ORIGIN OF BARBERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 237, 17 May 1928, Page 3

ORIGIN OF BARBERS.

How many New Zealand barbers know that 14th February was the day of incorporation in London of their calling in a barber’s Company in 1462. The Normans were cleanshaven when they came over-with the Conquerer; so much so that an ancestor of the Percys, who refused to follow the fashion, was nicknamed Algernon. It means the one with the “whiskers.” Since then British superior folk who denounce the Eton crop have worn huge beards* .imperials, Piccadilly “weepers*” >an4 a score of Pthervarieties. It is perhaps a hackneyed reminiscence that barbers’ red and white pole and brass basin are relics of the days when they used to perform elementary surgery. Less reluctant to advertise than their modern successors, they used to exhibit

buckets of blood in their shop windows as evidence of good trade. In mediaeval days they dispensed, says the Daily Mail, not only brisk chatter but music, too; hardly a barber’s without flute and viol. Instead of the bald formula of to-day, “Getting a trifle thin on top, Sir. Anything on it?” barbers of the golden age said it with music.