History of Barbering - Part 3 (Quack Edition)

Going over some lesser known publications for the hair profession, from drugstore beauty tips to more reputable looking material... this will be FUN!

Transcript

Bree 0:03

Welcome back to Philosophy of the Barber. I am so happy to have you here today. So, alright. As promised, I said that I would break out the wonky books that I have in my collection. And we're going to reference this uh this mysterious the Barber Salesman book that references why women have double chins. We will get to that, I promise. So, first I want to kind of describe to you for those who are not going to pop onto the YouTube channel and see um still images in the video of the book I'm referencing. It is a half-inch thick, hardback 1931 published book called The Barber Salesman. It says teaching scientific tonsorial knowledge. We'll get to the irony of that later. Price at the bottom, three dollars. I would not pay three dollars today for this book. I wouldn't pay like and that is a serious inflation difference, let me tell you. So when opening this book, it gives me a wonderful copyright in 1931 by Frank W. Creasy. Tried to Google it, he didn't come up, so I have no idea who this person is. But it has a beginning note. Allow me to read it to you. Note the authority I give for writing this book is 30 years of research, work, and practical experience, and the holding of a barber license issued by the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Also, for the past 15 years, I have been associated with some of the largest and oldest chemical houses in the country, demonstrating and selling to the barbers and beauty operators many of the remedies used by them, such as hot oil treatments, facial treatments, and hair tonics. During these years, the laws of many states have been put in force requiring the barber and beauty operator to study the construction of the body and the different diseases which infest it. In their search for knowledge, I noticed that no one had taken the trouble to fill a need of writing a book which they could easily read and understand, one which treated upon the subjects most vital in their everyday work, and one giving them the definition of medical terms in words they could pronounce and comprehend. This book is written to fill that demand. Yours respectfully, Frank W. Creasey. Now, when we dive into this book, it gets a little uh we'll say biblical, alright? So, like, in the preface, it like, alright, you could be like, alright, it was Samson and Delilah, like the whole cutting the hair thing. Don't get me wrong. I love the Bible. Yes, you can make plenty of references to it. However, this is a bit weird. Like, it references uh man refused to obey God's command. God said, Thou shalt surely die. And that's referenced more than once. Uh, there's, you know, Bible history talking about Joseph, uh, you know, of Abraham, and uh uh just a lot. A lot of of biblical stuff that I don't I don't understand why he felt the need to go so hard on it on page two. But whatever. But like for real, he's like referencing specific verses. And it makes my head hurt. Anyway, moving on. The next after the preface is why do people patronize the barbershop? Allow me to read an excerpt. The thought arises, why do people patronize the barbershop? There are three reasons to look better, to feel better, and to smell better. Well, I don't know about you, but I sure appreciate that nugget of knowledge. Second excerpt. I do not believe it is a good idea for a barber to try and use big medical words, medical terms, to his customers. This would become very tiresome to them. He is not a doctor, therefore he should not try to pose as such. Simply be yourself in selling. You are not giving treatments to cure any diseases. Your mission is to help mankind to keep clean and groomed properly, to protect him from a contagion, not to cure him after he has contracted a disease. Well, alright. Here's the thing. Just because you can't treat anybody and you're not a doctor, doesn't mean you can't use proper terms and be accurate in your verbiage. Now, don't get me wrong, you can break it down. You can start off by using a scientific term and then break it down so they can further understand it. But yeah, you don't have to be all fancy willy-nilly with your speech. But it it is not wrong to be accurate in one's verbiage. Now, let us remember that the name of this book is The Barber Salesman. Does it make sense that he titled it The Barber Salesman when it says teaching scientific tonsorial knowledge? Like, is this teaching the barber how to be a salesman or is it teaching the barber science? Which in 1931 there are already textbooks that have been published for a couple of decades at this point. Why this guy felt that this book was necessary to write in the first place, I'm not really sure, because he covers a lot of things. He covers every STD that they are aware of at the time. Like, in I would say detail without pictures. Um there is, you know, study of blood, ductless gland, um, which actually, yeah. Anyway, um, so let's let's get to