The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-26
TRADING IN HUMAN HAIR.
The Greatest Market is in Southwest
ern France.
r..o,,, Gol;onont,s MESSENGER.

ern France.
From, Gdliqnoni's Messenger.
rhare is a human hair market at Moria rs,
:. .ha denartment of the lower Pyrenees.
r. ia little known, except, perhaps, in Paris,
I've If has high reputation. The market
" held every other Friday. Hundreds of
.nsasgicking hairdressers throng to the little
.Iaca from far and near to buy up the hair
tba Young peasant girls. The dealers
.nsnder up and down the long, narrow
erect of the town, each with huge pair
of bright shears hanging from black
father strap around his waist, while the
rSr,ng girls who wish to part with their
Syir stand about in the door
1a usually in couples. The trans
s.;on ia carried on in the best room of the
as,,sa The hair Is let down, the Jresses
uennhed ont. and the dealer names the price
STS,;s varies from to 80 francs. If bar
~ ia struck, the dealer lays the money in
ssSe omen palm of the seller, applies his
I IL ard in minute the long tresses fall
an the floor. The purchaser rolls up the
ofznss places them in paper and thrusts
lam into his pocket. OF course a maiden
can rarely see her fallen tresses disappear
into the dealers pocket without crying,
but she consoles herself with the thought
that it will grow again and by looking at
the money in her hand.
There is at present scarcity of fancy
human hair in the market. The scarcest
hair is pure white, and its value is constantly
increasing, and if it is unusually long-that
is from to S feet-the dealer can get
almost his own price, while if it is of
ordinary length it is worth from Is francs
TO 500 francs (e15 to eco an ounce. The
fact that pure white hair is the court Golf
fire throughout Europe keeps the demand
for it very high. 1t is much priced by
American women whose hair is white, and
who desires to enrich its folds, for white
hair is held to give certain distinction to
the wearer. There is no fancy market for
gray hair, it is too common. 1t is used to
work into wigs OF persons who are growing
old.
What is described as golden hair is either
pale washed out red or dull blonde. The
gold color so much valued has no relation
to red hair, except in the vividness of its
coloring. The demand for the virgin gold
color is great in the capitals of Europe. A
woman who gets couture of it is consid-
of hair - white, blonde, black and
brown-and each of these have
been subdivided into sixteen different
shades. The commonest types of these
are black and brown, and these are
cheap. Golden brown is much in favor, as
is pure black, or what is called blue black.
Next to pure white hair the demand is for
QdlI VI Uuo COlOI OA gin kOk0s lAolo III y
many bralds made of hair colored to meet
the demand with certain preparations, but
they prove unsatisfactory. Many foolish
women have sought to change the color of
their own tresses, but they have uniformly
repented the attempt. A fine suite of hair
of the purest blonde type will sell from
1000 francs to $500 francs (940 to e100.
1t is said that the Empress Eugene paid
1000 francs GAO an ounce for a braid of
golden hair that exactly matched her own.
The largest supply of hair comes from
Switzerland and Germany, and especially
from the French provinces. The country
fairs are attended by agents of merchants
in London, Paris and Vienna. Only at
intervals, however, is prize like a per-
feet suite of golden hair obtained, and am
told that there are orders ahead in the
shops of Paris and London for all the golden
hair that can be obtained in the next five
years. When a stock of hair is collected by
travelling agents it is assorted, washed and
cleaned. Then each hair is drawn through
the eye of needle and polished. When
the stock is ready for the market here
the nobility is permitted to make the first
choice.
A womans hair may grow to the length
of feet. Nine. Hess of Paris refused
5000 francs for her ''cranial covering, y
which was about that measurement. Four
hundred hairs of average thickness would
cover an inch of space. The blonde belle
has about 140, 900 filaments to comb and
brush, while the red-haired beauty has to
be satisfied with $1,000; the brown-haired
damsel may have 100, 900; the black haired
but 10000. Few ladies consider that they
carry some forty or fifty miles
OF hair on their head; the fair-haired
may even have to dress seventy miles of
threads of gold every morning. A German
experimentalist has proved that a single
hair will at1Sn
breaking, stretching under the process and
contracting again. But the hair thus
heavily weighed must be dark brown, for
blonde hair breaks down under 216 ounces.
As regards the wig trade, the most ex-
pensive wigs are, of.course, pure white and
the virgin gold color. A young Brooklyn
lady of much beauty possesses splendid
wig of the latter kind, which she CHANGED
to find in a shop at Nice. She was blonde
but had a scanty supply of dull hair. 1t
did not take her an instant to decide to have
her hair cut short and to wear the wig.