The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-08-13
a Human Hair Fair.

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Very few of our gentle readers, prob
ably, ever heard of or imagined such a
thing as a Human Hair Fair. AS few,
perhaps, ever thought Of inquiring into
the source of the beautiful tresses which
are seen every day in those armories of
Venus, the windows Of the bair-dressers.
We are reminded, however, by a late
French paper that this ia the season of
the annual hair fair at MOrlasa, in the
Lower Pyrenees ia France. Morlass is
near the city Of Pau, andit is from a Pau
journal that we derive sOme account Of
the present season. The hair dealers
were crowdedintO the place from all
points-from Toulouse, and even from
Bordeaux; and the young peasant girls
Of the neighborbOod, famous for their
fine and abundant heads of hair, were
iiOcFing to the market like sheep, to be
shorn Of their locks for the adornment of
other and prouder heads. Even young
husbands accompany their wives 70 in
sist upon their despoiling themselves for
a triiiing consideration, of their beauii-.
full heads OF hair. Twenty francs is the
highest price which Is given for the rich
est head o. hair, and a majority Of the
damsels part with their locks for a tenth
part Of that sum,
This singular market is held in the
open street, aud attracts crowds of Gu
rious as well as interested persons. Girls
are seen to be shearcd in public. while
others are waiting their turn, with their
caps in their hands, and their long hair
combed out and hanging down to their
waists, The shcarers are men as we'll as
women. some Of OUT fair readers will
conclude that this must be a degraded
scene, But how else could the stock of
wigs, and frizettes, and bands, and top
pieces, and curls, which is needed 10
prop up the lettering beauty of the sex,
be supplied? Tons of black silken hair,
sheared in the manner above described,
from the heads Of the peasant damscls OF
the south of France, are imported into
this country annually.
There are fairs in other places in the
south of France, and in Brittany, where
adventurous virtuOso buy up and shear
the crops of the fair-haired damsels.-
At first blush, it would seem that female
vanity would etIectually prevent such a
traffic as this. But cupidity and indo-
lenc6 arc stronger passions than vanity ;
and mshiOn even lends its aid to this
singular custom of parting with the finest
ornament to the person which nature af-
fords. In Brittany particularly, where
the finest and most silken black hair is
procured, it is the universal fashion, from
childhood upwards, to wear caps SO close
as completely to conceal the hair. The
peasants girls there have particularly
fine hair, ahd in the greatest abundance.
IL is so common as not TO be a mark of
beauty and the people are morally in.
capable OF approaching it as intrinsically
beautiful and attractive. II is a truth
which ought not TO be told, perhaps, In
the presence of all our ladies, that the
charming frizettes and ~trcsscs which
beautify the heads Of our blooming bellies
may possibly have been shorn from Bre-
ton damsels Of very filthy and Ioathsome
habits.
The Bretons are neither Normaus
nor French, but more Welsh than any
thing else; aud they are wild and saw
age, and as idle and dirty as human ma
turc can well be and exist. The poorer
women wear their dresses until they be-
come dirty, patched, tattercd and rag
ged, SO that the material Of which they
are made can scarcely be traced. The
houses of the peasants are general BULL
Of mud, and without convenience. The
chesnut which abounds in the country,
furnishes, 10 a considerable extent, the
food Of the poorer classes. Although in
habitiug a fine country, capable of rem
dering them prosperous and wealthy, the
Bretons groyel ON in supino idlencss and
dirt, No wonder the women sell their
hair, which is abundant and marketable
The people are accustomed 10 subsisl
upon the products Of spontaneous crops.
In the Pyrcnoes, the people are industri,
Gus aud frugal, and the women are &C,
customed to regard a fine head Of black
or dark brown hair, as only a luNuriant
burden,