Hair and barbers

Hair - we all have it, some more than others, and some in places we don't want it. I am not talking about hair we remove for aesthetic reasons - like underarm, pubic area, and ladies' legs - but rather ears, nose and rampant body hair! As we get older, at least in my case, the ear and nose hair seem to grow more rapidly (not only inside the ears but round the outside too!!), but for most men the head hair seems to recede and eventually disappear, and some shave what little they have remaining as they think it looks better than tufts around the cranium!
My father started losing his hair at quite an early age, and had nothing "on top" by the age of 40, though he left what remained and kept it trimmed at the barbershop. Interestingly both my grandfathers died with full heads of hair, and at 62 I still have very vigorous hair, though now "salt and pepper" coloured, and slightly receding both sides above the eyes.
When I was 22, living in Durban, South Africa, I read an article that said that combing the hair, was very bad for the scalp and could lead to early onset baldness! I immediately went out and bought a hairbrush and have used one ever since - and as I still have all (well the majority of) my hair maybe there was something in that article!
I have had friends who used to spend inordinate amounts of money on their hair - from visiting expensive stylists, blow drying (I am talking males here!), putting all sorts of creams and potions on their heads, tinting, dyeing, and so on. I have always looked for the cheapest barber I can find who does a good job - I have better things to spend what little money I have always had than on my hair - and only go when it starts to get unruly. I have a simple trim, and never let them put any creams, powders, liquids on it  - Brylcreem used to be in every barbershop, usually in a fancy pump dispenser (though I must admit that on occasions in the past I have used Brylcreem to tame my mane!).
I recall when we moved to Angola in 1960 I was taken to a local barber - and everything went well until he produced a cut-throat razor (to trim my neckline). I had never had this done before, and had an irrational feeling he was going to cut my throat so would not let him near me with this weapon!  After a little gentle persuasion my mother convinced me this was normal and he was not a reincarnation of Sweeney Todd.
Back in England in the mid-60's I used to visit a barber in my village - he was a little man, probably no more than 4 feet tall (he had callipers on one leg, so had obviously had some childhood ailment), but appeared to manage cutting with no problems. The only weird thing was that at 4.00pm, every day like clockwork, he would stop what he was doing (even with a customer in the chair), and without a word leave the shop to go home for his tea! Usually around 15 minutes later he would return and continue as if nothing had happened!
At one stage I used to go to a small market town nearby for my haircut - the barber had a small shop, but with a waiting room for the overflow as he was always incredibly busy. He was good and very quick so you never had too long to wait, and it was better than the 10 mile drive to the nearby city, fight for parking, and then look for a barbershop! What amazed me was how rude he was to his customers - "what the f*ck have you come here for, you expect me to waste my time on that mop you call hair?" - and they loved it! Some even gave back as good as they got, though I was always a bit wary as in a few minutes you would be sitting in his chair entrusting him with your hair (and your ears as he had scissors in his hand!). He closed at 5.00pm, but would tell his regulars to come round to his house and he would cut their hair later that evening (which also meant that this wouldn't go through the books!). He eventually retired so I had to look elsewhere.
When I moved to Brazil there used to be a barber in the town I lived in - but opening hours were random (like many things!) and eventually he appeared to move on, so I have to drive 70kms (40 miles) to a nearby town when my hair needs cutting. Actually I usually wait till I have other things I need to do there, so my hair is generally pretty long by the time I get round to it. The barber does a good job, but takes forever over it - going back over the same areas several times, and then cutting a bit more off.
This brings me to something I have found over the years - the different cutting styles between male and female barbers (hairdressers, if you like). Barbers over the years have tended to cut with a combination of comb and scissors, using the comb to control the depth of cut (and also using "serrated" scissors to thin out hair), while hairdressers tend to gather the hair between two fingers and use that as their "depth stop". On occasion I have used a hairdresser for convenience - once we had one in our village, and another used to come to the house to cut my wife's hair, and I have also waited in hairdressers for my wife or mother so seen how they cut. 
The barbers I have been to in Brazil have all cut "hairdresser" style - but as very few tradesmen have any formal training I actually wonder if they have learnt their craft from mothers, wives or girlfriends (or just watching them cut!!) so that is why, rather than that this is the normal barber methodology of Brazil. I went to a barber here in Peru yesterday, and he was old-school, barber-style cutting and extremely efficient (and at 10 Peruvian soles, around £2.10, very reasonable!). I actually came out looking neat and tidy, but not looking as though I had just had my haircut!