Of Plumbers And Barbers

h/t to Instapundit for this item on a Plumber shortage. It serves as a segue of sorts into how many state governments killed the traditional Barbering industry. It also resulted in men having to pay premium prices for haircuts while enduring wasted hours sitting in waiting chairs staring at posters of the latest Sassoon girls. All assuming they could get an appointment at a convenient time.

In the 70's and 80's many states merged their Barber and Cosmetology Boards into one. Suddenly a young man who could make a decent living as a Barber couldn't do a partly paid apprenticeship, taking just months to learn a career that could serve him for life. He had to pay to attend a Community College or private tech education program that could last two years, while making him learn a variety of skills he'd never employ. And he, or she was also taught to charge much more for the service.

And that doesn't include the regulation side, which went on to require every Barbershop to meet the standards of the largest women's Salon in terms of specialized sinks and facilities a traditional Barber would never need.

In states where this took place a career once dominated by men became a women's forte - which is fine, though many never have learned how to give a good Men's haircut. Costs of a haircut more than doubled, you could forget getting a nice shave if you wanted it. And businesses saw their overhead costs rise dramatically. And all because the government was just looking out for you.

Or perhaps gettng paid off by tech education and cosmetic industries that found a clever way to extract more dollars from a male public that never actually needed them in the first place. At least not before the government said you did, anyway.

That a quaint and quite historically rich American tradition, Barbering, suffered, or simply went by the wayside in many states was just collateral damage.

Comments

[Craig]

After moving away, I really miss my barber in New York City. He was awesome: a former Moscow chess champion named Mel who moved to the States decades ago and loved cutting hair in the 86th and Lexington subway barber shop. Always good conversation and always a great haircut.

[Byron]

I bought a Wahl clipper set at Sam's so I can cut my own hair. It's easy and costs nothing. I don't even tip myself.

The last excuse for barbers was giving shaves to elderly men who were too shaky to risk it themselves. Safety razors and electric razors took care of that.

The second to last excuse was to spend a little time in a male enclave where you could tell a joke and talks sports. Now they're mostly unisex places, so that's gone, too.

[Margot]

Barbers are staging a comeback in mid-town Manhattan. I can think of 4 new Barber shops in the area in the last few months. I hope they're all wildly successful.

[bird]

And this is one of the reasons why I purchased a set of clippers and just cut my own hair weekly; $15 per haircut (and not particularly good ones at that) convinced me to just do it myself. It's a shame, I really used to enjoy going to a barbershop.

[Pakvi]

Well I am fortunate to have a nice traditional Barber Shop to go to. Straight haircuts, no styling or any of that metrosexual nonsense. No women allowed either, all male barbers and not Womens Magazine in sight.

[Dan Riehl]

"Barbers are staging a comeback"

Yes they are. And it's good to see. But it actually isn't quite the same. The Executive barbershop is coming back, the mostly neighborhood barbershop not so much I don't believe. But that may depend on your locale.

[Chris Wysocki]

I'm pretty friendly with my local barber. He has 2 female assistants. He said only women want to get into cutting men's hair these days. Men just don't seem to want to go through the hassle to become barbers. But, with the competition in women's salons so fierce, the ladies would prefer to cut men's hair.

They do a pretty good job too. But no shaves, and no beard trimming.

Shaves used to be a work of art. There was this old Italian guy (Sal) where I grew up. Now he could shave your face! When he got done, you didn't need another shave for 3 days.

[Morgan]

I was fortunate enough to enjoy the barbershop experience for a while in a place called the Red Barn near OSU in Corvallis. They did all the ROTC cuts, and it was $6. Loved the tonic neck rub after.

Unbelievable. UN-BLANKING-BELIEVABLE that I can not privately agree with another free soul to pay him to cut my hair without some politician or board getting involved. We are not free.

[countertop]

Interestingly, Barbers never seemed to go out of style in DC. Sure, there are some upscale men's places, but I've never been at a loss for a good barber here in town.

And then there is the Senate Barber. Really like going there - learn lots for the job - but I prefer to hit the barbershop on 15th between H and I. They have nudies.

[RMS]

I'm lucky. In my home town, there is still a barber shop. $11 for a good hair cut. Don't think they shave. It's nice to go in on Saturday, have a seat, wait your turn while having some good conversation or reading the paper and finally get a good haircut. No pictures of models just adds for hunting supplies, land, gutters, etc..

