haircuts at sea

[Keith Tindell]

My poor old addled brain got thinking of days at sea, and bearing in mind, in my case most were trampers, did we all have a crew member who claimed the post of barber?. If i recall correctly, for 200 fags we had a lot of *hackers*, who could dish out a terrible trim, and this was in the days when i cared about my appearance!! (coldn`t give a fishes tit now). In fact i recall one guy who used to start hacking with the statement * only difference between a good haircut and a bad bugger is 14 days*, didn`t fill one full of confidence, Regards KT

[Ivan Cloherty]

I must confess Keith that I was one of those Sweeney Todds on trampers, but my fee was a beer, being a non smoker, had repeat customers so couldn't have been too bad. But then again with passages of three weeks between ports any damage caused was self repairing!!

[John Arton]

Keith
On my first ever ship, with Spanish crew, we had amongst them a professional barber now working as a 2nd steward. He had all his kit with him and for a couple of beers would give you a great haircut. Even had the cut-throat razor with him and used to offer shaves with it but being a pimply faced youth I always declined that especially as at times he used to get the shakes.
Amongst the same crew we had a high wire artist who was always eyeing up the radio aerials that ran to the amidships Samson posts (he always volunteered for any high works, absolutely fearless standing atop the foremast painting the top ball with no safety harness or anything), also had a couple of sheep and goat farmers along with a ex. tug master who coming home late one morning in Lisbon, bummed a lift off one of the tugs escorting us into dry dosck, went on the wheelhouse of the tug, threw the Portuguese skipper off the controls and proceeded to drive the tug as it towed us into dry dock (80000 ton tanker). Fantastic bunch of guys who taught me Spanish and whom I used to holiday with for a number of years later in Northern Spain.
With the Filipino crews I sailed with later, they always got the ship to buy a set of WHAAL hair trimmers (same as barbers shops) and could give you anything from a short back and sides to a no.1 all over.
rgds
JA

[Ron B Manderson]

In Brocks we must have been POSH
We used the barber in Columbo.
After the cut he would put on a Coconut oil mixed with menthol. Real cool that was.
Ron the batcave

[Tony Wilding]

i can remember some of the ships who had a crew member who was able to cut hair, usually a short back and sides, but in the tropics that was fine, it soon grew again to cover any mistakes. was usually cigies as a fee.

[Lou Barron]

Talking about haircuts at sea , this was not at sea but in the pow camp we decided that it would be better to have a bald head for hygiene as our cleaning gear was pretty much non existence. So one of the guys had ask the Jap who was in chargeof us for the gear do this well scissors and a a straight cut razor we got .Talk about laugh we had some queer looking heads .When i got mine done the guy who done it i was unaware what he did he left a V on the back of my head .It was when we went on Tenko that one of the Japs got behind and started yelling and screaming at me and gave me a clout across the head seeing the V must have got him mad .The guy who did this apologised to me afterwards .We stayed with bald heads right till the end

[happy daze john in oz]

Do recall the 'barber' at the Vindi, a littke on the gay side I believe ans not shy of taking a shine to som eof the lads. His haircut was close to the bone on orders of the officers.
At sea I can recall a couple of guys on UCL who cut hair, one a tourist winger used to collect all the hair he cut, had it ina sort of string bag. What he did with it I have no idea, not game to ask.

[Doc Vernon]

I recall the hackers at Sea,although some were fairly good,I myself never ventured there,as them days I had a fair head of hair,like so many others and with my Tony Curtis style,I wasn't going to get that all spoilt,no way hosay!!!
Always waited till we hit ports either in Southampton,or London,and then went to the same barbers,even though it was a we bit on the steep side,it was wash,cut and yes blow dry too,they used to spend so much time on one,it was very relaxing and when done walked out feeling on top of the World,ready to meet the favourite chick and party haha!

[Jim Brady]

I remember the barber coming aboard in Mauritius he would put his board up showing his "references" usually typed out on ships menu cards.Some of the references were very old I think that they must've been his grandfathers but all had the same theme, "don't let this guy anywhere near your hair he is absolute rubbish and cant cut hair" many similar to that and very funny and the barber who obviously couldn't read them but very proud of them.I remember the barber coming out to the ship at anchor in St.Vincente Cape Verde,a guy was telling me he was there at one time and the barber was half way through cutting a guys hair when a tanker appeared to be heading towards them on a collision course.The barbere spotted the tanker grabbed all his gear and headed over the wall leaving the guy with half a haircut,the guy was after him shouting what about my hair with the barber replying "next trip sir next trip"
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, Dont recall anything about hair cuts at sea? had mine done ashore, crew cut in them days had it cut in gravesend and in Chatham.