The barber is a very useful and important member of the society. He makes us look clean and decent in appearance. It is good that he is not regarded mean and untouchable.
In villages, the barber is paid in the form of fixed quantity of corn at the harvest time. This quantity depends upon the members of the family. This corn is generally enough for him for the whole year. Besides this, on happy occasions and ceremonies, he is given gifts of clothes and money by his customers. He goes from village to village and shaves the people and cuts their hair once or twice a month. The village barber is well and happy.
In towns and cities there are shops of barbers known as hair cutting saloons. People go to these shops and get themselves shaved and have their hair cut. These shops are beautifully decorated with looking glass, chairs and shaving material. The barber has to do his work standing. He has to keep his implements sharp and do his work well. On Sundays, he has a very busy time, because the students, the teachers and other people working in the offices, have a holiday on the day. Besides these works, the barber had to do some other duties on the occasion of marriages, births, deaths and other ceremonies in the past time. He is an important man on such occasions and we cannot do without him. In the marriage ceremonies he plays a very important part of all times. He is generally very talkative. He keeps people satisfied at ail the times by his good behaviour.
In the beginning he remains assistant with an expert barber. Then he starts his own work. The tools of his trade are one or two pairs of scissors, two or three razors, a cup soap, a hair cutting machine, a nail cutter, a shaving brush, a piece of white or coloured cloth and a few combs. Now new techniques and implements have come for his working with the modernization. There are electric shavers, electric massager etc. He keeps them all in ready form. With a piece of cloth he covers the body of his customer. Then he cuts hair with his machine, comb and scissors. He applies soap to customer's face and produces foam with the brush. He does so to wet them thoroughly and to make them soft. He then takes his razor. First he sharpens it at a Blackstone piece and then on a leather strap, some barbers now use the blade razors. While shaving, he collects hair mixed foam in a rubber pot. In the end he clears the face with clean water and applies after shave lotion and scented cream.
The barber of today is well-awakened. He now knows his rights. He expects respect from people. They are well to do now.
