REFUSING SHAVES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 63, 10 June 1942, Page 2

REFUSING SHAVES

AUSTRALIAN BARBERS ;>7YL-/,S MAY iIKTL'IFv Bar■) i." '">•■ in Aui-tvaila are re I'ih: ng i.e- .shave euslinners in busy. hours and may soon decide to confine tiiem.selves solely to hairdressing. unless there are no olners await'ini; atti nt ion - a iai iV \ these days, ihe secretary of the flnirdr-ssers' Union, j Mr Buckley, says that si aIT short- j ages are the reason lor tlie no-shave ! policy. In New South Wah s. MOO j barbers have enlisted' in the armed forces or have been called up by the Army, including 1000 in the metropolitan area. One man who was given a haircut but refused a shave, in a city shop, called a policeman, who saul there was nothing he could do. Ihe industrial award for barbers provides fcr employment of women, but the few liairdressers who have girls for men's saloons have lound tli a t customers have preferred a linn, masculine grip on the razor traversing their throats. Because of shortage of safety-' razor blades, it is estimated that 25 per cent of Sydney men have turned to open-blade razors (colloquially known as "Bengal lancers) . One newspaper even published hints on how to practise this near-forgotten art without mutilation. The interlocking grip is specially recommended . When the barber at Federal Par-' liament House, Canberra, went into camp the other day, the House was' without a barber for the first time since it opened 15 years ago. Members, it is said, are surreptitiously studying the partraits of statesmen of the past, in King's Hall, trying to envisage whether they would be suited by a return to be-* whiskered styles. Since John Forrest retired in 15)18, there has not been a full beard on the front benches. The Minister for the Interior, Senator Collings, wears a chin-tuft, or goatee beard, as the last stand of the I old tradition.