General Discussion

stabilization. - similar to what was tried during the Ford administration. It was probably part of the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) One of the first tasks was to categorize jobs. A barber that used to cut my hair was part of a group of barbers that went to Washington to explain their profession..... seriously..... The classification they came up with was, "artisan."

Artisans were not allowed to charge more than .25 for a haircut and so forth. Mr. Masi was in his 90s when he was still working one day a week. - 1960's. His claim to fame was that he had cut Buffalo Bill Cody's hair when Bill's Wild West show was in Newark (NJ).

He would cut a patron's hair and then step back. Approach again and take one or two more snips of the scissors. This would be followed by his exclaiming, "Trifling makes perfection and perfection is no trifle."

Mr. Masi came from Italy and was a tailor. Unfortunately, Italian tailors were not employable. At that time, there were large numbers of Italian immigrants and this caused the usual fear and hostility like we are seeing with Latino immigrants today. A friend told him, since he knew how to use scissors, just become a barber. At the turn of the last century, there was no licensing requirement to be a barber.