34 35

HAIRDRESSING

Of the 1,612 women interviewed 18% go to the hairdresser regularly, 27% occasionally and 55% always do their own hair.

This shows that the highest proportion of women going to the hairdresser regularly is in the 31 - 45 years age group which shows a correspondingly lower proportion of women who always do their own hair, Women under 30 years pay occasional visits to the hairdresser with about the same frequency as those between 30 and 45, and a relatively high proportion of women over 45 always do their own hair.

The proportions of housewives and factory workers who visit the hair-dresser regularly and occasionally, and who do their own hair are approximately the same. A higher proportion of other women workers go to the hairdresser both regularly and occasionally.

Of the 720 women who went to the hairdresser regularly or occasionally 29% said they had had difficulty in getting it done lately, and 71% that they had not. Analysis by occupation shows that 35% of both factory and other workers had experienced difficulty, whereas only 24% of the housewife group had done so.

Reasons for difficulty are given below:-

When asked whether they want to the hairdresser more or less often than before the war 48% of the 720 women said they went less often, 43% that they went just about as often, 6% said they went more often since the war, and 3% were unable to decide.

This shows that the proportion of housewives visiting the hairdresser more frequently than before the war is lower than that of the other two groups. Factory and other workers have a correspondingly lower proportion making less frequent visits.

Those who said they visited the hairdresser less often than in peace time were asked to give reasons for this. These are shown on the next page.

As only 41 women in all said they went to the hairdresser more often than before the war, the figures are too small to give analysis of reasons for doing this.

MEN'S HAIRDRESSING

A sample of 1,052 men interviewed in the same inquiry and selected in representative proportions from different regions and occupation groups was interviewed.

The men were asked if they had any difficulty in getting their hair cut.

26% said they had difficulty

74% said they did not have difficulty

SAMPLE 1052

This shows that men engaged in agriculture, mining, building and trans­port find appreciably less difficulty in getting their hair cut than those in the two other occupational groups.

The 278 men who said they were having difficulty were asked what this was -

Half the difficulties were attributed to having to queue and wait so long owing to shortage of staff.

36

COSMETICS

All the 1,612 women interviewed were asked whether they were able to get all they wanted in the way of cosmetics,

37% were able to get all they wanted,

26% were not able to get all they wanted, do not use cosmetics,

Analysis by age and occupation of those who use cosmetics shows no signi­ficant differences between the proportions who could and could not get all they wanted.

Proportions of women who do not use cosmetics in the different age and occupational groups are given below –

Women who were unable to get the cosmetics they wanted were asked what particular items they had not been able to get, and whether they had not bought them because they were unobtainable or of the wrong type.

Percentages add up to more than 100 because women mentioned that they had been unable to get more than one type of cosmetic.

The highest proportion of women said that they had been unable to get vanishing cream, rather more than half of these women said it was due to the unobtainability of vanishing cream. Approximately equal proportions had been unable to get powder, lipstick and cleansing cream, this was said to be due to unobtainability in the case of cleansing cream, but large numbers of women had not bought powder and lipstick because it was of the wrong type.

All women interviewed were asked if they bought more or less cosmetics than before the war.

37% said they bought more.

28% said they bought the same amount.

34% said they bought less.

37

SAMPLE

Total: 2671

Towns included

Scotland

Glasgow

Dumbarton

Paisley

Kilsyth

Clydebank

North of England

Newcastle Gosforth Gateshead Leeds

Huddersfield

Batley

Sheffield

Chesterfield

Manchester

Bury

Stockport

Liverpool

Birkenhead

St. Helens

Preston

Accrington

Burnley

Midlands & Wales

Nottingham

Ripley

Leicester

Market Harborough

Birmingham

Coventry

Sutton Coldfield

Wolverhampton

Bridgnorth

Brierley Hill

Cardiff

Pontypool

Caerphilly

South, S W & E. Anglia

Aylesbury

Princes Risborough

Winchester

Southampton

Bristol

Clevedon

Exeter

Taunton

Tunbridge Wells

Maidstone

Peterborough

Stamford

Ipswich

Woodbridge

London

Bethnal Green

Hackney

Hornsey

Wembley

Harlesdon

City

Lewisham

Clapham

Tooting

Rural areas covered in:

South

South West

N. Midlands

E. Anglia

North East

38

MEN'S BRUSHES

An Inquiry made by the Wartime Social Survey for the Board of Trade

The investigation was carried out between January 18th and February 8th, 1943.

A sample of 1087 men were interviewed, drawn in representative proportions from different regions, occupations and age groups.

The purpose of the inquiry was to find out what proportion:

Of men had tried to buy hair and shaving brushes during the preceding four weeks.

How many shops they had visited for the purpose.

Whether they had actually been able to buy a brush.

If so, whether there had been any special difficulty in doing so.

The reason for unsuccessful attempts to buy, and The total number of hair and shaving brushes in stock.

Thus, of the 1057 men 4% had tried to buy hair brushes and 7% to buy shaving brushes in the last four weeks. Only 1% of those who had not tried to buy either kind of brush had been deterred from doing so because they had heard of the shortage; 1 % in both cases needed brushes but had not yet tried to buy them, and 95% did not need either kind of brush.

As the numbers trying to buy hairbrushes and shaving brushes was small (38 and 77 respectively), it is not possible to give reliable results for the dependent questions asked only of those who had tried to buy, had bought or had not bought brushes. No results can be given therefore as to the number of shops visited, difficulties in buying, or the prices of these brushes bought.

However, it may be said that rather less than half of those trying had succeeded in buying hairbrushes, and rather more than half of those trying had succeeded in buying shaving brushes.

STOCKS OF BRUSHES

All the 1057 men were asked what stocks of hair and shaving brushes they had.

Percentages who had stocks of varying sizes are shown in the following table:-