History of Barbering - Part 2

Continuing on with the second installment of this series, we pick up in the 1930s and discuss business practices, barber ethics, and the "dark ages" of barbering in the US. Come take a journey with me.... back in TIME! 

Transcript

Bree 0:03

Welcome back to Philosophy of the Barber. Today is part two of our History of Barbering segment. We're gonna dive into some more really old textbooks that I have available. Last episode we covered a lot of uh the Barber's Manual, A. B. Moeller publications. Today we're gonna be hitting uh a very old uh Malady textbook from 1931, along with one of the standardized textbooks of barbering uh published by the Associated Master Barbers of America, also from 1931. And then we'll touch briefly on the textbook Practical and Scientific Barbering for Journeyman Barbers, hairdressers, cosmetologists, and proprietors, International Union of America. So that's what we're gonna touch on today, and maybe maybe if we have time, we'll touch on some fun little things that I've also found on the internet. So let's start out with the Milady textbook. It's the Modern Beauty and Barber Science by Smith and Rockwood. And I kinda really enjoy touching on the shop management and barber ethics portions, because I I find that out of the mass amounts of information that have been added to textbooks over the years, given the scientific finds and developments, uh those tend to be the most applicable universally. So let's let's touch on those a little bit. I'll I'll read you uh probably a page, page and a half. It says shop management. The practice of beauty and barber science is a profession, but the operation of a shop is a business and should be conducted as efficiently as any other commercial enterprise. Be professional in your services to your patrons, but be businesslike in the operation of your shop. Only a combination of the two methods can ensure success. Professional talent and ethics must combine with sales, ability, and progressiveness if you are to measure up to the standards necessary to reap the full profit from your investment. Many factors enter into the success or failure of a shop. Veteran shop owners looking for a new location, young dermiticians graduating from training schools, and ambitious employees who feel that their clientele is well enough established to warrant their opening a shop and working for themselves have many things to consider before going into business. Ambition alone is not sufficient to ensure success in the operation of a shop. Location is just as important as ambition, and shop equipment is equally vital. A shop owner, however ambitious, established in a poor location with inadequate equipment is predestined to failure. Before going into business, you should carefully analyze the possibilities of the location you have chosen. Count the number of shops in the same business in the neighborhood, learn what class of goods they sell, estimate as closely as possible the number of persons who will pass your windows each day, and the number of families in the neighborhood from which you may expect to draw trade. Every element of doubt and speculation should be removed if you are to be sure of building a successful business. Now, let's taking a breakout here. I can't necessarily say that I agree with everything in that page. Um yes, I agree that uh ambition is not all that it takes to be successful in business. Um, but the times have changed since 1931. Uh, shocking. But this is coming from a time when you were a barbershop in a neighborhood. Um I imagine this is coming from someone who is thinking more along the lines of a city since uh looks like the previous owner lived in Pennsylvania and it was published in New York. I imagine who was writing this was thinking, alright, well, in cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, any large metropolis like that, you're gonna have pockets in the city where you can get everything when you live there. So everything's within an easy walking distance. That's where your patronage is gonna be pulled from, is your neighborhood. If you are in a more rural area, like in the Midwest, or up here in northern New England, or, you know, out west, like Arizona and such, you might have the experience of having less than a handful of shops in your given town or city. Uh, so I don't think that necessarily applies because my shop specifically draws from other counties. Now, New Hampshire is a small state, so depending on where you're from, a county might sound like a large area, it might sound like a small area. Um, but here that's it's kind of a big uh circumference to draw from. So, just my two cents on that. Shall we continue? Simplicity in shop furnishings, durable and dependable equipment, standardized preparations and services, cleanliness and sanitary practices are factors without which no shop can get along. Crisp curtains, polished showcases, and freshly painted woodwork are essential to the attractiveness of the shop interior. Instruments should be dependable and, if electric, amply