Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-01
A WOMAN'S BARBER SHOP.
WHERE BANGS ARE TRIMMED AND
 TONGUES ARE FLEET.

WHERE BANGS ARE TRIMMED AND TONGUES ARE FLEET. 1 1t Isn't So AwfuIly Different from Mans 1 Shop, Only the Customers Do the Talk ing Instead of the Barber-The Dimpled Woman in Charge Explains.
 Just around an up town Broadway corner 1 is woman's barber shop, with the wisest, l wittiest, merriest woman barber at the head
 of it, with Q naughty dimple in one cheek, a l pair of keen, bright, laughing eyes, and lot of soft brown hair twisted up in loops that l shine like gold in the sunlight Probably 1 there isn't a woman in the entire town that
 knows SO much of human nature, or has a
 greater fund of personal anecdotes and
 "reminiscences of the ladies whose names
 fill the columns of the society papers than
 this merry philosopher, whose keen eyes
 sec every foible and weakness but
 whose lips keep their counsel well. When 1 the twenty-ffth customer comes in and
 rattles on about the lovely hair she used to have, so long that she could sit on it, and so 1 heavy that she couldn't pull comb through
 1t, only suspicion quivcr in the dimple sug- | gests that possibly she has heard that story
 something like million times before from as
 many different women, and when fussy man
 comes in to superintend his wife's coiffure, sug- | gesting sundry changes in the arrangement in the hope of improving her faded charms, she
 puts the brakes on the dinple, and only after
 the door is closed behind them she remarks,
 crisply: "1f that man expects me to make a
 beauty of his wife he's got to get different
 woman for me to work on. No use wasting
 time on her."
 I
 There is little similarity between this place
 and mans barber shop, where men sit in a
 cloud of smoke as thick as London mist
 waiting for the welcome and familiar call of l 'Next!' or tilt back in chair, staring at
 lot of pigeonholes full of cups while the bar
 Der grinds out threadbare jokes. Ladies 1 step out of their carriages and trip up the l steps of brown stone house, where on a | silver door plate is inscribed the hairdresser's | name, and ring the bell. A pink and white
 low voiced little maiden, in O black jersey
 and long white apron, opens the door and
 ushers them into large, light parlor, where
 they lay aside their wraps and follow her | into another room, lined with mirrors, car peted with velvet and exGusitely clean 1 Other girls, in long white aprons and black l jerseys, are brushing the lustrous hair of the l women, who sit about leisurely in the crim- 1 son cushioned chairs.
 "Why do women have SO little hair nowa- daysa" sighs a pretty woman of 30, with
 about one hair where she ought to have 200. "Becauso they don't take care of it." an-
 swers the hairsiresser, as the woman's barber 1 Is called. They never brush it at all or | else they don 't>half do it. They dir away at | 1t with q fine tooth comb just because their | grandlnothcrs did, and never wash it at all,
 or else twice a year, when they clean house, l SCOUT it out with boraX and ammonia. Those | are tho very worst things in the world to use on the nair. Then they curl it and friz 1t l with too hot irons, and break it all off and never trim the ends, wear round hats that | cover it all up and never give 1t a chance to | breathe, as you might say, get bit of fresh air or sunshine and then wonder why 1 they don't have any hair Nice ladies, too, that are so fnicky they wouldn't think of eating their breakfast without taking 0 bath, will carry around O years accumulation of 1 dirt under their $50 bonnets and feel dressed up."
 "How often ought lady to have her haif | attended to:'
 ''She ought to attend to it herself every night and morning with @ good stiff brush, and then go to a hairdresser once month for dry shampoo, and once a month the hair should be thoroughly cleansed with Gas tile soap and water. Why, my regular GUS toners have their own brushes here, and come as often as once aweek. Look!" And, opening cupboard door, she exhibited rows and rows of heavy English brushes, each bearing on the handle the name of the owner, and each accompanied by two smaller
 brushes for cleaning the scalp ''Some of lem are such fussers they won't even look in my hand glass, you see, and bring their own," she added, pointing to the celluloid mirrors tied up with some of the brushes.
 tiTIOy rnuch does if cost to l.ear, tbo boir ,, nice order for yeara''
 "Oh, not moro than $50 or s;;iO, but great many ladies come in to have their hair dressed two or three times a week, you know, and then they spend S100, or perhaps more, in one year. I charge fifty cents for clipping bang and $1 for shampoo" VERY LIVELY PLACE. A bright faced girl came tripping in to have her hair dressed preparatory to being photographed In twinkling big white apron was tied around her neck over the directoire dress of dull green, and a heavy mass of hair of Titian's color fell below her waist.
 ''You don't mean to say that you want that hair dressed just os it isan
 Certainly; why not5'
 "It isn't fit to dress, all dirt like that, and so oily it sticks together. Most any woman
 who had hair heavy and long like that would know enough to appreciate It.
 "Oh, 1 hate the color of it so, never cared l to fuss with it. Red hair and white horses" she said with little grilnace. -----r.---- "Yes, but that hair is stylish, you know, now. Why, it is considered the greatest | beauty in solne countries" and before the girl really had time to object one of the soft | voiced. soft handed assistants was scrubbing some kind of a lotion in silver cup on to her l scalp with O sharp little brush, and tho next l she knew all the mass of hair was floating in | marble bowl, with alternate streams of hot
 and cold water playing upon it, all so neatly
 and skillfully accomplished that not drop of moisture soiled the pretty gown. And
 then leaning back in a rocking chair, while
 the attendant tossed the shining strands
 above heater she chatted away to her sis
 ter in tho communicative strain woman al-
 ways drifts into when her hairpins are out.
 "Now, if the expression in this picture will
 only be good. never have any expression
 in a picture"
 | The busiest hours in tho womans barber
 shop or hairdressing establishment are from Il until and from to G Some of the ladies