Antique Vintage Barber Shop Collectibles 1860-1960 / Scarce Illustrated Book

Description

Over 1,000 items are illustrated and described in this comprehensive pictorial survey of barber shop collectibles.
THE VANISHING AMERICAN BARBER SHOP: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF TONSORIAL ART, 1860-1960
by Ronald S. Barlow, Windmill Publishing Company, El Cajon, CA, 1993.
Here is “the most comprehensive book ever written on barber shop history, Ronald S. Barlow traces the evolution of professional shaving and haircutting from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to the unisex shops of the 1960’s.  Scores of vintage photographs and hundreds of illustrations accompany a text which is both educational and entertaining.  Few people are aware that before World War I most men did not shave themselves.  They visited their local barber shop for whisker removal at least twice a week.  The shaving parlor was a men’s club of sorts, a bay rum-scented repository of spicy magazines and the latest sporting news where butchers, bakers, carpenters, and cattlemen rubbed elbows and puffed on five-cent cigars while waiting for a turn in the red leather chair.  Several chapters in this book are devoted to the memoirs of old-time barbers who actually worked in shops from 1830-1950.  Also included are lessons on shaving (with a straight razor) and haircutting as taught in early barber school manuals.  Doctors and dentists will discover the origins of their professions in a section on bloodletting monks and barber-surgeons of the 15th century.”  Here is a truly great book for social historians of masculine American culture of the turn-of-the-century as well as for vintage catalog enthusiasts—not to mention any collector who specializes in barber shop paraphernalia.
9“ x 12“ softback in very good condition.  224 pages.
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