Mrs Swanson: Thurso's Victorian female barber

In 1889, a journalist visiting Thurso noticed a barber's pole outside a two-storey house in Swanson Street. Nothing appeared especially unusual until he entered and discovered the barber was a woman. Mrs Swanson stood ready in a navy dress, white apron, fur cape and dark blue cap, razor in hand and another male customer already in her chair.

She opened from eight in the morning until eleven at night, remaining at work until midnight on Saturdays as men prepared themselves for church. Her customers ranged from small children to men over seventy, while her shaving clientele included local aristocrats, gentlemen and commercial travellers. She sharpened her own razors, restored blades sent to her by other people and had no fixed price, leaving payment entirely 'to your pleasure'.

Mrs Swanson worked in a town eager to advertise itself as respectable and progressive. The railway had arrived in 1874, hotels welcomed tourists, shops displayed the latest goods and Thurso promoted itself as a healthy seaside resort. Yet behind its clean principal streets were overcrowded lanes, dreadful sanitation and some of the poorest housing in the town. Victorian Thurso could appear prosperous and fashionable from one direction, then desperately poor from another.

The female barber belonged to both worlds. Her customers included the wealthy and well travelled, but her business operated from an ordinary house and remained open for extraordinarily long hours. Visitors treated her occupation as a curiosity, while the people of Thurso simply entrusted her with a sharpened razor. Mrs Swanson was unusual enough to make the newspapers, but successful enough to prove that she was far more than a novelty.

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