In London, Mrs. Adams was appalled by the attention to fashion, but as wife of the American minister she couldn’t wholly eschew it herself. She and Nabby shopped for clothes, fretted over expenses, and then decided not to buy anything until they got to Paris, where the fashions might be different. She finally broke down, however, and made plans to have her hair dressed in the style of London ladies.
But when she sent a servant to hire a barber for her, she soon learned there were differences between the American and the English language. “The fellow stared,” she recalled, “and was loth to ask her for what purpose I wanted him.” At last he said, “You mean a hair-dresser, madam, I believe?”
”Aye,” she said, “I want my Hair dressed.”
”Why, barbers, Madam, in this country,” he told her, “do nothing but shave.”
She quickly rectified her “bad mistake” by getting a real hair stylist.
Source:
Boller, Paul F. "Abigail Adams." Presidential Wives. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. 24. Print.
Original Source Listed:
To Elizabeth Shaw, Auteuil, near Paris, Dec. 14, 1784, Letters of Mrs. Adams, 223.
Further Reading:
@PMYA is this linguistic quirk still a thing?