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Show line ho is the world's greatest barber? "Paul Mole." Who says so? Paul Mole. "You don't believe it?" he says with an injured look. "Don't take my word for it, ask my customers." And he proudly reels off the names of the customers who beat a path to his U New York shop in Thant, William F. Buckley Jr., Mayor Lindsay and family, Bette Davis and family, the late John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, William Randolph Hearst Jr., Cleveland Amory, Josh Logan, Elia Kazan, Henry Tonda and family, many others, some so loyal they'd never let any other barber touch their hair. Henry Fonda, for instance. Once, in the popular actor Massachusetts, needed a haircut while on tour with The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. He went to a barber shop and got scalped so badly that he called Paul, begging him to grab the first plane and repair the damage. "I got to the theater as fast as I could," Paul recalls, "did some trick work, and made what little hair was left lie better on his head." Nothing delights Mole more than this kind of loyalty, and nothing infuriates him more than the "low level of in America." He warms to his hands, subject, waving manicured pausing for effect, more of an actor than any of his clients. "I've been all over, from coast to coast, and am ashamed to say this country is filled with lousy barbers. I've seen only 50 good ones; the rest care nothing about the health or of their customers' hair, and even less about their profession." n: by Francene and Louis Sabin bar-beri- Rolls-Royc- long-haire- !) around the ears is immediately ruined and in a week the head looks like a weed patch." Paul gets a grip on himself, inhales deeply, and continues: "What really that barbers know makes me m customers at they'll give the short-cu- t more haircuts a year least one-thir- d than the ones with the longer haircut but they never tell the customers. So dont let your barber clip you two ways." Aware that his anger is rising again, Paul tries to calm himself by running a comb through his thick, full head of silver hair. Then he tackles. the next threat to American heads: clippers. "Never, never," he emphasizes, "never let a barber use anything but scissors. If he says he can't cut your hair with and head scissors only, say good-by- e for the door." Mol6 tries to laugh as he gnashes the teeth of two combs against each other. "The average American barber in the average American barber school has learned to mow everyone's head with electric clippers, and to do nothing else. Electric clippers the worst possible tools for giving a good haircut. The fact is, hair was never meant to be precise and uniform; it grows unevenly, like grass, and every head of hair is unique. How not to save hair 'Like a million bucks' As he talks, Mole walks around his shop, making sure his five barbers are treating their customers right. A M0I6 haircut isn't cheap. It's $3 if one of his men does the job; .at least $10 if the master himself does it. But, he insists, the "It's like buying a original price is high, but it will last a long time and look like a million bucks. "My father, who taught me, was a world-famou- s barber. For the past 45 I have tried to perfect his methods years and have experimented and developed new ones." Setting aside his scissors. Mole picks up a bundle of strawlike sticks and sets them aflame with a match. Still talking, he applies the fire to the d head in his chair, singeing and thinning the under hair so that the outer layer falls naturally into place. "This is the flame cut," Mol6 explains, moving with the swift grace of a dancing pyromaniac, "my highest accomplishment. It is the art of (whoosh!) shaping and trimming with fire. This craft (crackle, snip-snipwas first practiced by the Egyptians 3000 years ago, was lost (reek of burning chicken feathers) until I rediscovered it with the help of an archaeologist friend who saw drawings of it on the walls of a pharaoh's tomb. I'm the only barber who understands 14 on top, on the sides, in back, e: No, Mr. Mole is not holding the Olympic torch, he is merely demonstrating "my the flame cut on apprehensive comic Marty Allen. highest accomplishment" done (whoosh, flash!), the only it without harming the scalp or hair." Period. Thus, with a combination of pride and showmanship, Paul Mol6 lays claim to the title of World's Greatest Barber. "And it is because of my feelings that I want to warn everyone about American barbers." His flame is extinguished but Mole is really warming up now. "It all starts in what are called barber 'colleges.' These schools are run by licensed barbers who are out for the fast buck, so they set up a school where students practice on whoever is unfortunate enough to need a free haircut. The teacher hands clippers to the student and turns him loose on the victims. What we end up with is a generation of barbers who have no ability, how it is one who can do ed who just keep on scalping one head after another." But wait! Before you set fire to your local barber shop, listen to Mole on How to Protect Your Hair, Health and Happiness. "First, when you walk into your baiber's, look around. The place should be clean and so should the barber. If his hands and fingernails are dirty, leave. I stress cleanliness because, if the customer before you had a fungus or scalp infection, you don't want to catch it, and the barber with dirty hands and nails could carry these germs to you. "When you're in the chair, tell the barber you want a 'light trim,' or you may find yourself with a Gl haircut. Not only does it look ugly, it is false economy: the shorter the haircut, the sooner you'll need another. When a short cut grows in the least bit, the tight, perfect "Another thing barbers don't understand is the why and how of hair loss. They have a lot of advice to give . . . all bad. For instance, they recommend vigorous scalp massages, and with each 'treatment' they make the situation worse. I speak from personal experience. A long time ago I had a customer who requested weekly massages to 'save' his hair. After a few months of these massages his hair continued to get thinner and I started to get worried. So I called a medical specialist and asked him if massaging could do any good. He told me to stop right away, explaining that every hair follicle has its own capillary that feeds it, and when the barber works over a head with the electric massager or his fingers, he is bruising capillaries and killing the bair. "From that day to this, I have refused anyone who asks for a massage. Scalp and massaging is as phony as hot-o- il treatments. They only mean money to the barber and damage to the customer." A customer arrived for his appointment, and Mol reluctantly ended his attack on the barbers of America with these words: "People know at least as much about their own hair and appearance as the average barber. They should insist that their barbers do their hair the way it should be done. If they do, they will be happier, healthier and hot-tow- better-looking- el ." That's the advice of the World's Greatest Barber, "Paul Mole." Who says so? Paul Mole. |