The hair cloth may be made of calico, gingham or bleached sheeting. If the sheeting is used get the goods wide enough to require no seam, and then border with a two inch band of red oiled calico.
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.