Occupation?.....

[CathieL]

Hello everyone
Two of the ladies I am researching were " hair factory workers", both of them in Hutchesontown. I looked at the occupations list on SP and I Googled it but came up blank. Does anyone know anything about hair factories? It sounds comical somehow but I am sure that in 1896 and 1919 when the ladies were employed there, they did not find it funny!
Cathie

[DavidWW]

Somewhere else in here there's a post on the subject but I can't find it ..........

The hair could have been human (the highest possible quality wigs) or animal hair being processed into a variety of products.

David

[nelmit]

Hello everyone
Two of the ladies I am researching were " hair factory workers", both of them in Hutchesontown. I looked at the occupations list on SP and I Googled it but came up blank. Does anyone know anything about hair factories? It sounds comical somehow but I am sure that in 1896 and 1919 when the ladies were employed there, they did not find it funny!
Cathie

Hello Cathie,

I found a site that talks about health and safety in, among other things, The Adelphi Hair Factory in Glasgow.

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/haynin/haynin1004.htm
Kind regards,
Annette M

[Guest]

Hi,
Another thought - found a reference to the occupation of Hairweaver / Hairman = Weaver of horsehair cloth.
Catherine

[AnneM]

Hi

In the course of reading up on fashions in clothing and hair in the C19, I discovered that hairpieces were very fashionable at various points throughout the century, to pad out one's own hair to give a more bouffant appearance. Hair evidently became sleeker in the 1880s but by the 1890s 'big hair' was becoming popular again. As DW says perhaps that is what they were involved in making.

Anne

[JimM]

Hi Cathie
I think that it is very likely that the hair was horse hair
Horse hair was imported for use in furniture and carpet making... it was even used to bind the plaster in walls.
there was a factory called the "Adelphi horse hair factory" in Glasgow... and as the sisters lived in Hutchesontown I think this is worth considering
Jim

[CathieL]

Thank you everyone, now I know it was horse hair and there was certainly nothing comical about it The link from Annette is very sobering reading! One of the ladies had 8 children in 8 years and 5 of them died in infancy. She herself died in 1906 and the cause of death was Syncope which is a medical term for *she dropped down dead and we don't know why*.
I enjoy finding out as much as I can but some of it is very very sad.
Thank you again
Cathie

[DavidWW]

Thank you everyone, now I know it was horse hair and there was certainly nothing comical about it The link from Annette is very sobering reading! One of the ladies had 8 children in 8 years and 5 of them died in infancy. She herself died in 1906 and the cause of death was Syncope which is a medical term for *she dropped down dead and we don't know why*.
I enjoy finding out as much as I can but some of it is very very sad.
Thank you again
Cathie

Hi Cathie

Sadly, there are many more causes of death, not least suicides, which are even sadder.

Recently, for example, I came across the deaths of a father and four sons, the oldest, at his death, being in his early 40s, the others being in their 30s, - causes of death being reported as bronchitis, or chronic bronchitis, or asthma, - but, as all were miners, - these causes of death in terms of knowledge since the 1930s onwards would be more correctly stated as pneumoconiosis and emphysema, - both such conditions long since accepted as occupational diseases in the mining industry ..............

Imagine, if you can, the effect on the five families concerned of these untimely, early deaths......................

David

[Scozzie]

I know what you mean Davie, most of my ancestors were coal miners, and the cause of death on most of the entries was bronchitis, emphesemia or other lung diseases... one actually states "Miners' Spit"; doesn't that sound horrendous. Two (at least) died in mining accidents. My grandfather began work as a miner at the age of twelve, then he went to war at age 19 in 1914. What a hard life the miners and their families must have had.