editorial points . owing to the number of important competitions held recently we regret we have been unable to include in this issue some interesting technical articles , including the first of a new series . these will be published next month . apprenticeship ratio . it has been said that hairdressers can employ more apprentices - that is over the legal ratio - provided they pay rates which are not less than those of any other worker . but the very fact of paying an apprentice more money does not permit master hairdressers to employ apprentices above the ratio unless such other wages are paid that the order specifies . the rate which would have to be paid in these circumstances would be those of first-year operatives and not those of other worker . it is known that a number of hairdressers have employed young people as apprentices at other worker rates believing this was permissible . this is not so and while it may in certain cases have been tolerated in the first year of apprenticeship , the payment of other worker rates would certainly not be acceptable in the second year . the intention of the authority concerned is to operate the wages order as written . there need be no doubt about that . an increasingly sharp official eye is being kept on the situation . the present ratio compared with that of 1948 implies that three times the number of young people are being apprenticed today . this is an answer to those who say that the age-old custom of apprenticeship is dying . and these days , the employer has the advantage of getting the apprentice supplementary training at national technical Colleges and these facilities are growing . it is just a matter of time before the trainee schools will disappear altogether from the scene . every intelligent hairdresser knows by now that he has an obligation to provide proper training for apprentices because it is in his own interests that there should be a pool of qualified assistants from which to draw replacements and increase staff . it can not be there for him unless he undertakes to train his own quota of young people in the right way . he also knows that the trainee river of supply is poor and useless to him however much work he puts in to try and improve it . we must face the fact that those young people who seek to enter the bona-fide craft through trainee school instruction are trying to do things the easy way . they are not willing , and probably do not possess the ability , to undergo the discipline and teaching of the three-year course . we are sorry for them . it is the bitter lesson that they must learn . hairdressing is not easily taught . there are no short cuts . maybe one or two young trainees do have a pronounced flair for hairdressing and a higher standard of intelligence and education than the majority of their kind , but that has nothing to do with the rest . it is the duty of the hairdresser to teach , keep alive and make progressive the various skills which are the basis of professional hairdressing . he will know that however much he himself knows about his job , there is always something more to learn . it should be a matter of professional pride to understand the art of wig-making , for example , however unnecessary it may appear to some . for we have not seen the last of the wig in the world of fashion . we have never said goodbye to it throughout our history , and that goes back a very long way . there are newer skills and there will be even more . modern hair colouring , for instance , is comparatively new . its techniques will grow more complex , just as every other professional skill grows more complex . we must not imagine anyway that simplification is a boon . it often leads to the cheapening of a service in terms of quality . it is a moot point if a simplified service can impose increased charges . the professional service of the hairdresser must be always something that the public can not provide for itself . do not let us be misled that because times may be affluent that it is necessarily easier for us to earn a better living . there are countries which we could mention where the standard of living is very high and where more and more women are dressing their own hair . this can only be because they do not think that the service their hairdressers offer is worth the money . it can happen here , too . if we drop our professional service standards by turning out mass produced work the public in the end will judge us . we can charge what we like . the public will decide whether or not it pays . raising gent &apos;s prices . we are glad to see the gentleman &apos;s hairdresser putting up his prices . they are , unfortunately , still not high enough . here we have indeed a high standard of skill , but the charges for it have been too low for too long . now property values are soaring and it is certainly becoming extremely difficult for the small gent &apos;s salon to exist . more and more of these will be driven away from busy streets into back streets , and a large portion of these will inevitably cease to exist . apart from the difficulty of obtaining young people to enter the business , the tide is running in favour of the larger units . but even these will have to obtain higher prices for their service . they will get them . it is an indispensable service . and there is scope in the business for other services and for new ideas . young men are already showing increasing smartness in their appearance and dress . the dowdy man in a shabby suit will shortly belong to the dreary past . older generations may not always approve of what the young generation does , but they cut no ice with the youngsters . their support of new styling has been a good thing for the gentleman &apos;s hairdresser . a fine exhibition . over 21,000 people visited the