Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-05-16
SELLING HUMAN HAIR.
where Most of the Crop Il Grown and Hos
I; is bought

II is bought.
T., remote Swiss. German and French
,i11oges traffic In human hair is as rec
o,niqed n norton of the commerce az
tSa aala of butter and eggs, and is, to
+,,a y,.;indr uessant girls. a very impor.
INT matter They grow their hair with
a uiaw 10 SELLING, II. inst MS their fathers
o,d brothers grow their cereals and
raise their cattle for the same purpose
In many cases. where they are fortunate
snourh to have it of good, marketable
color and fine texture, they get for their
ware more than their male relatives
could hope to clear after many years Of
hard toll.
The great drawback to the lucrative
ness of hair-farming Is the slowness OF
growth and the fact that tho same head
IL rarely known to produce a remarkably
fine crop twice An objection TO it is
dislike, natural in woman. to part
with what is a nature-given ornament.
We NAV feel positive that in the dis.
triets whore hair ia sold it il a proud
distinction to be in constant possession
of A rood crop which is definitely under
stood to be mot for sale" and which ar
cues well for the amount of worldly
goods enjoyed by its possessor.
Here. whore there is no recognized
commercial value placed on luxuriant
locks. ii was year or two ago quite
fashionable TO have hair short and wavy,
like mans. There, however, the con
ISOLATION has to be administered in the
shane of hard cash, and even with that
10 no
amt hair-rrowers can seldom see their
shorn tresses gathered up by the indif-
ferent purchaser with equanimity,
One village market is held every sec
ond Friday and is attended by buyers
from Paris only. These walk about the
street-the village boasts but one long,
narrow ono-while the girls stand about
in couples so that they may give each
other moral support. The business ia
transacted in large room. The sellers,
having had their hair combed out and
examined. wait for an offer.
If this be satisfactory the buyer takes
m bright pair of shears fastened to
his waist and cuts the treasured tresses,
paperinr and pocketinr them quickly,
SO that the denuded girl may see as lit
tie of them as possible once they have
passed ont of her possession. She then
goes off and uses all the means she
knows of to cultivate a new crop, which
occasionally is successful up to the
third and even fourth transactions,
though rarely is the first bargain bet
tered The crop. however. is capricious:
occasionally a second growth and third
have been known to exceed the first in
length and fineness to a surprising de-
gree, though, if the color be fair and
particularly of golden sheen, the second
cron even is almost invariably not salts
/ factory in this one particular.
4 Purely white hair. If long and fine,
NAV be converted into a little fortune
by it's possessor, supposing she be so
minded. Albino women have been
known to obtain for a crop of hair white
as snow and fine as spun silk the nice
littlo sum of $3.50. which certainly would
make hair-farming remunerative occu-
nation. surprising that only two such
crops could be raised and disposed of in
q lifetime.
1t is said that the French ex-Empress
paid 5000 an ounce for hair to match her
own. which was. in her youth. that much
priced hue which is the same as virgin
gold The difficulty of exactly match
ing hair is much greater than might be
supposed by the casual observer, who
sees only the four colors known by hair
exnerts as tyne-col0rs-white black.