[Oh, bother]

Now if only I, a woman, could get a reasonably-priced haircut at a barbershop. I can't afford to pay for all that fru-fru, either.

[AZVet]

I simply cut my own hair now, and both my boys.
It helps that I was in the military and love it basic and short, but I see no reason to blow $350 a year for $100 in value. $80 trimmer set has LONG paid for itself.

[Old Man]

If you're old enough to remember reading, the best barber story is Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry.

[Dusty]

I suspect that barbers and beauticians were behind the additional training and licensing requirements and all the other red tape which have created the barriers to entry. It keeps the competition down and the prices up.

[CaptainVictory]

I can't get a G.I.-style haircut to save my life. With no military installations nearby, I have no real options available. I'm forced to settle for second-rate cuts. Finally, I know why. And I'm pissed.

[JorgXMcKie]

There are still a couple of real barbershops in my area. (If you include the other local suburbs that's for about 400,000 people.) There are several "men's salons" and unisex hairstyling places. The real barbershops will still give you a good shave with a straight razor, but when the only guy who could properly trim my beard retired I gave them all up. I bought clippers and now I buzz my head every 4th day or so. Works for me.

I trim my beard with a comb and scissors. I also save a couple of hundred bucks a year.

OTOH, I didn't usually get very good haircuts anyway. My barber in Ohio back in the 70s said it my fault because my head was shaped funny. He was probably right.

[Elroy Jetson]

I was at a barber shop on Saturday. They had CNN on TV, with a lot of bogus polls like 60% of America favors the stimulus. One guy piped up, "Well we're living in a socialist country now, we might as well start calling each other 'comrade'." So for the rest of the time I was there we called each other comrade. It was pretty funny.

[Gedaliya]

I live on Long Island. Barbers are everywhere.

[John Davies]

My barber is 92 and does everything the old way. At the end of the haircut, he puts Sea Breeze on the back of my neck and waves a towel to dry it off. Then puts on two hand massagers and rubs my shoulders.

He also has great stories about running a big band.

I'm really going to miss him some day. Definitely the guy to see if you're in the Pittsburgh area.

[Gedaliya]

My barber doesn't use his fingers to ensure uniform length...he only uses a comb and scissors. He also shaves my neck and ears with a straight razor, leather-stropped. When he is done cutting, he tilts the chair back and puts a hot towel on my face. Few things in life becalm one more effectively than a hot towel on the face.

[StephenB]

Shave and a haircut, . . .

. . . two bits!

Is there anything the government doesn't improve?

[Big Bob from Tater Knob]

I hadn't given it much thought but you're right. One long time local barber retired recently. In fact he'd been barbering around here for so long his retirement made the local weekly newspaper (small town Kentucky, here). Since male pattern baldness struck about 15 years back I've been shaving my head so one less barber around here is no big deal for me. But his shop is now a salon and the nearest "real" barber is a 8 mile drive to the next town over. So I imagine his retirement did affect a few guys around here.

[Ron Robinson]

Shut up. SShhhh. There are never any lines in my barber shop now, and I don't want there to be.

[Cap'n Dan]

I still use an old-style barber. It's a small shop run by two men who must be in their '60s at least. One only works 2 days a week. They still have the old-style chairs, the gun and car magazines, and shave your neck with a straight razor. I'll keep going to these guys until they retire, then I'll look for another one. It's a male tradition, and one of the few male-only institutions left. We love you, ladies, but it's just a guy thing, and you wouldn't understand.

[Dadzilla]

I'm lucky because my 16 year old daughter cuts my hair, and my wife gives me steaming hot towel treatments and then a facial and a shave after which I take a nap. The best barbers in the world are in Japan, it's still an art there.

[Seerak]

Is there anything the government doesn't improve?

If there is, the last one is probably being cornered somewhere, right about now.

"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. " -- Ronald Reagan

[Ben]

Agreed with the others - they're coming back. I just moved and like a local place: http://www.razorsbarbershop.com/ -- what I find interesting about this is that it's two young guys (brothers) who started it from scratch & not an established business. It is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, packed on the weekends. I love that I can say "a #2 on the back and sides" w/o having to explain myself.

