SUGGESTIONS FOR BEGINNERS.
In the first place, if you have made up your mind to be a barber, why not be a good one. There is always room at the top, and rich reward for him who has reached the top. Rich reward, however, is the price of self-exertion. Do not wait for a tidal wave to waft you on to success. The minions of fortune are few and far between. You must not only work but you must embrace every opportunity to improve your qualifications, if you would achieve success in this age of advanced knowledge and skill. You should always be on the alert, and never miss an opportunity to acquire useful information. Knowledge is power, and it behooves you to gain all the knowledge you can, especially of your own business. If necessary pay for it, work for it, or even beg for it. The possession of a good fund of practical knowledge with other necessary qualities of mind and heart, will enable one to wear good clothes, make plenty of money and to have scores of friends; while the lack of it will make another the digger of ditches, living in rags and poverty, and deprived of the more congenial companionship of the better and nobler elements of society. Knowledge pays.
Moreover, while you should attend well to the proper equipment of your mind, you should not neglect the proper cultivation of your social character. Especially should you cultivate what might be termed a practical business social tact.
Treat every customer as though your success depended upon him and him alone, and always exert your utmost to do good work. Much depends upon the barber's ability to shave well. To accomplish the great desideratum of being able to shave well each one of the various customers with their varying qualities of beard, you must diligently study the temper of your razors with reference to the peculiar beard of each customer. Again much depends upon the lather, the brush, the hone, the strop, etc. Hence you will please pardon a few simple primary suggestions leading up to a good shave. First you must equip yourself with first-class tools.
Procure a first-class oil hone.
A large rubber ferruled lather brush.
A large heavy shaving mug.
A half dozen No. 1 razors, 4½ to 4⅝ wide and ¾ concave.
Your soap and all other materials and implements should be as good as you are able to buy.
When you hone your razor on the oil hone, use good soap and make a stiff lather which you will spread on the hone. Then place the razor on the hone and draw very lightly from heel to point so that the edge of the razor will always be on the front side of the moving blade. Each stroke across the hone should be a sloping or sawing stroke, and at the end of each the razor should be turned on the back and pushed up across the end of the hone, and the other side of the blade laid flat on the hone. Then draw the razor back with a curving or angular stroke to the other end of the hone. Turn again as before and continue with steady stroke until you think the blade is sharp. Wet the thumb nail and try the edge by drawing it lightly from end to end. Should the edge feel blunt or rough make a few more strokes on the hone and try again, and so on until the edge is satisfactory. A better way to test the edge, if you have a smooth soft hand, is to wet the end of thumb or fore finger and draw the razor lightly over it feeling of the edge. However, it requires practice to tell with certainty by either method. Therefore practice carefully until you become expert.
We will here make a few suggestions in regard to the different hones generally used by barbers. The oil hone, which is supposed to be petrified hickory, is the one most used, and is perhaps the best. Second in rank and general use comes the Swatty hone which is made from the same material as the emery wheel, but it is of finer grade. This is a very fast cutting hone. Next comes the water hone which is simply a fine grit stone, and then comes the glass hone which is but little used. A few barbers use it to take off the wire edge of over-honed razors. Hones should be handled with great care. In honing the razor should be run well out to the ends to prevent hollowing the hone. Should a hone begin to hollow, work it down with fine sand paper to a perfect face and smooth it with the rubber used on the water hones. I prefer olive oil on an oil hone if carefully used. Of course lather may be used on an oil hone the same as on the Swatty and glass hones. Use water on the water hone and rub with the rub stone commonly used until the surface is covered with a sort of soapy pasty lather before honing. The glass hone may be used in the same manner. Any hone when not in use should be wrapped up and laid away carefully after having been washed and thoroughly cleaned.
You should be provided with a good shell strop, or a good Russian leather strop, and also a good canvas strop. After honing strop the razor lightly on the leather only. The canvas should not be used except when the razor has become smooth. When you have a customer in the chair, first put a clean towel on him and proceed to make the lather using warm soft water. Lather the face and scour the beard, and then lather again with a good heavy lather. Proceed to shave, drawing the razor with a sawing stroke, and make the strokes as long as practicable. Hold the skin tight to throw out the beard, and go over the face the first time as quickly as possible. Then wash the soap from the face, and go over it a second time, keeping the skin somewhat stretched, and wet with soft water. When finished, press a hot towel to the face and then use one of the face creams given in this book.
Next powder the face, and curl and perfume the mustache. If you think his hair needs trimming tell him so, and if he has it done, do your very best, even taking pains to cut the hair out of his ears. Shave his neck. The most important point is to get a good edge on the hair.
If he takes a shampoo, first give the scalp a good brushing to loosen the dandruff, and then use Silver Gloss Shampoo, giving him to understand that you have it for sale for family use. Rinse hair with warm soft water, and dry with a fine bath towel, and then ask him if you shall apply some of the hair tonic which will cost him only ten cents extra.
Comb his hair in the latest style, and if he desires it, color his mustache with the celebrated German Hair Dye. Help him into his coat, and thanking him bid him come again.
Purchase every good book pertaining to your business, study diligently and practice what you learn, and you will soon stand abreast with the best and most progressive barbers. You should be prompted by no meaner ambition.