powered. Pause and give a little chuckle for the fact that they have the option of being electric still. If if you can use a hand clipper, please comment and let me know or send me a message, because I will be extremely impressed. And also jealous because um I couldn't find a left-handed hand clipper to save my life. There will be no time to adjust or repair an instrument after a treatment has begun. Before purchasing a machine, you should see it in operation under all circumstances. Your shop should have a system of standardized services. In whatever booth or chair the patron is seated, the service should be performed according to the standardized practices of the shop. The question has been asked: How would you conduct a shop to ensure sanitary conditions? It has been answered properly. I would maintain sufficient ventilation, good light, both natural and artificial, hot and cold running water, clean walls, floor and ceiling, and ensure competence with state sanitary laws. I do believe none of those things can be argued with. Every barbershop should have those minimum. Alright, then it goes on to talk about bookkeeping and stuff, and that stuff is a giant snore for me. So thank you, my lady, from 1931. Very educational. Let's move on to the standardized textbook of barbering, published by the Associated Master Barbers of America. Now, right now I'm holding the third edition, which is probably the most easily found edition. Something tells me that there was some sort of a a boom in uh barbering around the early 30s, because this is like the easiest book to find on eBay. Everybody seems to be selling it. But also I think because it's really sturdy. Like early A. B. Moller barber manuals, harder to find because they're not made quite as well, and they're tiny books, like you can easily slip it into a bucket. But these ones are more like an old school textbook, the way you would imagine. And really, really, really well made. And the embossing and stuff on the on the covers are just so nice. Um the quote for Barber Unions is or the Associated Master Barbers of America union is uh it pays to look well. And for all the standardized textbook publications, they always start on the copyright page with a wonderful illustration, which I'll put in the YouTube video if that's how you're listening to this. But it is a man standing at the bottom of a staircase. At his feet are balls and chains with shackles that have been unshackled from his legs. And at his feet says the word ignorance. He's looking up the staircase. The staircase says education. And at the top of said staircase is the goal, which is a city in the distance, saying professional recognition. And the quote at the bottom is there will be no elevation without education. And I remember in barber school, the first time I saw that, I just thought that was so cool, and kinda wish they could throw that into today's barber textbooks. Anyway. So, from this textbook, let's let's read a little bit from the ethics of the barber. One word that is consistently and irremovably woven into the fabric of the barber business, and whose meaning applies in equal measure to employer and employee alike is ethics. In order to give, at the very beginning, an understandable definition of ethics, we quote from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. The science of mortal, or excuse me, moral duty, more broadly, the science of the ideal human character. The chief problems with which ethics deals concerns the origin and validity of the sense of duty and the character and authority of moral obligation. So it says, every business transaction, as well as every personal act, is subject to the rules of ethics. In the barber business, therefore, every contact with the patron gives opportunity for the observance or disregard of a high standard of honesty, responsibility, and service. The ethical barber is he who carries in his mind a picture of himself as the patron, with the patron's desires, needs, and attitude as a buyer. With that picture firmly fixed, he should not go wrong. Ethics inevitably indicates, in addition, the barber's outward attitude toward the business itself. As a result, he at all times is a champion of practices that reflect credit on the on our profession and not only ignores but opposes any and all practices that have no place in the ethical barbershop. With intelligence and earnestness, he offers, explains, and sells those things that are of actual benefit to the patron, letting nothing that detracts from a true professional standing enter into his conduct. You will remember in the definition the word character. Character involves the barber's attitude towards his associates in the shop. The ethical barber speaks only good of his fellows. If he cannot speak good, he says nothing. Reduced to common parlance, no ethical barber knocks another barber. He does not pick his customers either by rushing or holding back in order to get a favorite good spender, nor does he, by word or deed, cast reflections on his employer. The barber's presence in the shop is