for you lads. It's funny though the older I get the more blonde I seem to become, must be something to do with hormones ! :roll: Anyway whats wrong with a tight blue perm and bangs ? And before you start thats an old word for big hair rolls on the forehead circa 1940's.
 
Too right Grace. The only thing that's blue round here is the sky. Mind you maybe nest week......... :D

You are too young to remember Len Hutton Kandyman, now he WAS a brylcreme boy, eh gals 8)
 
:D Both my brother and my Dad used the stuff - Did not brylcreme come
in a glass jar with a black screw top and a red label? and was there not also another product that was the same stuff that came in a glass jar with a green top and green label called Bryllianteen or something like that :?: I’m sure Dad used the really old make (brylcreme) and Ken the newer one (Brilliantine) not sue why that was as they both had the same effect on the hair and the pillow slips – maybe it was so they knew whose was who. My brother also used mom’s metal wavers on the front of his hair at night how he ever slept god only knows, he did end up with a quiff to die for 8) .
Now Kandy you know very well I do not colour my long hair, as I have no need to for some reason it has not gone grey yet, just a few appear in my fringe from time to time and as they get cut short they don’t show up much, must have something to do with all those carrots I eat and long blue hair would look a little odd don’t you think :?: .
 
My mother had a collection of 'chair backs' which she had lovingly embroidered to stop my Dad making greasy marks on the furniture.If I remember rightly they were almost always of Ladies in crinoline dresses walking in cottage gardens.I don't know who made the most marks Dad with his Brylcreem or Mom with her Amami setting lotion.The clashing of their perfumes was an experience as well,Old Spice and Californian Poppy,who could forget.
 
80 years ago BRYLCREEM Originally called Elite and developed by (County Chemicals Co Ltd Birmingham) first went on sale.

Today it is sold in 46 Countries around the world.

Makes you feel good don't it
 
Re: Brum Brylcreem Boom

My brothers both used it. I remember one day my brother was getting ready to go out. After applying his brylcreem he automatically went and wiped his hands on the bedroom curtains:rolleyes:, His big mistake was he was talking to Mom at the time:explode:.
 
Brycreem Boys have included Denis Compton to David Beckham

And me....my first jar of Brylcreem...I had previously used lard...but it attracted the flies.
 
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where I came from most lads used lard, in the summer or hot dance hall it melted and ran down there faces.ukkkkkk.
paul
 
Every Christmas I bought my brother a small bottle of Brylcreem from Woolies and he swears blind that that was the cause of his hair loss!!!!
 
I studied a branch of history called 'Public History'. In a nutshell Public history is: 'all the means deliberate and otherwise, through which those who are not professional historians acquire their sense of the past'.

The way I see England is not through the linage of the royal family blood line, but through the the lifes of ordinary people and their families. A lot of people often feel that their pasts are not important enough to make history, however this is not the case, and with the growth in the quest to know one’s self, there has been a quite a prolific growth in people interested in their own history as a way of understanding the question of who they are.

Family history’s can bring together people’s relationship with the past, uncovering awealth of stories, histories of everyday family life, both engaging people and opening dialogs with the past. Researching one’s own family history involves talking to one’s own family, parents and grandparents. History, stories and experiences from a family member bring the past to life and help people connect with the past and propagate historical desire. Family histories can also tell remarkable stories about peoples lives.

Who knows what researching a family history will uncover? The important thing here,is that it is taster of history that will quite often grow into a five course banquet, leaving this new historian hungry for more, expanding outwardly an historical culture, helping to bring the past forward into a useable history, therefore changing people relationship with the past.

A lot of the work I have done when studying peoples relationships with the past, is to test out past activities and ways of doing things; skills and past knowledge.These skills can give us a direct link with the past, and allow us the engage with it, and make the past a useable past.

One of the skills I have been testing is shaving with a cut throat (open) razor, so I was wondering, are there any forum members who still used one, can remember their dad or granddad using a cut throat; does anyone still own a cut throat razor belonging to a past family member?

I have chosen the cut throat razor because is just like many other common everyday objects from the past; we now no longer use them, but accept them into ourlives because they have always been there. As with any everyday personal object, it can be seen and looked at for precisely what it is, in terms of its functionality, thejob it was designed to do, it’s historical value, who made it, where and how. Finally it can have a personal value; being a very personal object it can give usmessages from its dead owner.

I apologiseif this message is a bit long and worldly, I could go on about a razor that belonge to my grandad.... but I just love the past, and tend to get carried away with it.
 
