IN September 2002, the BBC's Inside Out programme declared Darlington to be the "hairdressing capital of Britain" as its 97th hairdresser had just opened.

This meant that Darlington had more hairdressers per head of population than any other town in the country, a statistic that proved it was a cut above the rest.

But this month's exhibition in the Darlington Centre for Local Studies in the Crown Street library proves that the town has always been ahead of the pack at the cutting edge of fashion.

The exhibition is entitled Mutton Chops, Chin Curtains and Handlebars and features pictures from the library's collection that show men – usually councillors – with extravagant facial hair.

General Ambrose Burnside, the inventor of sideburnsGeneral Ambrose Burnside is probably the most famous wearer of extravagant facial hair of all time. He was a general in the Union army during the American Civil War – not a particularly good general, which may be why he is remembered for his whiskers. They spread from his ears down to his jaw and over his upper lip but his chin was clean shaven. From as early as 1866, this style was being referred to as "burnside whiskers" by American troops, and when the British picked it up from 1875, they reversed the general's name and referred to the style as "sideburns".

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Sideburns were, in effect, a combination of two styles that were all the rage in the 1850s and 1860s. Firstly, the mutton-chop, which was hair that was shaped like a cut of meat: narrow at the ear but broad and rounded at the jaw with the chin and the upper lip clean shaven.

Abraham Lincoln, in 1863: popularised the chin curtainAnd, secondly, the chin curtain, as popularised by Abraham Lincoln when he became the 16th president of the United States in 1861. It wraps from ear to ear and under the mouth, but keeps the upper lip clean shaven. It is full and fluffy beneath the mouth and it should not be mistaken for the chinstrap beard, which is thin and follows the line of the jaw with the lower lip clean shaven (the hair beneath the lower lip is apparently called "the soul patch").

Jonathan Dresser, alderman, hairdresser and "one of the fast set", sporting a chinstrap beardIn Darlington, one of the barbers who sculpted this hairwear was Jonathan Dresser who, when he died in 1891, was credited with being one of the town's first hairdressers.

He was born in 1808, at Nether Silton, near Osmotherley, into a devout Methodist family, and came to Darlington when he was 13 to become an apprentice hairdresser to his brother-in-law, Mr Muir, who practised the art of hairdressing in Prebend Row, at the top of Priestgate.

Mr Muir was hailed as the town's first hairdresser, but in reality there must have been people trimming hair in return for money for centuries before. Anyhow, when he retired in 1829, Jonathan took over the business and became the first hairdresser of the railway age.

These were also the days when carriages on the Stockton & Darlington Railway were pulled by horses rather than steam locomotives, and Jonathan came to an agreement with the horse drivers.

"Mr Dresser sometimes went by the railway a little beyond Fighting Cocks (near Middleton St George) to dress hair at farmers' houses," said his obituary in 1891 in The Northern Echo. "They (the horsemen) let him out wherever he wanted. In returning, he hailed them from a field off and they stopped to take him home. They don't do that nowadays."

Jonathan continued his family's Methodist tradition and, in 1837, took a vow of teetotalism.

The concept of totally abstaining from drink had only reached Darlington in 1835. Soberly, he became one of the town's leading men.

He sat on the local Board of Health and the first town council, he became an alderman and he refused the mayorship on a couple of occasions.

Sometime around 1870, he moved from Prebend Row to Prospect Place – roughly where the HSBC is today. He called himself a "hair specialist" and a "perfumer". His shop window boasted "umbrellas recovered" and that "razors and strops" were for sale (a strop is "a leather strap or an abrasive strip for sharpening razors".) It was from Prospect Place that Jonathan retired in 1881. He died, aged 83, at 20 minutes to noon at his home in Duke Street on Friday, March 20, 1891, of "senile decay". He is buried in West Cemetery.

As an alderman, he was widely respected in the town, and as a hairdresser, he was a pioneer: he was known as "one of the fast set", despite his Methodist adherence to not drinking.

His picture, showing his rakish chinstrap beard and chunky bowtie, is in the exhibition Mutton Chops, Chin Curtains and Handlebars, which runs in the library until December 2. Entry is free. Here are some more pictures from the exhibition:

FT Steavenson, mayor in 1883, with a classic mutton-chop display on his cheeksFrank Mewburn was the only son of the world's first railway solicitor, Francis Mewburn (who, with his wife, Elizabeth, had 13 daughters). Frank followed his father as a solicitor, but whereas Francis sported mutton-chops, Frank went for the full beard. And what is that ornate tangle of hair deliberately tumbling in front of his ear? A classic chinstrap from John Wharton (1825-97) who had a large ironmongery shop where the Eastern Bamboo restaurant is today in High NorthgateLeather merchant and bank director Edward Kipling became Darlington's second mayor in 1869. He liked a chinstrap beard  (Image: Darlington Centre for Local Studies) Chinstraps were all the rage in Darlington in the 1860s because this is Hugh Dunn, the first town clerk, who was the solicitor who guided the town through the traumatic waters of that decade as its first proper council was set up. He lived in Glassensikes, a large house with a magnificent porch in Grange Road, where he died in 1886  (Image: Darlington Centre for Local Studies) Richard Benson, who was elected to Darlington's first proper council in 1867, with the finest of the displays of facial hair, which seems to have been sculpted in a wind tunnel. He makes the most of his receding hairline to whip up a bit of a quiff and also seems to have worked hard on his soul patch beneath his lower lip (Image: Darlington Centre for Local Studies) James Blumer, with a classic English moustache waxed into a straight line without being tempted to bend it into a foreign-looking handlebar. His choice of reading material is impeccable (Image: Darlington Centre for Local Studies) Henry Backhouse, photographed in the 1890s, he has side whiskers and what appears to be an early mohicanFacial hair fashions changed as the 20th Century began, as this is William B Wooler, solicitor of Priestgate, in about 1905. He had concentrated on growing his luxuriant moustache, in contrast to previous generations of Darlingtonians who liked to shave theirs off. He also came from a noted family of Conservatives so perhaps that also had a bearing on his unique styleREAD MORE: HOW DARLINGTON COMMEMORATED ITS FIRST WORLD WAR HEROES WITH A CONTROVERSIAL MEDAL

Of course, women also got their hair done, as this advert from 1887 shows. Whatever was singeing, for 6d?