tangible evidence that he has cast his lot under the banner of his employer, and so owes to that employer unrestricted loyalty while he is pay, while in his pay. And to no less degree, the employer owes a similar duty to those who make the operation of his shop possible. Every operator is a as good as the other. In the ethical shop, there is no room for favoritism or dissension. The motive of one is the motive of all, to serve to the highest possible degree the obligation incurred by the patronage of those who seek service in the shop. In observance of this responsibility, the employer, if he speaks at all, keeps his expressions on an even level, from himself to his operators, and when speaking of his operators to any and all patrons. In recognition of the need and importance of the definite understanding of the relationship between the ethical barber shop and the public, the Associated Master Barbers of America, at its 1929 National Convention held in St. Paul, blah blah blah blah blah blah. We don't need to hear that. That's just a giant uh we've adopted a gi uh a code of ethics that we're going to, you know, put into all of our union shops. So. Sometimes I forget when there is a union attached to a publication that it is also a giant advertisement for them. So I can't say that there's anything in there that I disagree with. Um definitely some things that I I don't I don't consciously do, but unconsciously do. Like, for instance, I'm not a natural salesperson. Like I've never had a sales job. Um I happen to sell things in my shop because they serve a purpose, but that's because I'm a I'll say that I'm a practical to a fault. So anything in my shop, if it doesn't serve a purpose, you know, or have a function, then it probably shouldn't exist there. Like don't get me wrong. I I like the occasional, you know, aesthetically pleasing bit and piece. Uh but if those uh exist in the shop, they're usually affixed to a wall. Uh they're certainly not taking up space. Uh, but uh definitely we sell things that serve a function, so it's the yes, I can tell you why you might want to buy this. With the exception of shop merchandise, which I've always struggled with. Uh t-shirts and hoodies and pine glasses and those sorts of things. Like, if you want to support your shop and their merch, then you're going then you're going to buy it. Like, because you've already made that decision. I'm never going to successfully convince someone that they need a t-shirt that has the shop logo on it. Or the pint glass with the shop emblem. Uh if you want that, then you're gonna buy it. There's nothing I can say that'll change your mind. You're gonna just do it or not do it. But if you have a problem, like dry scalp or you don't like your deodorant, like I mean, we sell a lot of personal care items beyond just hair care stuff, so this is what I'm drawing from. Like, we have we have natural body soaps and all sorts of things. But if you are trying to, like, achieve a look or um trying to fix something about your hair or scalp, then I can I can point you in the right direction for whatever product might improve that situation or get you closer to your goal. And that's that's the aim. Is like, oh, you have a problem? Do I have something that will help you? Yes, I do. Here you go. Or I have multiple things. Take your pick. There are the pros and cons to both. Sometimes it boils down to just smell. You know, we might have something that for a hair product that holds the way they want, but it happens to smell like hazelnut, and they just can't stand hazelnut. So, alright, well, we have something that's very similar that smells more like powder fresh. So it's not as delicious smelling, uh, if somebody doesn't like to smell like food. So it's nice to have those kind of options, but you're never gonna see me tell somebody they need something. Unless they've told me that they need it. Because I'm gonna story time. Uh so one year I went to the International Beauty Show in New York at the Javitz Convention Center. And I'm a young barber at this point. Like, I I own a shop, but I've only owned it for a couple years, which is probably why I'm going to a hair shoe at this point. Uh and this this guy, this poor guy, he's working at a booth. It's a booth that sells all sorts of random stuff for the industry, like crappy shears that, you know, are gonna last you like three months, don't hold an edge. Um, you know, spray bottles, hair clips, all, you know, all sorts of shapes and sizes and patterns. You know, the the the we're gonna use the trope of a cosmetologist that like squeals over finding something that's uh like leper print, you know, those types of things. And uh was passing by the booth and we were looking at some of the things they had, and I was kind of laughing at the fact that they had an insert sleeve for a barbicide jar, right? And keep in mind that in in my shop I don't use barbicide jars like the ones that that are vertical that look like they could hold straws at an old 50s diner. Uh, I don't use those as a wet sanitizer. I use those as a