The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-11-28
WOMEN WHO USE THE RAZOR.
Some Curious Revelations About Feminin,
Heards N nd Mustncbes.

Beards and Mustaches.
Except where it is in sufficient volume
to have q commercial value in side
show, beard is far from being a desir-
able thing to have growing on O woman's
face. Whiskers, mustaches and hairy
moles have always been, and probably
always will be, classed as disfgurements
for women, and not even fashions
reaks have ever made them popular,
even for time. Yet they have existed,
in oil lands and in all ages, upon femi-
uine cheeks of every class, from queen
to slave. Depilatory nostrums have been
among the adiuncts of the toilet since
the memory of woman runneth not to
the contrary, and, startling as the revela-
tion may be to many, myriads of fair
hands are deft in The use of the razor,
their cunning gained by stress Of per-
sonal necessity in strife with nature. As
a rule women depilate or shave in secret,
relying upon their own skill but of late
years professional practitioners have
come among us, introducing European
customs, treating superfuous hair with
scientific gravity, and gradually they are
building up large practice, especially
among the wealthy.
A Sun reporter interviewed one of
these practitioners, q bright vivacious
little woman with strong foreign ac-
cent, who carries on her business in
great brown-stone front house on West
Thirty street. She said 81
have been engaged in the removal of
hair some twenty-five years,
eight or ten here in New York, and be-
fore that in London and Vienna. In
Europe 1 did have a very great success.
1 attended the empress OF Austria, and
have from her certificate to the good
results of my skill. 1 also attended, with
like success, many ladies of the Austri-
an court. In Europe it is not as here.
There reliance is placed upon the skill
of scientific practitioner. Here, ladies
generally are prone to treat themselves,
often with terrible results. The drug
stores are full of nostrums which women
use as depilatories, quack stuffs in which
are poisonous acids and corrosive sub
stances, arsenic, aurum, sulphate of
lime, and other dangerous things.
Often the nostrums destroy the beauty
of the skin, sometimes producing fright
full disfgurements by the irritation they
cause, and seldom, If ever, do they
achieve the end for which they are en-
ployed. They even cause the hair to
grow quicker and more stubby than it
otherwise would. Many women shave,
but that too, is productive of bad re-
suits, as you can readily understand.
"Who are my patrons? Oh people
ofssall classes and conditions of life, but
generally from among the best society
ladies who wish to adorn the social Cir
Gle in which they move, and know that
u visible mustache would be an insur-
obstacle to their doing so.
Numbers of those who come to me are
young girls about TO be married, who
desire to present themselves at the altar
as perfect as possible. 1 have had lady
here undergo an operation at eleven
o'clock in the morning, and at four
in the afternoon of the same day she has
stood before the altar in the church.
No one seeing her face as smooth as an
infants at the latter hour, would
imagine that at the former I took from
her very decided beard and mustache.
Oh, yes beard, assure you. You
may imagine that they only have must
taches, because those are most common; !;
but tell you well-developed beard is
not an unfrequent thing. To great
extent, they bring it on themselves. If
they would let the fuzz alone they would
not have hair; but they are frightened
at seeing it, and tamper with it. Often
they catch up the razor at once and go
at it. Well, you know what shaving
does to help the growth of young
mans mustache it helps the young
lady's, also, in the same way. Not many
actresses come to me--now and then
one but, as general thing, l imagine
that they fancy some little novelty in
hair, ii not too conspicuous, gives them
piquancy and makes them attractive.
I" No particular race or nationality,
other to have its women thus disfgured
though in general way the people O.
hot climates are most apt to show i
strongly. 1t is most natural for bru
nettes to have hair on their lips, bu
then they are easiest to get rid of it as
a rule. Blondes are not so apt to be 81
afflicted, but when they are, their super
hous hair is, strange to say, coarser ant
more stiff than that of the brunettes
and infinitely more difficult of eradica
tion. When l commence the work O
depilation on a brunette, her hair, wher
l treat it, grows light and soft; Will
that of the blonde, on the other hand
becomes darker and more stubborn.
"Not in all cases is it possible to ef
feet entire removal of the superhuou
hair-that is, permanent removable
there are instances in which the ten
dency of nature toward musculinity, a
evidenced by these external manifesto
tions, is stronger than any art that ca
be brought to bear against it safely.
know such people when I see them, a
most, thanks to my long experience. an
I tell them frankly that nothing that
can do for them will afford them any
thing but temporary relief. Such cas-
I have had recently. Indeed, here is
letter from the young lady dated les
than a week ago, as you see, in whic
she says the doctors are taking yer
deep interest in her case, which the
pronounce the strangest on recort
When she came to me she said she We
a nurse in a hospital, in female ware
and the patients used to take alarm 6
her and imagine that she was youn
man, because her beard and mustact
were 80 strong. She shaved, and thi
made the trouble worse. Not long aftel
ward she informed me that she had bee
forced to give up her place in the no
pital, because her voice was becomir
so deep and masculine that, with IL
visible beard, patients made sure 81
was a young man in woman's clothe
Then she went out on the street one df
and the nolica arrested her on 'suspici(