The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-08-02
BANEFUL BLONDINE.

BANEFUL BLONDlNE.
"What's the reason mingling the hair
has become so fashionable with ladies of
late?' Post Dispatch reporter asked of
q Fifth street barber and hairdreser yes
terday. The tonsorial artist smiled
knowingly, shook his head and said that
no professional secret should ever be
divulged, while one which involved tie
fair sex was more than ever inviolable.
Strategy was the only recourse, and so
the reporter stretched himself for a
shave, complimented the barber upon
the lightness and delicacy of his touch
five times during the operation, had his
hair cut, INDUCED in a shampoo, with
sea-foam and other extras, bought a
dozen Turkish bath tickets and half a
dozen bottles of the professors famous
"Haironicon," and then, as he received
the change for the $40 he had handed
over, he again broached the delicate
subject, this time with better effect. The
professor, Modified by the joint applica.
ton of profit and fattery, invited the
reporter into the back room, and there
he made his astonishing revelations:
"Blondine is at the bottom of it," he
ssid in the most careful of whispers,
glancing somewhat apprehensively at
two lady customers who had just entered
the store.
"And what may blondine be?" asked
the reporter.
"Blondine is preparation" said the
artist, taking from shelf and exhibit
ing small blue glass bottle filed with
colorless liqnid, greatly in vogue
among those ladies whom nature has de-
clined to endow with hair of the popular
pale shade. Its name tells what it is. 1t
makes blondes out of those who are not
blondes. Harmless? 1 should say SO;
it's clear as water"
$50 is sulphuric acid"
"But blondine amt drunk. It's ap-
piled to the hair, whose shade it in
variably converts to that beautiful gold.
en- tint which has been so fashionable of
late years."
"But such change must produce I'M
natural combinations of color. Nature,
it is we'll known, whether working on o
face, or flower, or tree, or a landscape,
combines her tints in harmony. When
nature gives woman a pair jet black
eyes, she colors the hair to correspond.
Nature, who cannot err"
LACuSo Iuc, udIulo uuo hOthlbS " W.
with it. Fashion settles these matters,
and when she decides in favor of blonde
hair the brunettes have to fall in line,
and the only hope for them lies in
blondine."
"When did the fashion for blonde hair
set IMP"
"Over ten years ago, and for many
years the desire to be in the fashion led
ladies into great extravagances. Bathing
the hair in successive baths of cham
payne was o common practice with those
who could afford it, and it generally cost
$50 before the desired result was &C
complished. Chemical inventors then
set to work and the result was the dis
covery in France OF liquid, one appli-
cation of which produced the change. At
first this was imported, and sold readily
at $40 q bottle. The price fell and kept
falling until ..S3 or 81 was the cost, and
blondined hair became quite common,
and now it is manufactured in this city,
and people who know where to go can
buy it, when providing their own bot
ties. for fifty cents an ounce"
How is it applied?I
''Simply as can be. OF course at first
hair.dressers claimed that great care was
required in its application, but ladies
were not slow to learn that with little
care they could use 1t with safety, and a
very profitable branch of business
showed signs of decay in a year or so. "
but what has all this to do with the
shingling of ladies' hair?'
Everything. Between you and me
this blondine plays the mischief with the
hair. 1t kills it dead. don't mind tell
ing you that, now that the druggist is
getting about all the profit out of its
sale. And have heard lately of one or
two cases of sickness said to have been
caused by its use, though none of my
customers have ever suffered in that way.
It has taken the ladies long time to find
! this out, but they seem to know it at
last, and u very large majority of the
saucy, shingled heads that you see be-
long to ladies whose hair or health has
been affected by blondine. These are,
in many cases, ladies' of fashionable
society, and their example has been fol
lowed by others who have never used
the stuff. Anyhow. the fate OF bloudine
is sealed. Light hair is not SO fashiona-
BILE as it was, and its artificial production
is now mainly carried ON by ladies of the
demi. monde"
At druggist's establishment on Wash
snukon avonne the renorter learned that