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Hairdressers Of The Eighties

December 12, 2024
by the gentle author

I am delighted to publish these photos from A London Inheritance – written by a graduate of my blog course.

A few places are available for my course HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ on February 1st & 2nd. Come to Spitalfields and spend a winter weekend with me in an eighteenth century weaver’s house in Fournier St, enjoy delicious lunches and eat cakes baked to historic recipes by Townhouse, and learn how to write your own blog. Click here for details

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Dennis Gents Hair Stylist, note the razor blade sign

Ron’s Gents Hairdressers, Three Colts Lane, Bethnal Green, is still there but has changed from ‘Hairdresser’ to ‘Barber.’

His & Hers, ‘Executive Mood’ and ‘Avant Garde Mood’ hairstyles offered

June’s Ladies Hair Stylist. STE was the code for Stepney Green, letters were replaced by numbers around 1966.

Dave & Syd Strong, Gent’s Hairdresser

Gent’s Hairdresser moving into Ladies’ Hairdressing

Gent’s Hair Stylist, Puma Court, Spitalfields, run by Kyriacos Cleovoulou from 1962 until 2005.

Apples, Hair Stylist

Peter, Individual Gents Hair Stylist

The Saloon, customers peering out from the left of the window

Gentlemen’s Hairdressing Salon, Carter Lane, City of London

Mario’s Men’s Hairstylist

Hairdresser at 10 Laystall Street, Clerkenwell, with a plaque commemorating Giuseppe Mazzini as ‘the apostle of modern democracy inspired young Italy with the ideal of independence, unity and regeneration of his country.’

The Pleasant Gent’s Hairdresser is still going in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell

Photographs copyright © A London Inheritance

Follow A LONDON INHERITANCE, A Private History of a Public City

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The Barbers of Spitalfields

At Clapton Beauty Parlour

At Cleo’s Barber Shop

Lew Lessen, Barber

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HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ: 30th & 31st October 2021

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This course will examine the essential questions which need to be addressed if you wish to write a blog that people will want to read.

“Like those writers in fourteenth century Florence who discovered the sonnet but did not quite know what to do with it, we are presented with the new literary medium of the blog – which has quickly become omnipresent, with many millions writing online. For my own part, I respect this nascent literary form by seeking to explore its own unique qualities and potential.” – The Gentle Author

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COURSE STRUCTURE

1. How to find a voice – When you write, who are you writing to and what is your relationship with the reader?
2. How to find a subject – Why is it necessary to write and what do you have to tell?
3. How to find the form – What is the ideal manifestation of your material and how can a good structure give you momentum?
4. The relationship of pictures and words – Which comes first, the pictures or the words? Creating a dynamic relationship between your text and images.
5. How to write a pen portrait – Drawing on The Gentle Author’s experience, different strategies in transforming a conversation into an effective written evocation of a personality.
6. What a blog can do – A consideration of how telling stories on the internet can affect the temporal world.

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SALIENT DETAILS

The course will be held at 5 Fournier St, Spitalfields on 30th-31st October, running from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 11am-5pm on Sunday.

Lunch will be catered by Leila’s Cafe of Arnold Circus and tea, coffee & cakes by the Townhouse are included within the course fee of £300.

Email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com to book a place on the course.

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5 Responses leave one →
  1. Andy Strowman permalink
    December 12, 2024

    Sorry for not writing for so long .
    The virus did it !

    I wanted to say I like the pictures a lot .

    Also , I have a friend called Alan , and his Mum ran a barber shop in Cable street
    She cut men’s hair . Unusual in those dayss.
    He had his in Alie street .

    Anyone on here remember them ?

  2. December 12, 2024

    What role did historical and cultural influences, like the plaque commemorating Giuseppe Mazzini, play in the branding of hairdressing establishments?

  3. Marcia Howard permalink
    December 12, 2024

    A lovely step back into nostalgia, and love seeing all the old telephone codes. Numbers were so much easier to remember back then, albeit we didn’t know many people with a phone, so perhaps that’s why I still clearly remember the ones that I do! The hairdresser my mum took us to, was in the front room of a private house in a street nearby to where we lived.

  4. Jo N permalink
    December 12, 2024

    But who is the Pleasant Gent?

  5. December 12, 2024

    The photo of the shop of “Peter, Gents Individual Hair Stylist ” caught my eye. In the absence of a real dimensional barber pole, some enterprising soul has painted the diagonal barber stripes on the outside of the building. And forgive me if I am totally confused by the uprooted remnants of the tree that seems to be surrounded by Astro Turf. But, rest assured, Peter was at-the-ready, able to do Long and Short Hair, and Razor Cutting. The signage, the row of “outcome” photos, and the discreet “open” sign gives me great confidence.
    What I remember about hair in the Eighties…………”product”. And a LOT of it. We moussed, teased, scrunched, sprayed and added something called “pectin” to create those wonderful spikes; on demand. Inspiration usually came from MTV videos, where both male and female musicians tossed back handfuls of processed locks — and of course there was always the zenith of hair innovators, Boy George.

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