A Brief History of Barber Chairs
A lot of barbers these days go in for vintage barber chairs. There’s something irresistible about the ornateness of a real Koch that brings a sense of legitimacy to a shop. As the world accelerates into the sleek automatic, laser-happy technology of the near future, some professionals cling to the styles of the past, perhaps as a way to stay grounded. The future is uncertain, but we'll always have the stories of the past so long as we have something to help us remember. But who actually remembers where the style of that vintage barber chair came from?
Ancient Barber Chairs
The cushiony monster we use today took a long time getting to us, much to the dismay of bushy haired men for thousands of years. And their shape changed somewhat to match the versatile nature of the barber. For example, this chair was used in England 300 years ago.
"Barber's chair modified for dental extractions, England Wellcome L0065953" by http://wellcomeimages.org Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
We know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. That chair is just as uncomfortable as it looks. That little dip at the top is where the head goes while the barber performs dental surgery. Since they clearly had steady hands with sharp things, it seemed logical to most people that barbers should perform medical procedures as well. Thankfully, we've come a long way since then.
If you want to be philosophical about it, you could say that a barber chair is any chair a barber uses to sit his clients down while he cuts their hair (or extracts a tooth). In that sense, a sturdy bucket could be a barber chair. And over the ages, barbers took that to heart. During the civil war, when hair maintenance became highly regulated, barbers would use anything they needed on the field, from an old chair taken from a house to a fallen tree. Although, barbers were still operating as surgeons back then, so they also used something like the wooden torture device you saw up there.
Barber Chairs After the Civil War
It wasn't until the mid 1800s that companies like Archer and Koch started producing chairs with more mechanical conveniences. For example, one of the first footrests came from the Archer company in the 1870's.
"MOHAI - J. N. Hooper's Barber Shop - A" by Joe Mabel. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Archer company also gave us the first barber chair that could be raised and lowered mechanically. Then the Eugene Berninghaus company created the Paragon, a barber chair that could be raised and lowered as well as spun around just before Koch developed their own chair combining all these elements, and the three companies entered into vicious competition, producing many of the vintage barber chairs that collectors and shop owners pine for today.
Enter the Hydraulic Barber
Koken Barber Chair Schematic
If it hadn't been for the tsunami of European immigrants in the 1800's, you might still be using a screw base chair to lift your clients up. Because with that wave came the legendary innovator Ernest Koken. He swept into the factory workforce in the 1870's where he was introduced to the beauty supply industry selling shaving mugs. During this time, Archer, Koch, and Berninghaus were in intense competition, speeding out their barbering inventions to stay on top each other, so Koken had a lot of material for inspiration. He spent his off hours going over barber chair blueprints, and started developing his own designs. In 1881 he came out with his own reclining chair. Which looked neat, and even worked alright, but wasn't exactly new at the time. But ten years after that he brought us the hydraulic base, and changed the industry forever.
Modern Day
Truman Barber Chair (BC-10)
Since the Koken chairs came out, most changes in the barber chair world have been largely cosmetic. We went from the smaller, overwrought armchairs and rounded seats to large bed-like monstrosities with a more stable, square design. When we talk about history, it's easy to forget that we're a part of it. You're shaping the style of the story of the barbering industry every day. Ten years down the road, you'll be part of the past people cling onto. It's important to remember where things came from because that story informs what we can do with that thing and where we can go with it. So in that sense, you shouldn't be afraid to live in the present and look to the future to make what will become the past a better story. We all love the look of the vintage barber chair, but we're also excited to see what the next “Koken” will be, and that won't happen if we keep dwelling in the past instead of using it for inspiration.