Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1863-06-30
WOMEN BRINGING THEIR THESES
TO MARKET

~ -h-hIthIl
Not many OF our gentle readers probably
ever heard of. or imagined such !; thing
rs human hair. Fair, rs few. perhaps.
ever thought OF inquiring into the source of
the beautiful tresses which are seen every day
in those armories of Eenus-the windows of
the hair dreSSers. From late French paper
we get an interesting description of the am
nual hair fair at l1orl9ss. in the Lower Py-
renncs, i'll France The hair dealers. SAYS the
journal from which, we dcrirc our account.
were crowting into the place from all points
from Toulous. and even from Bordeaux: and
the young peasant girls of the ncighborhood,
famous fnrthcirtinc and abundant heads of hair.
were tiucking to the market like sheep to lc
shorn of their locks for the adornment of
other and proudcr heads. Even young
husbands accompany thoir wives TO insist
upon their deSpoiling themselves, for 4 tri-
fling consideration, ot their beautiful heads
of hair. Twenty francs is the highest price
which is given for the richest head of hair,
and II majority Of the damscls part with their
locks for a tenth part of that SUM. This sin
gular market is held III the open street, and
attracts crowds Of curious, us well as interest
cd persons. Girls are seen to be Sheared in
the 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. Tho shearcrs are men as well
rs women. Some Of our fair readers will con-
cludc that this must be q degrading scene
But how else could the stock of wigs, and
frizettes, and bands and top-rieces, and curls,
which arc needed to prop up the lettering
beauty of the sex, he supplied? Tons of black,
silken hair, sheared in the manner above de-
scribed from the heads of the peasant damses
of the south of France are imported into this
country annually.
There are fairs at other places in the
south of France and Brittany, where advcn-
crops the fair-harcd tlam>eis. vt first
blush, it would seem that female vanity would
efectualy prevent such traffic as this. But
cupidity and incidence are stronger passions
than vanity; and fashion even lends its aid to
this singular custom of parting with the finest
ornament to the ucrson which nature affords.
In Brittany, particularly, where the finest and
most silken hair is procured, it is the universal
fashion, from childhood upwards, to wear caps
so close as completed ) to CONCEAL the hair. The
peasant girls there have particularly fine hair,
and in the greatest abundance. 1t is so COM
mon as not to be a mark of beauty; and the
people are morally incapable Of approaching it
as intrinsically beautiful and attractive. 1t is
truth which ought not to be told perhaps, in
the presence of all our ladies' that the CHARM
ing frizettes and trcSscs which lcautify the
heads of our blooming bellies may possibly have
been shorn from Breton damscls Of very filthy
and luathsome habits.
The Brctons are neither Normans nor
French, but more Welsh than anything else:
and they arc wild and savage. and as idle and
dirty as human nature can well be and exist.
The poorer women wear their dresses till they
become dirty, patched, tattercd and ragged, so
that the material Of which they are made can
scarcely be traced The houses of the pea
SAINTS are generally built of mud, and without
convenience. The chestnut which abounds
in the country, furnishes to a considerable ex-
tent the food Of the poorer classes. Although
inhabiting a fine country, capable of rendering
them prosperous and wealthy, the Brctons
grovel on in supine idlencss and dirt. No
wonder the women sell their hair, which is
abundant and marketable. The people are
accustomed to subsist upon the products of
spontaneous crops. In the Pyrenecs, the peo-
Pile are industrious and frugal. and the women
arc accustomed to regard fine head of black
hair or brown hair as only Il iuxuriant bur-
den.