the goody part. The uh why women have double chins. While women get double chins, extra fatness of the face and neck is known to be largely due to the lack of her sexual glands functioning to relieve the excess secretions which these two glands have put forth. This secretion having not been used up, as her nature provides, reverts itself into fat. The overly fat lady is usually a manifestation of a lack of sex development known to the medical world as the adiposogenital dystrophy. So why? Why on earth is there a section of this man's book that has any sort of focus whatsoever on women and their sexual glands or organs or whatever having to do with barbering. Like, I get that, um, like turn of the century kind of a thing, like so, like, there's some some mental historical overlap in my brain right now, because in 1931, when this book was published, we had movies, like talking pictures. You got Gary Cooper, Marlena Dietrich, like wonderful actors at this same time. And we are we are still in the ignorance of thinking that a double chin is indicative of someone not getting enough sex. Like, that's that's why some women get fat after a certain time. Like, really? Come on! I have more faith in the 1930s than this. What is the deal? Like, the fact that he could get this book published is like, hmm. Okay. Kind of like the Wild West before there was a ton of regulation, you know, labor laws were still kinda, you know, figuring things out. You know, it is not the modern America that we have today, for sure. But it's like I've I'm afraid I'm gonna strain my eye muscles from rolling them so hard after reading that. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to cramp on this guy too hard. There are some things in this book that are factual and accurate. There are some things that are like common mistakes based on the scientific knowledge available at the time. But that one paragraph just ruins the entire thing, and I just wanna throw it out. But I want to keep it for posterity, so that they know that even someone who's I'm sure he's long dead and gone. But I'm gonna call him an idiot for thinking that. Can still get a book published and make money. But let's be honest, you got bookstores full of those things. So, let's move on to beauty and health. This is like an old drugstore, like cost you 50 cents, uh, you know, beauty tip thing. It's full of advertisements, which is super cool because I actually have in my like antique collection some of these things that they advertise. Which I'm like, oh, cool. Like, there's there's wild root advertisements, and it's really old. But there are also some really weird advertisements. Uh, I don't I don't know if anybody's ever seen the movie Wellville, where it's about like Dr. Kellogg and his sanitarium. Not a bad movie, pretty funny. But in that movie, sanitariums had some very strange ways of treating perceived ailments. Well, uh, in in this book, there is an ad that I came across that kind of caught my eye, because there's there's a picture, and this is for a treatment for piles and constipation. If you don't want to know what piles is, Google it. Uh, and it is Dr. Young's rectal dilators. And it is about exactly what you would be imagining. Yeah, so that's that's a weird thing to to see in just a a random 50 cent beauty tip book. So, but you know, drugstores, they sold everything back in the day. Uh, so I want to read a little excerpt of their hair and scalp tips. If you allow me. The hairs grow from little depressions situated in the lower cells of the epidermis and in the dermis. They're called hair cells or hair follicles. Well, the follicle is the hole, alright? I'm a little mad at the show CSI that I've been binge watching lately, because every single time they talk about the hair, they call it a hair follicle. And I'm like, ugh, you're supposed to be scientists. The follicle is the hole it grows out of. Anyway, I digress. Uh, but I want to find one particular treatment for graying hair. That is uh pretty interesting. Oh, here it is! Alright, so gray hair shampoo. The importance of well-rinsing the hair should not be lost sight of, especially in treating gray hair. Gray hair can be washed either by the soap or egg method if the mixture is immediately rinsed out of the hair. Excuse me. It is thought to improve the color of gray hair, which doesn't make sense because gray hair doesn't have color by definition, and to keep it from turning yellow. Alright, that makes sense. If a few drops of laundry blueing are added at the last rinsing water. Oh, even even they knew the color wheel back then. That's handy. A few years ago, uh, gasoline shampoos were very much appreciated by both blonde and grey-haired women. Gasoline cleans light hair to perfection and brings out its brightness. But there exists the objection that it is slightly irritating and drying to the scalp. Caution. There have been some tragic accidents resulting from the use of gasoline in a room containing an open light. Now keep in mind, this is, you know, before electricity, so oil lamps were used for light. One case that occurred in London