[Pete]

I have a traditional barber, here in suburban Chicago, after a bunch of women tried and failed to cut my hair well. This guy not only does a terrific job, he shows "Bonanza" and "Hawaii Five-O" reruns on his TV, the magazine racks are full of car magazines, and he always has a "guy's only" joke or two on hand. What's not to like?

Yes, the traditional barbershop is one of the last male preserves around, alongside the cigar (I don't smoke) shop, the autoparts store, and one or two other places....

It's bad news that so few places allow guys to be guys, w/o apologies. It does not portend well for our society - that is, if we still need men and not metrosexuals.

[Jones]

Put me down as another guy with his own Wahl clippers and straight razor, getting it done right at home.

[Les Blatt]

I've been going to the same barber for 25 years - traditional (obviously), reasonable and good. Here's another aspect of the story: these two guys have seen a major drop-off in business over the past few years. They say men who used to come in every couple of weeks are now coming every couple of months, because "stylists" have driven up prices and people say they can't afford it. Hence longer hair styles (or do-it-yourself head shaves) and less work for the barbers, even the real ones.

[Don]

Military barbers are an echo of this. No nonsense and a good cut for $8 - enough left for a tip. The best one is the Naval War College barber, who will learn your name and your clipper # (I'm a #1 on ths side and #2 on the top) by the second visit.

But oh, did I love those barbers in Asia. Most gave you a good shoulder massage after your cut/shave. The ones that were good at this always had a line.

[Kevin]

Most men don't realize that all the unisex places (Great Clips, Sport Clips, etc.) employ only women who have beautician/cosmetologist licenses, not barber licenses. Major difference. Beauticians learn cuts that are more 'rounded' and softer; flattering to the female face and form. They get lots of training on perms, colors, tintoing, frosting, etc. Those who have a "real" barbers' license were trained in NONE of that. Instead they get hundreds of hours learning how to taper (beauticians get ZERO training in learning to taper) and learn to give cuts more suited to the angular jaw and features of the male (for example think of the flat-top haircut and how 'male' that looks, beauticians/cosmetologists get NO training in haircuts like that).

Now you know why a beauticiand merely snips at your hair using scissors and fingertips and why your unisex salon 'style-do' never seems to look like the haircuts men had 50 or 60 years ago.

[FormerTucsonan]

Just another job Americans won't do. Most of the barbers I've encountered in Phoenix these days are Ukranian or Russian immigrants. They're great barbers, but they charge premium prices. Salon cuts are more reasonably priced.

[Countrylawyer]

I attend a small, two-chair barbershop in my home town. As a general rule, at 43, I'm the youngest person present by two decades, more typically closer to three. Up to about two years ago, they still had one of those RC coolers where you put your coins in (death! to bill-slurping mega-freezers), opened a door, reached in, and pulled your selection out. It still worked perfectly after God knows how long service. They also used to put up posters for all the local elections, and people could put an "X" by their choice: A good informal poll. Want to know who's got married or died, or whose kid graduated from what college and is working where, or who bought the old Murgatroyd Place at the auction Saturday? Or maybe just poke through some ancient Reader's Digests, VFW magazines, or the morning paper while you sit and listen to a gentler, slower, and sadly vanishing world? A visit to the barbershop is a benediction on our home and those who live in it. Go in peace.

[patricia]

My husband hasn't been able to get a decent haircut since we moved east from Los Angeles. The Hispanic barbers there are awesome; they know their stuff and they actually cut his hair short enough. And no girls allowed- the one time I went there to pick him up and he wasn't quite done, I almost wanted to wait in the car, because the atmosphere was so masculine. He's been looking for a good barber since we moved (in two different cities!), but hasn't had a good haircut since.

[GreatHairGuy]

Sorry, Kevin, you are wrong. Great Clips (and others) employ barbers. Fact is there are not many of them around. Cosmetology schools and students outnumber barber schools significantly. In our state, the salon/shop must have a separate license from the barber board in order to employ barbers and pay another fee, of course. Cosmetology schools are inconsistent teaching clipper cuts and other men's styles but some do it quite well. All of the large chains, like Great Clips, have their own training that teaches clipper and razor cutting and fading techniques. Also, newer barber shops charge more than the chain salons. If the price is too low, good people have many other options to make a decent living.

