Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-08-29
As A HAIR GRooMER.
How Ono Woman Earns q Livelihood
Care of the Hair-Trimming.

Care OF the Hatr-Trfmming.
The names OF the occupations which
refined women in reduced circumstances
are seeking nowadays are legion. The
field Of type writing, stenography and
telegraphy has long been crowded by
women who have to earn their own liv-
ing and the living Of families. and who
cannot do manual labor. Places as pri.
waite secretaries. all sorts Of clerkships In
shops and business offices, travelling
agencies" editorships, employments by
the score have been added to that which
twenty-five years ago was almost the
woman thrown upon her own
could engage-that of teaching children.
There are women now who even write
for the papers, and have attained fame
as reporters, tramping about own at all
hours and in all sorts Of weather. A re-
pooter was introduced by a friend, the
other day, to a lady who was earning a
very comfortable livelihood as a hair
groomer.
I'm not a hairdresser," she said, I'm
a hair groomer. | don't do up hair at
all only comb the hair and give 1t
that general attention which every
woman's hair demands two or three
times a week. There are lots OF women
in the city who are in this business and
who would scorn to call themselves pro-
fessional hairdressers."
She was an elderly lady, tall and slen-
DIR, and dressed neatly and with excel
lent taste In black. Her amer were
gentle and refined. Her face had thai
dark, quiet look seen on the faces Of in
yalids or Of women who had a good deal
Of suffering. She was living In q re-
spectacle boarding house.
81 was cornered and | had to do It,"
she said. 81 had to earn my living sud
denly, and the only way | could think Of
to do SO at my age was TO care foi
women's hair. My mother was for years
an invalid. She had beautiful hair, and
it used to soothe and quiet her TO have
me comb her hair and stroke it softly.
In this way | learned Il care for the hair,
especially that of nervous women There
are a great many women, Of course, OF
the so called upper classes who can't
afford to keep maids and yet who want
their hair cared for regularly. They
don't like to have professional hair.
| dresSers around them, either. 1t is to
such women ! look for my patronage.
"What do / do to the hairT Well,
first l rub 1t dry with a soft and then
with a hard brush. don't put a lot of
water and cleaning stuff upon the hair
at first as some do, but after | have the
dandruf all out, | wet the hair with a
simple solution which | know to be effec-
tive and not deleterious; then ] rub and
brush the hair dry again. Next comes
the trimming. | pull out the gray hairs
one by one, taking care to pull them so
that the scalp is not lacerated, and the
hair cells themselves destroyed. There
is a great art in pulling out hairs. You
must pull them in the direction in which
they lie in the scalp just as you would q
silver of wood from your hand, in the
direction in which it entered. Men or
women can't pull out their gray hairs
themselves, for it is utterly impossible
for them to see that they are pulling the
hairs out on the proper slant. OF course,
you know that people are very touchy on
the subject of gray hairs in their heads,
It makes a woman have the blues for q
week when her first gray hairs come.
Now, when gray hairs are the result Of
age | never NEEDLE with them; the only
| thing to do is to let them zone. But
they are often the result Of sickness
Or some other little trouble, and it is
then often possible TO prevent their com.
ing. Badness is to be doctored in just
the same way. lean never cure, though,
and nobody can cure the badness of peo,
pie, like accountants and Others, accus.
toned TO work all day with the glare and
heat Of gaslights or electric lights beating
down upon their heads. In their cases
the hair cells have been literally burnt
out.
"Well, finally, / trim the hair. | cut
each individual hair separately so as &c
make it even with the Others. When
the hair is gathered up in the hand and
cut square across In a lump, as it were,
with the scissors, the struggling hairs are
not reached. The result is only 10 make
the hair shorter and quite as Uneven a:
before. Then | part the hair simply and
10 it up plainly. As | told you, il
women want their hair done up in any
Of the fancy styles they mustn't com
to me.
"How much does it pay me' Well,
generally think | ought TO get 81, al
least, each time ! visit a lady's house. II
a lady lives a great way up town and II
taSes me all the afternoon or morning tC
go up and see her, / want more money, Of
course. And, on the contrary, wien two
OF three patrons live near each other
why, | can moderate the price a little L
each one. 1t is a humble way of getting
a living, / know, but it is respectable,
and | shall stick to it."-New York Sun