In Michigan and in some other of the United States there are in use laws regulating the conduct of the barber's art, having, it is asserted, good effect. The would-be qualified barber before being granted a licence to practise is required to pass an examination conducted by a special Board. For instance, according to Mr. Charles Rieger, of the Michigan Barbers' Commission, he may be asked “What kind of a lather-brush do you use?” The inwardness of this question is that certain kinds of handles are alleged to collect verdigris and other even more harmful accumulations and are consequently rigorously eschewed by the scientific barber. Or, again, “What do you use for washing lather from a customer's face?” If he should say a sponge he is liable to be plucked, for a clean towel for each customer is very rightly considered necessary. If on being asked, “What do you use for applying powder to a customer's face?” he should reply “powder puffs,” he is again in a parlous case, for the Commission hold that there is no surer method of communicating skin disease than by the application of the same powder-puff to each customer's face. According to the same authority a recent examination form consisted of sixteen questions, on which the candidate was required to obtain a percentage of seventy. He had to state, among other things, how long he had been engaged in his profession; whether he had undergone a term of recognised apprenticeship; on what kind of hone he sharpened his razors; what kind of antiseptic lotion he used for disinfecting his razors, clippers, and scissors; what he used for cleaning hair brushes, combs, and shaving brushes; how he would stop haemorrhage in case a customer was cut; and to describe appropriate treatment for face eruptions caused by close shaving, for dandruff, and for loss of hair. The law, we are told, while not expecting the barber to be a physician, did expect him to be familiar with the best methods of preventing skin diseases by the use of proper antiseptics.
(BMJ 1901;ii:225)