Barber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Barber (disambiguation).
A barber (from the Latin barba, "beard") is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, give shaves, and trim beards. A barber differs from a hairdresser whose business is generally restricted to cutting and styling hair. In previous times, barbers also performed surgery. In more recent times, with the development of safety razors and the increasing popularity of cleanshaven men, most barbers primarily cut hair.
Therefore, although many may still deal with facial hair when requested, the predominant difference in American and Commonwealth culture is that barbers specialize in the simple cutting of men's hair. They do not generally offer significant styling or 'fancy' haircuts when compared to hairdressers working in hair salons. In recent years, larger numbers of women have been going to a barber for their haircuts, especially when they choose to have their hair cut very short or shaved primarily due to the generally lower cost of barbershops. [citations needed]
The place where a barber works is generally called a barbershop (or "barber shop").
[edit] History
The barber's trade is an extremely ancient one. Razors have been found among relics of the Bronze Age (circa 3500 BC) in Egypt, and barbering is mentioned in the Bible by Ezekiel who said "And Thou, son of man, take thee a barber's razor and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thine beard."
Shaving, either of the head or face, was not always a voluntary act, for it has been enforced by law in England and elsewhere. Cleanliness and vanity were therefore not the sole reasons for a "clean shave"; the origins lie deeper. Before the Macedonian conquest brought the custom of clean shaving, the κουρευς in the Greek agora would trim and style his patrons' beards, hair, and fingernails, as gossip and debate flowed freely.
Barbering was introduced to Rome from the Greek colonies in Sicily in 296 B.C. and barber shops quickly became very popular centres for daily news and gossip. All free men of Rome then had to be clean-shaven while slaves were forced to wear beards. A morning visit to the tonsor became a part of the daily routine as important as the visit to the public baths, and a young man's first shave (tonsura) was an essential part of his coming of age ceremony. A few Roman tonsores became wealthy and influential, running shops that were favorite loci publici of high society; most were simple tradesmen, owning small storefronts or setting up their stool in the street and offering shaves for a mere quadrans. Some had reputations as clumsy butchers who left their patrons scarred about the cheeks and chin; their dull bronze or copper (never steel) razors must share some of the blame. The better barbers offered depilatories for those customers who refused the razor.
When Julius Caesar landed in Britain in 54 B.C. he found that the Britons wore no facial hair at all, except on the upper lip. Similarly, at the time of the Norman Conquest, Harold and his men also had their chins 'reaped' as the Saxons termed it; an expression no longer in use except by the harvester. Full beards came back into fashion during the reign of the Hellenophile Hadrian.
The barbers of former times were also surgeons and dentists. Most early physicians disdained surgery, and therefore, as well as haircutting, hairdressing and shaving, barbers performed surgery of wounds, blood-letting, cupping and leeching, enemas, and the extraction of teeth. Thus they were called barber surgeons and they formed their first organisation in 1094.
Barbers were chartered as a guild by Edward IV in 1462 as "The Company of Barbers". The surgeons formed a guild 30 years later and the two companies were subsequently united by a statute of Henry VIII in 1540 under the name of "The United Barber Surgeons Company". During the reign of Henry VIII the authorities of Lincolns Inn prohibited wearers of beards from sitting unless they paid certain penalties. Elizabeth I went one better: in her reign a law was passed that the wearer of a beard of more than two weeks' growth should be taxed according to his station in life - a man in a lowly position was taxed to the extent of 3s. 4d. per annum for growing whiskers! So taken was Peter the Great with this enactment that he introduced the law into Russia.
In Ireland it was enacted that, in order to be recognised as an Englishman, a man must have all the hair above his mouth shaven. This law remained in force for two hundred years.
In 1745 surgeons were separated from barbers by acts passed during the reign of George II. The surgeons with the title of 'Masters, Governors and Commonalty of the Surgeons of London'. This body was later dissolved and replaced by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800 during the reign of George III.
As previously noted, the origin of shaving the head or face was not always a voluntary act. Both law and superstition played their part in various countries. At one time, in England, cutting of the hair or nails on Sundays was considered to be extremely ill-advised.
In Hong Kong up until the 1990s it was said that the best barbers came from Shanghai, in reference to the perceived trendiness of pre-war Shanghainese fashion, which was brought to Hong Kong by those fleeing Shanghai as the Communists won the Chinese civil war.