closed container to keep disinfected combs in at each station. So, like, I don't use it with barbicide inside of it. Nonetheless, I know that that's what the majority of people who buy them use them for. So, I see this sleeve, and it's got like, oh, you can get the the barber pole pattern on it, or you could get leopard print or rainbow or whatever you want. And the guy who's working the booth is like, Oh, you n you you go in a shop? Yeah, alright, cool. Uh let me tell you why you you or you you you need to get these for your guys at the shop. Like you need I was like, oh, I need I need this, huh? Please. Tell me why I need this. Because I prefer accuracy in the English language, and need is a strong word. I try only to use it when necessary, because there are a lot of things I want in life, and there's a lot of things I spend money on that I just want, and that I don't need. So I basically dare him to justify to me his words of why I need these inserts. And he tries his best. He hasn't not a leg to stand on, because he already sees my facial expression, and he's terrified. Uh and I go, oh yeah, yeah. So um I need to buy my barbers an opaque barrier to put into their barbicide jar to hide the uh state of their quartz disinfectant and whether or not it's contaminated so that they can have substandard sanitation practices, but not have anybody know about it. Is that what you're telling me? You're telling me I should encourage my barbers to hide the fact that they're not sanitary, or you know, the possibility that they're not sanitary. So, um yeah, I think he walked away and cried after that. But today I can find it funny. But also that I mean that was kind of a dick move. Um but the point, though poorly made, because again, dick move, uh yeah, there there are things that you you like if somebody needs something, you're never gonna have to sell it to them. They're they'll ask or be curious, especially if you have a large enough retail area where they realize that you have a lot of things that they'll be more than willing to ask and be like, Hey, I've kind of got this problem. Do you have anything for that? Or can you, you know, send me anywhere? And then, you know, they'll call upon your expertise as a professional. But I've certainly and thankfully never thrown on the used car salesman hat and tried to like pitch something to somebody that was unnecessary. And it just makes you feel greasy if you try. Something else I kind of wanted to touch on. Um has a lot to do with the the early history of the profession. And I mean, I know that term is kind of relative because it's about, you know, 3,000 change years old. Um but when I say early, I mean like from the modern standpoint uh of like there's a there's a chunk of time that doesn't really get talked about a lot from around the time in our, you know, history of barbering chapter in textbooks from the uh dissolving of the relationship between barbers and surgeons through like the the first barber textbook and college to open in the US. Like, there's a sizable chunk of time that we just don't really talk about, but mostly kind of speculate over, or sometimes romanticize. Um really unfortunately we tend to uh look to Hollywood to fill those gaps where it's like, oh, the old west and that sort of thing. Um and in some of the the books that I have touch on it a bit, and some of them don't. Uh, so I'll read a paragraph from the standardized textbook of Barbering, uh, talking about the decline of the of a profession. It says the year 1745 may well mark the climax of the decline of the barber profession. For now they were left without legislative guidance or regulation and without schools or standards of any kind. The inevitable result was a slow and positive degradation of the art of barbering itself. Until the latter part of the 19th century, people began to even question the right to class it as a profession, since shops became dirty hangout places and a rendezvous for low characters and idle talk. The practice became insanitary. I imagine it should be unsanitary. Correct me if I'm wrong when it comes to 1931 English, uh, unstandardized and undignified and sometimes despicable. So, um I feel like to put it in context, it's like around the revolution, the the revolution of the you know, the colonies separating from England into the United States. Um in case anybody who's listening is not from America. Um the profession a lot of times there was not a lot of white people, a lot of people of color that did that because it was it was a trade, it was it was looked at as something that's more of a servitude thing, um, in areas, at least here in the colonies, and then when immigration really boomed uh after the revolution and before the Civil War, um, or even during or close to the Civil War, it was still kind of at that level. But once immigration really kicked off, uh people who were barbers in other countries and Europe and all over the place, obviously it diversified the people who held the profession. And I I think that became more of a an apprenticeship and passing