[Eric Gagen]

I live in South Louisiana and I can assure you that there are plenty of barbers around here. As for the woman commenting that she wishes she could get a cut at a barber at a barbershop price - you can! Just be warned - they don't do the beautician type cuts - you will get one of the types of cuts that men would get. Quite a few women who wear their hair short or cropped do go to the place I go to, and it is a traditional mens barbershop. Cuts are $12 (recently $10 but raised about 3 months ago) and that includes sideburns to. $1 extra for a shave.

[RPD]

I never understood why haircutting needed regulated in the first place. If a barber/beautician messes up your hair, so what?

[Fred]

Lots of misconceptions in the comments. Do folks not understand the extremely high public health risk in a business which regularly sees blood spilled? All it would take is one salon or barbershop that doesn't take proper hygienic measures to ensure no disease is spread, and you would all be screaming for the government to step in and do something about it. That's why there is special training and licensing.

[Fred]

A typical salon or barbershop might see upwards of 350 to 550 members of the public come through the door per week. A public health hazard exists if the staff is not properly trained on how to deal with things like ringworm, head lice, blood-borne diseases, and many other contagious afflictions, not to mention proper blood-spill cleanup. THAT'S why regulation is needed.

[submandave]

Fred, health concerns are one thing, but explain why cosmetology school (coloring, perms, etc.) is "necessary." I agree that there are public health issues, but I have a hard time taking seriously any politician that uses that argument for forcing lengthy and expensive licensing requirements on barbers whilst simultaneously defending HIV positive health providers' "right to privacy."

[sol vason]

I knew Barber shops were going to be legislated out of business when we were told we could no longer do surgery in the back room. Next thing you know we had to have a medical license. Do people live longer today? Do they pay less? And the stitching they do today is very, very sloppy.

[rightwingprof]

My grandfather was a barber. He had one woman as a regular customer, Mrs. Moore, who was a fifth-grade teacher. That was back in the duck-and-cover-exercises-in-school era. There is, as far as I've been able to discover, exactly one barbershop in State College, owned by two retired state cops, and only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There is a shop downtown with a pole, but they're all women who want to style your hair.

Thanks, Dan. I have been wondering what happened to barbers (see the blog).

[Chester White]

"I love that I can say 'a #2 on the back and sides' w/o having to explain myself."

Yeah, for me it's "a #2 all over."

Or a crew cut, which my guy fortunately can do. Started taking my son there instead of the salon my wife wanted. Yuck.

[Chester White]

"All it would take is one salon or barbershop that doesn't take proper hygienic measures to ensure no disease is spread, and you would all be screaming for the government to step in and do something about it."

Not me.

Therefore "all" is incorrect.

[marge]

In Iowa there was a law which stated beauticians could NOT cut men's hair. So there was some civil disobedience and arrests just to show how silly that law was. It was then repealed. I think that was the 70's.

Men worked in and owned beauty salons in Des Moines by the time I left in 1999. There was a very successful Taiwanese-American man who owned a chain of them there.

Today the shop I frequent here in Texas has more male customers than female. They seem quite happy with the results.

[Mark]

I am seeing just the opposite thing here in Illinois. Since the 90s, we have seen a growth of barber shop catering to men only. There are luxery spa-like barbershops in downtown Chicago, and neighborhood barbers like Betty & Nick's where you can get a decent haircut for just $5.

I have seen the opposite situation in regards to sanitary conditions - barbershops have always been well regulated when it comes to sanitation. I do not see anywhere near the level of sanitation at salons where cosmotologist cut hair. I have never been to a barber were a neck strip is not used. However, I have found it hit and miss as to whether salons do. The last think I want around my neck is a wet cape that maybe was used on someone who got a perm. An a barber always uses a fresh comb. When was that brush last sanitized that the hairdresser used at the salon? Did she just finish using it on a lady with aqua-netted hair who also has a scalp condition? Who knows.

There are at least 4 barershops in my immediate vacinity, and they're always busy.

And when some guy is wielding sharp tools around me, I want him to be thoroughly trained in their use. If I am Ok with Joe the Barber Wanna-be cutting my hair, I'll go to a barber school and have a student cut it. I'd rather a professional do it - one that has passed the boards and is a qualified professional. Otherwise, I'd do it myself.

If there is one thing the government should do, is protect consumers. We see how wonderful deregulation has worked in the food manufacturing process and the financial sectors. Do you really want Sweeney Todd to open up a shop?