The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-20
THE BARBER.s SCIENCE.
He Must Be an Intelligent Artist as Well
MS q Good ConyersatfonaIfst.

AAC NAust ID an 1nteAtfgent Artist as w ell
rs Good ConversatfonaIist.
PoRT MADISON, June 19.-FSpecial. THE
San Francisco Chronicle recently contained
an able article on the barber as he existed
In by-gone ages, but my eager eyes failed
to find this important CD parsonage de-
plcted asohe exists today. All writer's who
have touched upon his peculiarities have
neglected an important point in discussing
the merits and dement's of the barber
tonsorial artist, if you please. His talk
atlveness is proverbial, and SO is his
obstinacy, and any attempt of his victim
TO suggest style of cut and dressing of the
hair, IS met with stolid silence that is not
In perfect accord with his usual tendency
to verbosity. His Eyes, SIR" politely
given, perhaps. has as much cold comfort
In 1t as wantonly opened hornets nest,
and the sitter, if he possesses strong tinct-
ure OF pride, will VOW to himself that that
particular barber has cut his hair for the
last time.
The average man of intelligence knows
somewhat of symmetry, of artistic effect
and equipoise. whether it be of a ships
model or the cranial development of the
genus homo, and most men have fair
idea as to what style of combing the hair
Is best suited to their particular "head
piece" The man of philosophical mind
viii wish his locks to have flowing sweep
to rearwards, ignoring parting lines, and
this method he is apt to think will best
display the expansive forehead he invari-
ably possesses. The student of invention,
whose head inclines to the front, thus
causing the locks, usually long, to droop
| carelessly has grown to believe that the
cfy r.ffa .r l. hos ha
! secured by SO combing his hair that Ma
| lures hand has forgotten her cunning,
| and the ivory-white intellect Is thereby
needlessly concealed. The dude and the
| fop are the only ones who occupy the bar
| ber's chair whose tastes are strictly ad-
| hered to. There seems to be a style in
| dressing the hair which is as memorable as
| that with which Dame Fashion rules the
| gentler sex. and, for one, wish to give the
BARRIERS valuable pointer, and one which
| after moments thought they will admit
| the Importance of adding to their acurricu-
| lum. When man enters your place and
takes his seat in the chair to be served, no.
| tice very quickly but carefully how his
hair is combed and when you come to put
that finishing touch upon his head see
that you conform as nearly as possible to
he presented himself at your mercy-seat,
and nine times out of ten he will go away
| pleased man, and your artistic ability
will be gladly attested to. There are some
men who care only to have their hair
pasted down in any way that it suits the
barber to dress it, so it is slick, for
| they never study contour or much
| of anything else. There are those, too,
| who think the barber a divinely angelic
! being because of his aptness to create
! curves that Hogarth would shrink to call
| "lines of beauty" But when a man has
| decided that a certain style of combing the
| hair is best suited to his particular head,
| it gals him to arise from the chair and,
| glancing into the glass, find his poetic
| face rudely transformed into likeness of
| some rogue which adorns the walls of
every police gallery in the country. That
| cuts fellow, and his pride in self, his re-
| lance upon a fellow man gets down so
| low that his articulation is only stopped
| by his limited knowledge of imprecation,
not to say oaths. All mems heads
are not shaped alike, and no
one style of dressing the hair
will answer for all. The apple-headed
man, the bullet-headed man, as well as the
man with the "long head" need different
attention, and how absurdly funny would
it look to part the hair in the middle where
the mans head is narrow and especially
long from chin to top of forehead. He
would look as if the Creator had lost his
tools in the flood and two half models had
been mismated by a heather Chinese. If
| a mans hair is curly there is little need of
| ingenuity in dressing it, for it is bound to
| get the twist any way, and at the worst
will still prove handy article for women
| with excellent grip. That is why the
| gentler sex are partial to men with curly
hair. They will fatter themselves that it
| necessarily gives a distinguished air to its
wearer, but that is the silent argument in
| itself why they desire to "take down" the
unfortunate owner of it.
There is great chance for display of real
artistic ability among BARRIERS. and though
many of them are painstaking and can
| give man 'clean shave" there is need
that they study the physical outline of
each head and note well what method of
| hair dressing their customer observes and
conform to it, except where he is specially
| advised to suit his own taste. L. I. NJ.