, 1888-07-07
AS A HAIR
How One Woman Earns n Livelihood
Care of the HaIr-Trimming.

How One Woman Earns n Livelihood.
Care of the HAlr-Trimming.
The names of the occupations which
refined women in reduced circumstances
are seeking nowadays afe legion. The
field of type writing, stenosraphy and
telegraphy has long been crowded by
women who have to earn their own liv-
ing Inc the living of families, and who
canno do manual labor. Places as pri-
vate secretaries, all sorts of clerkships in
shops and business offices, travelling
agencies" editorships, e~mployments by
the score AVE been added to that which
twenty-five years ago was almost the
only occupation In which q refined
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 town at all
hours n in all sorts of weather. A re-
potter was introduced by a friend, the
other day, to a lady who was earning a
very comfortable livelihood as a hair
groomer.
"Pm not a hairdresser," she said, 'T'm
a hair groomer. 1 don't do up hair at
all. l only comb the hair and give it
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 INT
who would scorn to call themselves pro-
fessional hairdressers."
She was an elderly lady, tall and slen-
der, and dressed neatly and with excel
lent taste in black. Her manners were
gentle and refined. Her face had that
dark, quiet look seen on the faces of in
valids or of women who had a good deal
of suffering. She was living In a re-
spectacle boarding house.
81 was cornered and l had to do it."
she said. AZ had to earn my living sud
denly, and the only way I could think of
to do 80 at my g was to care for
women's hair. My mother was for years
an invalid. She had beautiful hair, and
it used to soothe and quiet her to nave
me comb her hair and stroke 1t softly.
In this way 1 learned to care for the hair,
especially that of nervous women. There
are q great many women, of course, of
the so called uppe Glasses who can't
afford to keep maids and yet who want
their hair cared for regularly. They
don't like to nave professional hair
dressers around them, either. 1t is to
such women l look for my patronage.
"Wha 10 / do to the hair? Well,
first / rub it 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
dandruff all out, / wet the hair with a
simple solution which 1 know to be effec-
tive and not deleterious; then I rub and
brush the hair dry again. Next comes
the trimming. / pull out the gray hairs
one by one, taking care to pull them 30
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 a
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.
1t makes a woman nave the blues for a
week when her first r a hairs come.
Now, when gray hairs are the result of
age l never NEEDLE with them; the only
thing to do is to let them come. 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. .
"Wel finally, 1 trim the hair. 1 cut
each individual hair separately so as to
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 to make
the hair shorter and quite as uneven as
before. Then 1 part the hair simply and
do it up plainly. AS l told you, if
women want their hair done up in any
of the fancy styles they mustn't come
to me. '
"How much does 1t pay me2 Well, I
generally think 1 ought to get 81, at
least, each time 1 visit a lady's house. If
a lady lives a great way up tow and 1t
takes me all the afternoon or morning to
go up and see her, 1 want more money, of
course. And, on the contrary, when two
or three patrons live near each other,
why, 1 can moderate the price a little to
each one. 1t is a humble way of getting
a living, / know, but it is respectable,
and 1 shall stick to it."-New York Sun.