The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-09

maze takes place. This consiafs in separating
the principal locks of the same tress that do
not resemble each other closely in shade
Then comes the FecdFTdge or equalzing of
the upper ends of each tress, after which a
second and more careful sorting ensues and
the hair is arranged in bundles weighing from
ten to twelve pounds each, to undergo a new
series of operations
First of all the hair is taken in small hand
fuls by the workmen, who powder it tho
roughly with flour; it then receives vigorous
combing upon iron carders, after which q
second carder comes to the assistance of the
first and holds the hair tightly while it is
pulled out in lengths, of which the longest
are separated first The final operation to
which it is subjected is styled the deleRtdge,
and consists simply in again combing it upon
carders of extreme fineness. False tresses
are now formed by mixing together, in GER
tain proportions, hair of the same tint and
slightly varying in length. To arrange q
grand chignon the hair-worlker will at times
employ the spois derived from the heads of
no less than thirty women.
Our hair-dealer was careful to assure us
that all the stories told about hair cut from
dead bodies being worked up into chignons
were devoid of truth. ''Hair thus obtained"
he said, lis too brittle to be curled or twisted
into proper form; and as for 'gregarines,
these may exist, he observed Sin Russian
chignons made from hair procured from the
dirty Mordwine and Burlake peasant women,
but l never heard a duly authenticated iu-
stance of their being detected in French
chignons.
mot lock of Russian hair comes to France
except on Muscovite heads. We get, by way,
of Marseilles, large quantity of hair from
Italy, chiefly from Sicily, Naples, and the
Papal States-you remember about the young
Roman girl who sold her hair to buy the Pope
a Zouave-and moderate quantity from Aus
t.;o ,1 Ibo
frontiers, but our principal supplies are home
ones, and chiefly come from Brittany, Au-
vergne, Artois. and Normandy, and in less
degree from Languedoc, Limousin, Poitou,
and Bourbonnais. We count the Breton hair
the most valuable of all by reason of its ex-
treme fneness, and from its having been
covered up in the large caps the peasants wear
| during its most active period of growth, from
its never having been previously curled, but
| simply rolled up in bands, and finally because
| It has rarely even been combed!" Auvergnat
hair our merchant pronounced to be too
| coarse to use alone, though it worked up very
| well mixed with other kinds. Spanish hair
| good enough in itself, was too decidedly
black, too sombre to suit ordinary complex
ions; it was therefore requisite to mix this
! also, to soften it, in fact, with hair of more
| delicate shade; the same with the tow-lil1e tint
of the Flemish hair, which had to be made
more sunny-looking by the addition of Ger
man hair of a richer blonde. Neapolitan hair,
| we were informed, was but little esteemed in
| the trade, circumstance at which we were
surprised, as the hair of the Caprian peasant
women, which is dark, lustrous, long, and
massively rippled, is among the finest in the
world. The particular German hair from
which the chignons of the tender age termed
angels blonde are made, commands, it seems,
| the highest price of all
The long hair pulled out of ladies' heads by
| the comb, and which in Paris is thrown every
morning on the rubbish heaps of the city, is
carefully picked up again by the chiffonniers
| and sold by them for making what is called
tetes-et-pOjRtes, that is, the cheap curl or tuft
of hair, the roots of the individual hairs COM
posing which are not all at one end Nothing
in the way of hair would appear to be wasted;
that of q bad shade of color is dyed, generally
black, and even the clippings, which the hair
dressers can turn to no other account, are sold
by them to be manufactured into perukes and
chignons for the more expensive class of wax
dolls
One has spoken of chignons at 1900 francs,
but this is of course a purely exceptional
price; arising first Of all from the nacnl;atr
color of the hair, namely, bright gold shade;
secondly from its great length-nearly three
and half feet-and thirdly, from it's bulk
| and Its extreme tineness, to combine all
which necessitates a single chignon being
carefully selected from an immense stock of
hair, several hundredweight, in fact.
When this golden-tinted hair was the rage
in Paris, and women, in despair of otherwise
acquiring it, powdered their heads with gold
a hair-dresser of the Rue Vivienne exhibited
in his window chignon formed entirely of
the finest gold thread, and the price of which
was 1000 francs but whether he ever manu-
factured more than this sample aureate CHG
non, or persuaded single fair one to parade
these veritable golden locks, we are unable to
say. At the present time about 250 francs
appears to be the average Paris price for a
superior chignon of an ordinary tint, and
from twelve to seventy francs for the COM
moner article.
We all know that the wearing of false hair
by beauties i'll their prime dates back ante
rior to the Christian era, and that Ovid
speaks of the German slaves hair with which
the Roman women sought to enhance their
charms, going publicly to make their pur-
chases at the shops of the Gallo hair mer-
and under the peristyle of the Temple of
been known under it's present name since
about the time when '|coiffeurs" themselves
first came into vogue, in the middle of the
eighteenth century. Up till that period
there had been only BARRIERS and perruquiers,
the former of whom shaved and bled their
customers, while the latter merely cut hair
and manufactured wigs, so that ladies
were obliged to have their hair
dressed by their femmes de ch0na5re
Gradually the race of coiffeurs arose to per
form this intricate operation, and as a matter
of course trenched on the privileges of the
Derruuuiers for thew cI1t hair as we'll as dreSSa