down from father to son situation. So you you have you know this this trek of people out west, and then you have, you know, people establishing settlements. Can't necessarily always call them towns, because they sometimes disappeared once people discover there wasn't gold there. Uh so you got you know, barbers who are going out, and there's not always a doctor in the town or settlement. So it's like, hey, you uh you deal with sharp instruments. So, you know, we think of the pulling teeth, the lancing a wound, the pulling out a bullet, like, you know, having a bath. Like these are basic things that barbers offered when they were there. And in lieu of having a doctor or a a druggist or whatever in town, like the barber, as in our previous episode, had a lot of recipes to make a lot of things. Uh, so we have that kind of like fun, wild part of the profession that I think some people would romanticize and be like, oh, that would be so cool, as long as you have a strong stomach for blood. And then we uh then we're our minds kind of go to um the alright, now it's uh you're having ruffians kind of come in and and hang out and think of people, you know, getting shot in barber chairs while they're getting a shave and that kind of mess. So that doesn't really encourage the mother with a son to come into your shop and you know get them a haircut. So once the profession got to that kind of a level, there seems to have been a pushback with a lot of things. When you get to the the 1930s, especially like the temperance movement, where it's like, hey, we want things to be clean and we want things to be professional, and we don't want our husbands to be out at all hours and you know drinking it up with their buddies because, you know, they have they have families, and we depend on them, so we would like them to not be drunk all the time. Um and that sort of, you know, moral compass really hit hard, and I think that permeated a ton of professions over time. And I think that's kind of where the birth of the unions came out in reference to barbers, where they're like, hey, we need to set a standard. Because what people are doing to our profession is erroneous at best. So they really had a firm push to get legislation in place, to get regulation, uh, sanitation practices. You know, by 1897 they had the first barber license law in Minnesota. And then, you know, the 20s came up with the the unions, and they got a little dicey when they were trying to like regulate pricing, and it was like a little bit of a feud of you know, a union shop versus a non-union shop, and you got you know, master barbers were shop owners versus journeymen who were the barbers that worked there, and then you put people in classes, and then it gets messy. Um I digress with that. Uh it just remembering that our profession is so old that it has seen a ton of ebbs and flows. It has been highly regarded from Egyptian times where there's still a statue that exists 3,000 years later, of a barber. And then it's dropped to, you know, being in a back alleyway and having, you know, penny dreadful stories written about you making people into meat meat meat meat pies. And so here we are again at the top of a profession that is really on a resurgence when in the 1970s barbers were completely unwilling to adapt to the fashions of long hair. So that really had them take a dive. And then, you know, we were finally like, oh, but we want to be professionals and we want to learn more than just what our grandfathers knew as barbers. And so we're we're back on top again, baby. But it doesn't mean it won't possibly go down, even within our lifetime, where people are trying to deregulate stuff. Like, knowing history is so important that the reason barber licenses exist in the first place is because barbers wanted them. So when barbers thus try to tear them down and remove them again, keep in mind, the vast majority of people trying to remove Licenger from barbering are not barbers. That should tell you one thing. Um, but moving forward, like, we're gonna have those tests, and if we want to stay on top for at least a little while, we have to fight the good fight and uh keep our standards high and hold ourselves to those standards. Thanks so much for listening. I look forward to doing the next part of this segment. Um give me a comment, shoot me a message on Instagram at fill of the barber. I want to hear your feedback. Um, I have a collection. I will I will post a picture of the the various books I have. We can cover a decade. Pick a decade, leave it, you know, in the comments. I will, you know, gather the books I have from that, compare and contrast. I've got a couple of books that have I don't know how they got published. They were way back in the day. But there's some pretty uh quirky claims for like causes of things and some very questionable practices that might include things that are very flammable. Uh, but I'd like to cover that kind of like fun, weird, fringe uh material that I have floating around. So if you want to hear that, let me know, and we'll see you next time.