Daily AncestorHairdresser
A hairdresser cut, dressed and styled hair for pay; the 1900 census listed barber or hairdresser as an occupation to be written exactly.
Historically all hairdressers were counted as barbers. In the 1900s cosmetology branched off from barbering, and hairdressers came to be licensed either as barbers or as cosmetologists, with barbers mostly working on men's hair.
In 1900 enumerators were told to state the kind of service exactly and gave barber or hairdresser as an example, so both words appear in returns of that time.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1940 census
Miss Nellie Ward, 29, Hairdresser
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Daily Ancestor. "Hairdresser." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/hairdresser. Last checked 2026-10-10.