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  • #1

    Barber Shop Prices

    Found this while going through Vickie Bett's wonderful newspaper site. Thought it might be of interest considering a month or two ago there was a lot of discussion on barbers and what not.

    Cheers,
    Adam Cripps

    ALBANY [GA] PATRIOT, March 16, 1865 (didn't get page or column)

    New Barber Shop.

    The Subscriber respectfully informs the citizens of Albany that he has taken rooms at the Albany House, and has opened a first-class BARBOR [sic] SHOP for the accommodation of the public. The following are my rates:
    Shampooing head $5.00
    Cutting hair 3.00
    Shaving 2.00
    I will be ready at all times to accommodate customers. Give me a call. William Rogers.
    Albany, March 9th, 1865.
    [COLOR=DarkOrange][SIZE=4][FONT=Book Antiqua]Adam Cripps[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Barber Shop Prices

    Those prices seem mighty steep to me. That would cost about a months pay to get the works done. A sign of late-war inflation combined with the devaluation of the Confederate dollar perhaps?
    Michael Comer
    one of the moderator guys

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    • #3
      The Barber of Natchez

      I suggest reading the book, The Barber of Natchez , by Edwin Adams, Davis, William R. Hogan. The story of how a slave rose to be one of the most well respected free blacks of his society, and how he built an empire of barber shops. Very insightful about one example of how things were in the old south.

      Paul B. Boulden Jr.

      RAH VA MIL '04
      Paul B. Boulden Jr.


      RAH VA MIL '04
      (Loblolly Mess)
      [URL="http://23rdva.netfirms.com/welcome.htm"]23rd VA Vol. Regt.[/URL]
      [URL="http://www.virginiaregiment.org/The_Virginia_Regiment/Home.html"]Waggoner's Company of the Virginia Regiment [/URL]

      [URL="http://www.military-historians.org/"]Company of Military Historians[/URL]
      [URL="http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer"]Museum of the Confederacy[/URL]
      [URL="http://www.historicsandusky.org/index.html"]Historic Sandusky [/URL]

      Inscription Capt. Archibold Willet headstone:

      "A span is all that we can boast, An inch or two of time, Man is but vanity and dust, In all his flower and prime."

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Barber Shop Prices

        So, how much was one in uninflated U.S. currency? Better yet... Just when was it that a "Shave and a Haircut" cost "two bits"? (.25) :wink_smil
        Tom Smith, 2nd Lt. T.E.
        Nobel Grand Humbug, Al XXI,
        Chapt. 1.5 De la Guerra y Pacheco
        Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus
        Topographer for: TAG '03, BGR, Spring Hill, Marmeduke's Raid, & ITPW

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        • #5
          Re: Barber Shop Prices

          According to the website of the Economic History Net, that $3 haircut in 1865 would cost you $33.68 today. I don't have enough hair left to go to a hairstylist but I suppose that really isn't too far off from the top-of-the-line treatment today.

          Ron Myzie

          Originally posted by huntdaw
          Those prices seem mighty steep to me. That would cost about a months pay to get the works done. A sign of late-war inflation combined with the devaluation of the Confederate dollar perhaps?

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Barber Shop Prices

            Originally posted by ephraim_zook
            According to the website of the Economic History Net, that $3 haircut in 1865 would cost you $33.68 today. I don't have enough hair left to go to a hairstylist but I suppose that really isn't too far off from the top-of-the-line treatment today.
            The original prices sound extremely inflated to me also. I think the way Michael Comer looked at it is more realistic.

            The $33.68 equivalent value is based on the consumer price index, so it's based on purchasing goods, not buying/selling labor. But we only have a mental picture of the value of $33.68 based on how hard or easy it is to earn. Yet a CPI-based multiplier doesn't take that into account.

            In the uninflated pre-war era, $3 would be a day's wages for a skilled worker (bricklayer, etc.) I don't think you could get a bricklayer to work 12 hours for $33.68 today, but that's what the CPI multiplier is saying he'd do. Or to look at it another way, unless barbers were the equivalent of rock stars or football players in the 1860s, it doesn't make sense for the value of a barber's service to be 10 times higher than the value of most other tradesman's or mechanic's labor.

            Here's a quote from Vicki Betts' same archives, showing the inflationary pressure on barbers.

            [HOUSTON] TRI-WEEKLY TELEGRAPH, August 4, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
            Look here, barbers! Why do you stick to your old prices for shaving and hair cutting, while your neighbors are selling a paper of pins for six bits and a yard of calico for one dollar? Why not charge everybody—except editors, of course, forty cents for shaving, and one dollar for hair cutting, and thus keep up with the times? If shaving is to be the order of the day, certainly you ought to dignify your profession by coming in for your share. Others are charging as long as they can hold their breath, why do you not do it so long as you can hold a man by the nose! "Diamond cut diamond" should be your motto, and if you are not as sharp as others, use your strap. Pile on the "soft soap" if it is cheaper than hard, and in all things strive to preserve the consistency which should prevail in any well regulated community. Do not any longer shave ten men for a sum just sufficient for the purchase of a picayune yard of calico! So shall your days be long, &c.
            Hank Trent
            hanktrent@voyager.net
            Hank Trent

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Barber Shop Prices

              Hank,

              Thanks for pointing that out. We (well, me, anyhow) have a tendency to look at the value of a dollar in the abstract rather than at the work involved in acquiring a dollar. Creates an overly simplistic view of the economy.

              but I did barely squeak through economics in college...

              Ron Myzie

              Originally posted by Hank Trent
              The original prices sound extremely inflated to me also. I think the way Michael Comer looked at it is more realistic.

              The $33.68 equivalent value is based on the consumer price index, so it's based on purchasing goods, not buying/selling labor. But we only have a mental picture of the value of $33.68 based on how hard or easy it is to earn. Yet a CPI-based multiplier doesn't take that into account.

              In the uninflated pre-war era, $3 would be a day's wages for a skilled worker (bricklayer, etc.) I don't think you could get a bricklayer to work 12 hours for $33.68 today, but that's what the CPI multiplier is saying he'd do. Or to look at it another way, unless barbers were the equivalent of rock stars or football players in the 1860s, it doesn't make sense for the value of a barber's service to be 10 times higher than the value of most other tradesman's or mechanic's labor.

              Here's a quote from Vicki Betts' same archives, showing the inflationary pressure on barbers.



              Hank Trent
              hanktrent@voyager.net

              Comment

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