Morturn I remember my uncle Harry having a cut throat razor and he used to sharpen it on a leather belt if I am correct?. He would rub it up and down. It frightened me to death as every time he used it his face would bleed. Jean.
 
never used one myself and neither did my dad, but I remember the "Teddy boys" down the Mecca and Locano carrying them.
paul
 
I can remember my grandad having one and like Jean, he used a leather strap - called a strop I think - to sharpen it on? Don't remember dad having one, but will ask him tomorrow, the Turkish barber in town has one though and he looks deadly with it lol!!
Sue
 
That is correct, the leather belt; called a strop, is used to sharpen the razor. They certainly do need a high level of skill to use and maintain, when I was learning managed to put a 2" cut down the side of my face. In those days your dad taught you how to shave.

It is also interesting about the 'teddy boys' carrying cut throats, A cut throat was almost part of their identity, as much as the crepe shoes and velvet collars.
 
My grandfather also used a cut throat razor well into the 1950's but I only remember my father using a safety razor.

I remember that he used to re-use his safety razor blades by resharpening them. He would take the blade out of the razor and rub it along a thick piece of bright red glass that looked as if it was cut from the side of a beer bottle. It obviously wasn't as it was the wrong colour and had moulded edges.

He'd rub the blade a few times up and down the inside curve of the glass and then turn the blade over and do the other side. The curvature of the glass presumably wore a new cutting edge onto the blade.

I assume that it was a means of prolonging the life of blades during WWII when, being made of metal, they were probably difficult to come by. He continued the practice long after the end of the war, though - he was always careful with his money.

I reckon he'd have met his match with today's multiple bladed wet-razors.
 
It is remarkable that the invention of the disposable razorblade opened the market up to a large number of razor blade sharpening inventions.

People would use the inside of a glass tumbler, or the famous Lillicrap's Hone, made around 1930. They were made from green glass, which when Lillicrap's discovered the green colour came from Uranium quickly used this as a marketing method.

I also have some interesting intricate mechanical devices for sharpening razor blades. I'll have a go at filming it working if anyone is interested.
 
Hi Morturn,
I remember (vaguely) my Grandfather having a little machine to sharpen his blade. He reckoned to get a year out a blade with this. He told us that you could no longer buy the machines because Gillette bought up the patent, for obvious reasons!
Cheers,
Stan
 
I remember watching Grandad use his Cut Throat razor, and hardly daring to breathe in case he did just that!! He would carefully sharpen it with his belt, which he hung over a hook in the kitchen, stroking it alternately on each side.

I have one which has a broken blade, but is very useful for odd jobs. They sometime had ornate handles, like mine, which is black and "carved", and has it's own leather case.

(You can sharpen scissors by closing them round the neck of a glass bottle as though you were trying to cut the top off!!!)

rosie.
 
Thats correct the old teddy boys used to carry them the aston and the king standing teddy boys but on the whole
they was never much trouble from there it would have been a rare case if some-one attacked with them the old teddy boys of king standing used to use to old bed springs in gang fights
and the only time ever recorded was the teddy boys appeared at the aston cross picture house to see the one and only blly hayley not only rocked around the clock but rock the teddy boys and they dance down the isles and slashed all the seats in the house my old man used the stropp and the blade astonian
 
Does anyone remember the Rolls Razor? It was enclosed in its own container and it was sharpened by moving the handle back and forth.
 
I have a roles razor, most junk shops sell them, they must have made thousands.

The roles razor seems to bring to mind a guy called John Bloom; washing machines. think it all went bankrupt in a big way.
 
John Bloom,bought out Rolls Razor company mmainly I think to obtain their good name. As you say they made washing machines. These were (I believe) sold mainly by doorstep salesmen whose methods , if they were anything like my Cousin who worked for them, would not be acceptable today - thank goodness
 
I have a Rolls Razor on a curiosity shelf and figured out how to use it but have never done so. I use an electric trimmer on my beard...it has a trim depth control and does a quick job. Barbers still use the open blade to trim around hair with a little warm lather. The Rolls was not a 'cheap and nasty' device and I was suprised how much weight there was to the total unit. Chrome plated box and ingenious method of operation to reverse the blade on the back stroke when sharpening. Can't think that the total unit would have given a great shave thouigh but remember guys swearing by them....er...through the snicks and whisker stubs.
Can't agree with your disertation on family look-ups here. They are of interest only to the requester generally in my opinion and the history involved is encompassed by that unit pretty much in total. You can make a glossy case for anything...it does not make it so.
 
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