• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Hairdressing & barbering

Has anyone heard of the Pyramid method of sharpening safety razor blades ? just place your old blade beneath a compass aligned pyramid and overnight it becomes sharp. Food will supposedly last longer if kept under a pyramid. I can already feel those raised eyebrows and knowing looks Arkrite gets plenty off youngsters and the not so young.
Though WW2 is a way back for some people local memories can cast long shadows. I know of a number of families in my area that had members dealing in the black market. In some peoples mind it was if it was only yesterday. No one likes it spread around that granddad was a black marketeer. The odd pig was one thing but wholesale butter sales another.You still to need tread carefully in case you crush tender toes.
 
Yes Arkrite, I have heard about the "Pyramid Theory"!! (I'm used to the raised eyebrows too!!) I believe they were on sale in the 1970's?
 
I can still picture dad standing at the sink (1940s & 50s) stripped to the waist, braces hanging down shaving with a cut throat - he always used one. During the first World War a fellow soldier asked him for a shave but unfortunately the guy moved and received a terrible cut -"filling a fire bucket with blood". Dad would have been on a charge if he hadn't been sent to the Front at that time.

I remember most Teddy boys wore studded belts (on top of one to hold up their drain pipes) rather than razors
 
When I started in hairdressing in 1968 my boss was an Italian lady named Carmen, that was the name of the shop in Four Oaks. She had trained in Italy as a barber and always used a cut throat razor to cut hair. I must admit it was magical to watch her she was so skillful with it. She would cut her English husbands hair with it and shave him. This was only done out of hours as there were no unisex hairdressers then. As has been mentioned she would sharpen the razors on a leather strap then put them away in a small pouch. We were only allowed to use safety razors to cut hair. Funny the things that stay with you as a memory.
 
I read somewhere that generally Cut throats were used by barbers as they were V difficult to use on your own face.Most men didn't shave in the week. Toffs grew moustaches and beards and sideboards. The American King Gillette invented the safety razor and gave a razor to all the American Troops in WW1 so when they went home they all bought his blades.
 
This trade card for Platts of 40 Dale End shows all the different services a dresser of hair might offer in the mid-1800s.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1422785266.811313.jpg

One interesting service is their plaiting and weaving service. They worked with jewellers to produce all sorts of items, but I've seen some items come up on the Antiques Roadshow etc where a piece was produced from the hair of a person after they had passed away.

The embellishments around the card look like the sort of items they produced, all plaited or woven hair set in pieces of jewellery.

I wondered why they specifically mentioned they attended to boarding schools. Maybe this was either a contract to cut a number of pupils hair at once or maybe parents could arrange for their children's hair to be cut through Mr Platt.

And the proprietor has a most fitting name for his trade too!

Does anyone have any of these pieces of jewellery in their families? Viv.
 
Lovely advert Vivienne. A lot of mourning jewellery contains plaited and woven hair. It's very intricate. I agree with you it would be more worthwhile visiting a boarding school as, all the clients are in one place more profitable.
 
What a pretty card Vivienne! Hair-woven jewellery is so beautiful, I saw some in a little museum a few years ago.
A few of my ancestors were hairdressers in Ladywood and one was a wig-maker too.
rosie.
 
It's one of the few services still on our High Streets. In our town we have at least 8 hairdressers and barbers. And of course they're unlikely to disappear like so many other services.

In the 1960s and 70s my friends and I were forever trying out all sorts of looks. This was all helped along by having our own home 'sit-under' hairdryer. But they took forever to dry your hair and were terrifyingly unbalanced machines. It was usually quicker to dry it with the hand-held hairdryer. I remember when all ladies hair salons only had the sit-under type of dryer, there was no 'blow drying' in those days.

My mum had friends in the business and got me a lovely hairpiece, perfectly matched to my hair colour. I think it was made of human hair and styled so well. Always wore it on a night out. But it had to be planned in advance so that it was rollered up the night before. It sat on the back of my head with tumbling curls. I loved it.

Viv.
 
