THE COMB Dear friends,
>From my childhood days I could recollect in the home, separatecombs were used >by men and women. Sometimes youngsters kept their own combs. However the >barbers clean and use the same combfor different persons. The same is followed >even now in the beauty parlor. Moreover the purpose being almost the same, types are also limited. The purpose ofcombing is also served by special brushesintroduced, but quality ones are bigger in size. Brushes in plastics aresmaller. Just hold by two loops provided on plain side of the brush insertingtwo fingers through it the plastic brush is used to comb the hair. At one time it was fashion to keep such brushes in theback pocket by men. Though hair oils, lipsticks, eye brow pencils etc.comes in TV advertisements, I have not watched an advertisement for combs. Itis in the context of TV advertisements for sachets of shampoo, soap concentrate,refill vim liquid etc. for 15-00 rupees. A nostalgic look in to combs. Gopalakrishnan 27-1-23 1. Location ofcombs Two places where combs were kept on earlier days wereabove the medium mirror used for dressing or on the window bottom plane area. Notonly combs, face powder, hair oils, new soap, lock and key or key alone, moneypurse etc. all had their placement in the different window bottom plane inKerala and Tamilnadu homes. In Kerala homes windows opened to outside from thebeginning. In Tamilnadu in Nagerkovil side also the same is followed. In otherplaces since it opened towards inside, there was limitation of height to keepthings. 2. Dressingtable. With the introduction of dressing table, the combswere placed in a container either inside a drawer or outside in a cylindricalcontainer. Dressing table though meant by both men and women, mostly women satand dressed in the stool came with it. Men used to stand and dress. With the arrival of dressing table keeping combs ontop of mirror became obsolete practice. 3. Cleaning ofcombs. Earlier periodically the combs were placed in hot wateradded with soap in any manner for about two hours and dirt was removed wipingwith a cloth which remained after falling in to water. Daily they were wipedwith a piece of cloth after use. 4. Combcleaning brush The exact period could be somewhere around 1980’s combcleaning brushes appeared. Just moving it along the teeth, 99% of dirt wasremoved. Brush was cleaned in hot water and wiped with a cloth. 5 Plastic combs >From my boy hood days plastic combs were there. Womenalso used wooden combs >smaller in size with teeth on either side. But they weresturdier. Slightly more flexible combs appeared later. Mostcombs followed a standard length, with thin teeth on the combing side andgradually thicker teeth to the holding side. 6. Comb withhandle. The first addition was a handle reducing the area ofteeth. These types of combs have more popularity now. These were carried byoffice going women in hand bags earlier and now by most. 7. Pocketcombs. Small size comb appeared which could fit in backpocket of pants. Youngsters often carry this type of comb now also. Before it’s appearance lengthy comb was kept somewhereinside an old note book carried by college students. 8. Comb withblade fixing arrangement. Still fancy stores have them, some men comb with thistype of comb slowly, excess hair will fall down while combing from back side,top etc. If not used properly it might cut more hair. Probably in some foreigncountries, where barber shops were rare, it was more used. At one time by 1995’sthese combs were common among men, 9. Costly combs. Among Brahmins in Vilayadai, costly comb/combs are kept. 10. Combs forscratching. The thicker .thinner teeth if sharp at end are usedfor scratching also when itching appears. Itching of small degree willdisappear. 11. Palm andfinger as comb. Many men as age advance use fingers and palm in placeof comb after applying oil. I am not using comb for the last ten years. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/220893577.181590.1674806943428%40mail.yahoo.com.
