Tonsor
（
κουρεύς). A barber. The Greek and Roman barbers cut and
dressed the hair and trimmed the beards of their customers, and also pared the nails and
pulled out hairs with tweezers
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Ancient Barber at Work. (Baumeister, Denkmäler. ）
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(
volsellae). Persons of means were shaved and otherwise
attended by valets of their own from among their slaves, but the common people frequented the
barber-shop (
κουρεῖον,
tonstrina), which
was with them a favourite lounging-place and famous for the gossip retailed there; for the
ancient barbers were as fond of talk as those of modern times (Plaut.
Epid. ii. 2, 16;
Asin. ii. 2, 76; Polyb. iii. 20,
5;
Hor. Sat. i. 7, 2). Female barbers (
κουρεύτριαι,
tonstrices) seem not to have been
rare (
Mart.ii. 17).
The person who was to be operated on by the barber had a rough cloth (
ὠμόλινον,
involucre) laid on his shoulders, as now, to keep
the hairs off his dress, etc. The second part of the business was shaving (
radere, rasitare,
ξυρεῖν). This was done with a
ξυρόν, or
novacula, a razor, which was
kept in a razor-case (
θήκη, ξυροθήκη, ξυροδόκης). Some, who
would not submit to the operation of the razor, used instead some powerful depilatory
ointments or plasters, as
psilothron, acida Creta, Venetum lutum, dropax, etc.
Stray hairs which escaped the razor were pulled out with small pincers or tweezers (
volsellae,
τριχολάβιον). The third part of
the barber's work was, as stated above, to pare the nails of the hands, an operation which the
Greeks expressed by the words
ὀνυχίζειν and
ἀπονυχίζειν. The instruments used for this purpose were called
ὀνυχιστήρια, sc.
μαχαίρια.
See
Barba;
Coma.