hairdressing exhibition at Alexandra Palace and there is every reason to think that the numbers who attend the next show will be even greater . this implies that it is possible to build up this exhibition in its present form to numbers fit to compare with the public exhibitions of the past . it is a fact that the hall at Alexandra Palace was larger than the national Hall at Olympia and the standard of display was far higher than anything we have done before . it is another fact that the majority of our exhibitors had displays that would not be likely to attract much attention from the public . but they are of interest to hairdressers . a final fact is that much more could be done to popularise and publicise the exhibition to the hairdresser . there is always the magnet of the great competitions , but there could be other ideas as well to bring the hairdresser along . there is plenty of time to consider the next show . maybe Blackpool will get a closer look from the H.M.W.A next year . but here a whole great town offers attractions and it is , furthermore , a holiday town , which the great metropolis is definitely not ! a foolish economy . there is an increasing tendency among master hairdressers to assume that they need not insure themselves for employers &apos; liability . it is thought that if an employee suffers industrial injury that the matter is fully taken care of by national health insurance . but if it is proved that an employer has been negligent , the employee can sue him . we do , of course , take that risk if we do n&apos;t insure . we can attempt to justify this by arguing that as we have never had a case of this kind why should we keep on paying premiums to insurance companies ? accidents , however , usually take us by surprise . they are never expected until they happen . who would have thought that Miss Jones would get a sudden attack of dermatitis through her hair colour work ? she had done it for so long . of course it did happen that there was a time when we had n&apos;t renewed her rubber gloves or had a tube of barrier cream available . how unfortunate ! certainly unfortunate for us if Miss Jones decides to sue . naturally , we do save money if we do n&apos;t pay employers &apos; liability insurance premiums . we may save it for years . but how much does it amount to ? a few pounds ? and how much can Miss Jones get out of us ? your guess is as good as ours - maybe thousands . no , the risk of economising here is just not worth it . let us choose other ways of saving our pennies . we are a public service and an important one . we are , therefore , up front to be shot at . a busy salon season is coming . that fact alone increases our risks as employers . we should do everything possible to limit them . to wait or not to wait . the registration movement celebrates a year of quiet and steady progress with a small dinner and dance in London . this is a serious minded body with one object : to pass a bill through parliament to get hairdressers registered . when is it likely that such a bill will go through ? many hairdressers ask this . if it happened , of course , the rush to register would be an avalanche ! but surely that is the wrong way to go about things . if the rush took place now and if the hairdressers &apos; registration council could claim that every hairdresser wanted registration , we think that the bill would get considerable support in parliament and that when it came to be presented the government would get it through . we have to be united in this cause and show determination to achieve the object . if we take the view that we are not going to do anything until it looks as if the bill is going to succeed , then all we are doing is to undermine or delay the cause . full support is necessary . do we or do we not want registration ? if we do n&apos;t want it , then what do we do to safeguard the craft ? let us take it for granted that most of us want to safeguard it . but how else can we do it ? it seems that only registration can do this job . and if we all agree about that , why not act now and do something about it ? the fee to a hairdresser is only ten shillings a year . it should be twice that amount . how much money is spent in postage in trying to get members to renew their membership ? how much money is spent in publicising the movement ? however much is spent on either account , if more were available a better job could be done for the movement . the palette club . by Joan Benton . colour for very grey and white hair . the colouring of very grey and white hair presents particular features which differ from the colouring of naturally coloured hair or hair containing only a small amount of grey . as hair loses its colour pigment , alterations take place in its structure which change the texture of the hair and often affect its resilience . these changes vary from head to head , so that no hard and fast rules can be made when applying colour , and the results will vary considerably , according to the condition of the hair . the most common change of texture in greying hair is a hardening of the hair shaft , which takes on almost a glass-like appearance and can be very resistant to some forms of colour . this is most noticeable when using temporary or semi-permanent colour . a temporary colour can in extreme cases be thrown off , even as it is being applied , so resistant is some white hair , and the partial penetration of a semi-permanent colour which allows for a lasting power of some weeks will not always be as effective on very grey hair when the cuticle of the hair has hardened . semi-permanent colouring is the most popular and generally used form of colouring very grey and white hair , and the colour expert has a wide variety of grey , blue-grey and pastel tones from which to choose . 