The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-12
AMERICAN HAIR CUT
A HOME PRODUCT
No Ideas from Europe in These
Fashions
VIEWS OF A TONS0RIALlST
Styles in Boards May BE imported,
But American Locks Are Trimmed
According to Modes
Developed Here.
VIEWS OF A TONSORIALIST

From the New YORK sun.
'.Where do our fashions in hair come
from? Why" said the barber they don't
coma from anywhere, ana We don't have
any, or not by name.
with boards. now, IT is somewhat diff
ferent. There are distinct styles Of boards
but men don't come In and say they wan;
a Vandyke hair cut or a Louis XIV
trim, because there are no such marhede-
" distinct styles In hair cutting. There
are styles, to be sure, and there may
he prevailing modes, but not fashions as
there are In boards.
Men follow the fashions more or less
IN their clothes, and the styles for mems
clothes are supposed to come from Lon
don as those for women's clothes come
from Paris, but while we may get some
beard styles from various parts of Europe
we don't get hair styles from London or
anywhere else across the water These
are native, and the manner in which a
man wears his hair is likely to be also
individual, determined by the manner In
which mans hair grows on his head
thought there may spring up freak or
passing fashions that will be for a time
followed by many.
For instance, a member of the 400 may
start parting his hair in the middle, and
that fashion may be followed by the
100000. A few years ago we had quite
a good many men parting their hair IN
the middle; not so many now. And yet
that style, which once might have been
described as a fashion, may not have
been adopted by its originator from a
desire to create a fashion,, or to be diff
ferent. but to enable him so to dispose
his hair as to cover bald spots ON his
temples and make the most of what he
had.
Followed by Old Men.
Observe that while it was mostly
younger men that followed this style
and these because it was supposed to be
the latest fashion. older men followed it
too: these simply because with such a
parting they could better cover up bald
temples. and men with bald spots any
where always comb their hair to
cover those spots to the best advan-
tage.
Now, of course, there may be men
who look best with their hair parted in
the middle. and so should wear their hair
that way, but most men part their hair on
the side, and the great majority part ii
on the left side, this being primarily due
not to fashion, but to the fact that the
great majority of us are right handed,
and it is easier for us to draw the comb
through the hair from left to right than
it is to push the comb from right to
left.
so there you have, in the side part, Il
style feature that is prevailing and con-
tnuous; but this is not an imported style
it is something natural and individual
and the style may vary in its actual eX-
erplification, for a man may have cow
lick, and so. while he still parts his hail
on the side he may have to part II
higher or lower than the ordinary.
you see when we are considering
mems hair and the fashions in which
it is worn, we find ourselves always COM
ing back to The individual. There have
been pronounced fashions in hair cutting
in this country, some of them so gener-
ally followed In their period that they
constituted the mode for the time, but
there is no such following of fashions
now.
When They Wore Earlocks.
"Fifty or sixty years ago it was tht
common fashion in this country for men
and boys to wear earloclss The hair was
then worn long, and broad locks of Ii
were brushed forward on the sides of the
head, over the. ears, and brushed down
smooth on the head there; and the par
Der used as much care in trimming of
these earlocks each with straight vertl-
cal line at its front edge, as he does now
in trimming the line at the sides of the
head down the neck back of the ears
You see these earlochs, once commonly
worn. in many old pictures, but you don't
see anybody wearing them now.
"Once everybody. or rather every young
ster. had his hair shngled; now the acme
of good barbering in all hair cutting is to
produce on the hair, in whatever length II
is cut. the effect of a smooth surface.
For a later style, once more or less
common, we had cropped hair: the hair
cut uniformly close to the head; and once
every man. in whatever style as to Its
other features he had his hair trimmed
had 1t cut in a sharply defined line around
the back at the base of the head; style
indeed still followed by some.
And so we have had various styles pre-
vailing at various periods; but now the
prevailing mode In hair cutting is one not
conspicuous in any way. 1t Is one that
might be described as marked by an alb
sence of style as such. The hair Is cut
moderately short, and in other respects
most COMMONLY in such manner as may
he best suited to the wearer.
.In other words, while we may import
some of our beard styles, we are pretty
sure or most of us are. anyway, to wear
our hair In the style that Is most becom-
ing to u.s. helped in this. of course, by the
skilfuI and it may easily be artistic bar
Der; and might add that there was never
a time when the American displayed, in
the fashions In which he wears his hair,
such good sense and good taste as now"