PUTTING OUT ANCESTORS’ LIVES INTO CONTEXT

Mish J. Holman explores the various resources for finding out more about what it was like to work as a hairdresser in years gone by – from rules for apprentices, to the wages and conditions a qualified worker could expect

Mish J. Holman

When we think of visiting a hairdresser, we often visualise clean, modern salons with reclining chairs and washbasins, the hum of hairdryers, chemical odours stinging our eyes, and the hairdressers themselves, often dressed in black, with skills many of us just couldn’t live without – something we all discovered during lockdown!

The sk ills deman ded of hair dressers have c hanged as fashion s evolved

Hairdressers are both male and female, often apprenticed and trained and, as with so many professions both past and present, suffer from occupational-related afflictions such as lower back pain, dermatitis, and respiratory disorders.

The hairdresser, or hair cutter, emerged separately from barbers at a time when wigs became unfashionable and the focus turned to wearing real hair. This led to an inevitable conflict with A barber and his client, 1866.

Once wigs fell out of fashion, hairdresser and barber became separate occupations the barbers who felt hairdressers were competing for their business.

A reference to ‘hair cutter’ appeared in The Parent’s and Guardian’s Directory (1761) by Joseph Collyer – this ‘youth’s guide, in the choice of a profession or trade’ consigned the profession to the bottom of the trade pile since workers required ‘almost no education but compliant and insinuating behaviour’.

It was a low paid position and a trade that was considered unskilled and easy to enter due to minor set-up costs. Collyer’s guide suggests a hair cutter could charge between 6d and one shilling for cutting and curling for a home visit and between one shilling and half a crown within his own premises. Some astute individuals at ease with self-promotion presented the profession and themselves more artfully:

… John Townsend who served his Apprenticeship with Mr. William Bumstead, late Hair-cutter on Dowgate-Hill, hath taken the said Mr. Bumstead’s shop where he follows the said Art of Hair-Cutting, any ladies may have their hair cut, or their Childrens, after the best Manner, either at their own houses or at his shop at very reasonable prices.