Extra Information From Quiz Committee: By the 1900s, barber shops provided, besides a haircut and/or hair shampoo; shaving, shaping beards, sideburns and moustaches; hair tonic, hair
singeing, , facial massage, ladies’ neck clip, other services such as scissor sharpening, razor honing, or a shoe-shine. Some also had a
horse-betting service.
In 1901, Hubner and Walters, proprietors of the Star Barber shop, at 410 Dundas, Woodstock, advertised that their
‘hot water system is without equal . . . 60 gallons of water can be boiled in an hour . . . hot and cold baths
can be furnished at all hours’. They also sold ‘fine cigars’.
From the 1940s through to the 1980s, barbering was under government regulations that fixed prices for each service according to the area, and
that also set hours of opening and days of closing. In the 1960s, using a razor seemed at first to be a faster method of cutting hair. Everyone
appeared to benefit. It reduced waiting time for the next customers and also increased the barber’s rate of income for this fixed-price service. However,
more customers than usual began to need help to ‘stop split ends’, a condition in which, at a particular hair length, its ends split and give the
hair an unhealthy look. The usual treatment at that time was hair singeing - a hot curling iron was briefly applied to the hair tips. After some
research, it was found that it was the razor cuts that were damaging the hair and razor cuts soon went out of fashion.
Some barbers became so well known that, in one case, a postcard addressed simply, ‘Gib the barber, Woodstock, Canada’, reached its correct
destination. Gib Stephens is a Woodstock resident who worked for Les McKerral in the 1960s and later operated his own barber shop.
After the 1100s, blood-letting and tooth-pulling were among minor medical tasks for the barber, and by the time of England’s Henry VIII, barbers were
officially classed in the same company as surgeons. The symbolism of the barber’s red and white striped poles dates from that time (the white
representing a bandage).
Sources:
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (Woodstock Public Library)
- Woodstock Public Library, local history files
- Gib Stephens, retired Woodstock barber.