Shave Sir! A photo from Astonbrook-through-Astonmanor.co.uk. 1 Clarendon Street in the 1930s. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1422993460.111400.jpg
 
There must have been a hairdressing salon, called The Ravel, in Hall Green in 1963, but I do not know exactly where. It was traditional at Christmas for friends and customers to contribute presents at the salon for old people. A newspaper cutting of the time reports some presents being handed over by Frankie Vaughan to the owner of the salon, Mrs.R. Hill. Frankie Vaughan was starring in "Puss in Boots" at the Birmingham Hippodrome. At a party in Greet, the presents were given to 110 old people. Dave.
 
This c1920 photo of Purden's Hairdressing claims to be in Birmingham (it's for sale on eBay suggesting it's possibly Pershore Road, Icknield Street or Beaumont Road). What a lot of bottled hair products in the window. They're advertising ladies bobbed or shingled hair - very 1920s Charleston! Viv.

View attachment 102046
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    85.4 KB · Views: 34
Last edited:
Vivienne14 said:
This c1920 photo of Purden's a Hairdressing claims to be in Birmingham (it's for sale on eBay suggesting it's possibly Pershore Road, Icknield Street or Beaumont Road). What a lot of bottled hair products in the window. They're advertising ladies bobbed or shingled hair - very 1920s Charleston! Viv.

View attachment 102046
Click to expand...
It's interesting that the hairdresser's is called a "hair cutting saloon". I thought that the term "salon" was used even in the 1920s. Dave.
 
Vivienne14 said:
This c1920 photo of Purden's Hairdressing claims to be in Birmingham (it's for sale on eBay suggesting it's possibly Pershore Road, Icknield Street or Beaumont Road). What a lot of bottled hair products in the window. They're advertising ladies bobbed or shingled hair - very 1920s Charleston! Viv.

View attachment 102046
Click to expand...
Pruden's did have a shop on the corner of Icknield st and Camden st in the sixties, on the same side as Bulpitt's.
 
Hi viv;
they sure was on the corner right next to old bulpitts i only lived up the road there just uppassed spring hill libary ;
on the corner of kingedwards rd i used to go there from the age of 12 years old
even then in thou,s days window packed with brl cream eventualy i went up the opersite way towards the monument rail way station and started to go to them ;; alan;;
 
image.jpeg 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.
 
In 1940 Kelly's W J Greatrex hairdrssrs is at 111A New Street. 111 is listed as The White House (with a lot of businesses named). 110 is Aertex (Oliver Bros Ltd) outfitters.
They are also listed there in 1915 but no hotel that I can see.
Janice
 
Thanks Janice. It looks like very large premises. 111A sounds like an additional/annex building, or part of a larger shared building. Hard to imagine where this was on New Street. Shall have to have a look at a map. Viv.
 
nice photo viv...i would also like to know exactly where it was on new st...looks very grand to m

lyn
 
I would think 111A must have been the small (part of) building in red
 

Attachments

  • map c 1950 showing 111A new st.jpg
    map c 1950 showing 111A new st.jpg
    129.5 KB · Views: 16
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?
 
Last edited:
Viv, I had long, floppy hair which, according to my mother, 'always bent the other way', she would put my hair in rags on a Friday so hat I had ringlets for the weekend and then put these grips in the front. For some reason she was always 'rather firm' with them and I felt like a scraped earwig by the time she's done. Happy days!
 
I couldn`t afford hairspray as a teenager, so i would rub some soap onto my wet hands & rub my soapy hands through my hair, & it would stay in place all day, unless some lovely lass wanted to rub her hands through it. I tried to go for the Elvis look, but had to settle for the Tony Curtis look instead. :-}
 
Smudger, talking of hairproducts - I used to buy my hair lacquer from Erdington market. I think it was about 1/-, it was a refill and you had to decant it into the spray. None of this aerosol malarky in those days. And it was lacquer - stiff as a board. I used to stick my 'kiss-curls' to my cheeks with it but then couldn't get the comb through so had to resort to a solution of borax and water before I could wash my hair.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top