Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-03-27
THE HAR TRADE.
Some Curious Feet. Ase.s the Hir-

some Curious Facts About the Hirs
The yastness Of the business done In the
human hair market may be judged nom the fact
that two cities alone-Lond0n and Parts-con-
%odt or Svsr q that
cars. The prices paid per head average nom IS
down TO 20 cents, according to the quality and
SO fashionable among her MaieSty,s subjects.
sometimes brings as high as 81 an ounce In the
English market, while very t1ne white hair has
quires as much nice experience to At him for his
trade as the winchester, and relies on kindred
sense to judge OF his ware. his cultured nose
enabling him to tell whether the hair he handles
has been tempered with by INSCRIPTIONS mid
dle-men, and whether 1t has been cut from a
living, healthy body or a corpse In the charnel
house.
DR.. Leonard, of Detroit, In a work Just pub
lished on the care OF the hair, gives us some in
teresting facts, as follows:
Contrary to common belief the hair of men is
generally finer than that Of women, locks of
f1axen color being the finest of all. 1t is moth
ing uncommon for blonde to brush out and
wealth Of golden hair In making her morning
toilet. Her dark-haired sister lags behind some
tN enty or thirty miles, but may partially be
consoled by the knowledge that greater por-
ton Of light haired women live and die unmar-
red, and without offspring, than OF Drunettes
In fact, the chances Of the two classes In the
matrimonial market are shown by statistics TO
stand as three to two, and the result of this
con1ugal sc ectton is that fair-haired ladies are
get ing rarer year by year, so that the blonde
may be expected in time to share the fate Of the
dodo and megatherfum.
Ii further evidence is needed reference may
De n ade to the writings of Caesar. who refers
70 IL Gauls and Celts as light-haired Faces
and even in England, the home OF the blue eyed
lair haired Saxon, the original type Is almost
lost, and the dark-haired Briton is decidedly in
With regard to the hygenic aspect Of hair,
sc me interesting statistics have been compiled.
Consumption finds most OF its victims in black
haired people; rheumatism and heart disease
are most prone to attack individuals with brown
hair; red haired men and women are specially
selected by pleurisy, pneumonia, ague and
neuralgia, and light-hafred persons are most
most charitable and tender hearted, red haired
people the most obstinate and patriotic and
6lack-ha1red people the most positive in char.
acter. They are also known respectively as Of
Emphatic, sanguine and bilious temperament.
degrading the extraordinary length to which
the human hair may attain, there are two local
instances In point, related by DR.. Leonard:
The first is that of Mrs. DR.. Prittie OF Detroit,
lady twenty eight years of age, whose hair,
which Is dark and luxurtant, measures some IS
inches In length. Then there Is the case Of Ed
win Smith, OF Fairfield, Lenawee county, whose
wonderful beard measures seven feet six and
half inches In length: Such abnormal gIowths,
however, are constant drain on the system
and usually result In chronic state Of Ill
health.
According to time honored tradition, bears Oil
or hedgehog oil Is the best application for pro-
noting the growth OF the hair. This belief, like
many other forms Of old-time orthodoxy, will
have to yield before the destroying sledge-ham-
mer OF science The Oil of the bear was Doubt
less selected by CUR forefathers because that
animal had very hairy coat, and that of the
hedgehog because his quill-hairs are remarkably
strong and rank; the idea being that man, In
absorbing the product, would at the same time
i'll btbe the characteristics of these animals
just as the Malays eat tiger to make them
selves ferocious and New Zealands devour their
enemies to make themselves dOubly powerful
in war. Preparations Of cocoanut Oil, II pomade
must be employed, are probably the most bene-
fetal AID the least fnoffensive.
Another piece Of superstition, and a more
grow after death. Hair-groN tn Is just as much
living physiological action as Is the beating Of
the heart, and therefore its occurrence in the
case of corpse tstmpossible; but some color is
given to the vulgar theory by the contraction of
tie skin In dead body, which causes the root
OF the hair to project further than in life