several years ago led to an almost entire abandonment of this method of shampoo. There was no light in the room in which the shampoo was given, but there was in the next room, separated only by a half partition. A small gas stove used for the purpose of heating irons. In some way this set fire to the fumes of gasoline about the patient's head. She was frightfully burned and narrowly escaped with her life. Now, I ask you, if that be the case, why on earth would you print that as a legitimate method for treating blonde or grayed hair as a shampooing method? The frustration of years past. Ooh, and I just found bleaching the hair method. Alright, it says this is generally done by applying peroxide of hydrogen, wetting the whole head in it, and drying it in the sun. It may take several applications before there is much change in the color of the hair. To hasten the bleaching, one-third ammonia may be added to the peroxide. Alright, well, I don't know necessarily know about the ammonia part, but um theoretically, yeah, the uh the hydrogen peroxide and the sun will both help lift pigment out of your hair. So I will I will give them per points for that, but man, that is gonna damage the crap out of your hair. Like, what what did they use back in the day for for conditioning treatments? Lard? I don't even want to think about it. Oh, alright, so get this. The same time. Electricity was around. But not like everybody could afford it. But electrolysis was still a thing. Now, I I would love to hear from somebody who's like had electrolysis treatments. I my barber instructor did electrolysis treatments on his neck. Cause, you know, he got ingrown hairs real easy, so it'd be real great if you could just like not have to shave your neck, right? And he said they were uh quite painful because you gotta stick a needle directly into your hair follicle at the base and zap it with electricity to damage the hair bulb so it doesn't grow anymore. And for him it didn't work. So I I'd love to hear if you've experienced electrolysis and if so, whether or not it worked. Uh laser hair removal is like comparable, but I imagine way less painful. Let me know. Ooh, let's circle back around for this book and its opinion of the double chin, under the uh physique section. Now, I haven't read this beforehand, so we're gonna take this journey together, alright? A double chin. While a round, well-developed neck and bust are universally admired, excess flesh on these parts of the body is most unbecoming. A double chin appears often before middle age and is the bane of many a pretty woman. It is indeed so unsightly that all means possible should be used to prevent and overcome it. At the first symptom of this trouble, the case should be taken in hand. High collars should be discarded as much as possible, and when worn, they should never be very tight or high in front. Anything that weakens the throat muscles will increase the tendency to loose, flabby flesh under the chin. A poor carriage is often responsible for a double chin. Care should be taken to hold the chest well out and the head erect, never allowing the chin to fall over the collar of the gown. There are many methods advocated for reducing the chin. One is bandages of rubber to be worn at night, and others consist of massage and physical exercises. The massage movements for chin reducing are as follows. Yeah, we're not gonna get into that. But uh I would say out of those three concepts, I would say the massage and physical exercises are probably your best bet over the uh rubber straps. But hey, I'm not a doctor. What do I know? But yeah, this this book is very interesting. I am I'm very happy with my purchase. It gives me some pretty interesting insight to generations past. And it kind of reassures me that everyone is still just as obsessed and concerned with their look and appearance as they were a hundred years ago. So I don't know if that's a a positive thought for you or a negative one, but just know that this generation that makes your head hurt and you wonder how they're still alive and what they're gonna do next, and the whole internet challenge thing, don't worry. There have always been those people. We as humankind will survive them. If if a different generation can come up with the whole, hey, let me stuff myself into a barrel and go over the Niagara Falls and I'll live, right? Uh, if we can survive then when things were way, way more wild west than they are now. Like, don't get me wrong, when it comes to technology, we're we're shooting for the moon constantly, or Mars at this point. Excuse me. Um if we can survive what we did in the past and move forward and learn from it, then we too today can survive what we're going through and learn from it tomorrow. So that's all I have for you. Feel free to leave me some comments at fellow the barber on Instagram. Uh, you can send me an email, check out the website, philosophy of the barber.com, hit me up on YouTube, leave a comment down below on the videos. Uh love to hear from you, feedback, comments of any sort. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.