San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-10
H HUMAN HAIR.
WHERE 1T is OBTAINED FOR
MANUFACTURING.
Various Processes of Manufacturing,
Bleaching, Dyeing and Prepar-
ing it for the Market.

just before leaving New York, to pre-
pare an article for a fashion magazine
of that city on the subject of Human
Hair" Though 1 succeeded in getting
my notes on the subject from the va
rious manufacturers and importers, 1
have not since had time to arrange
them until now, and not now in tie
| order and attention to detail that the
subject demands. Very few persons
have any adequate conception of the
| magnitude of the human hair bust
ness, possibly for the reason that
| though the duties on human hair i'm
| ported into this country yearly aggre-
| gate over eight million dollars Ito say
| nothing of the immense value Of rare
shades struggled I'M the business
Is controlled by half a dozen
firms, four in New York, n in Bos-
ton, and one in Philadelphia, that is
the business of importing. There are
over n hundred manufacturers
scattered throughout the country.
The value of the hair is first its
shades, second life, THAT is hair cut
! from the heads of living persons) the
| lower grades are those cut from the
! heads of the dead. German combings,
Italian combiDgs and Chinese hair.
The more valuable shades are white,
gray, drab, blonde and light blonde.
Pure white, gray and drab hair
in length from % to 80 inches,
Often bringing as much as
$500 per ounce, before it Is made into
switches, wigs or front pieces bangs.
A full account of the methods of OBJ
tas, N -, - N rpnnonnCn nnQnfifu nanaS-
sary to supply u American ladies
with switches, bangs. curls etc., and
gentlemen with wigs and tonpees
would make u volume in itself. L
will summorise briefly. The bulk of
the hair sent to this country is from
Italy and is of very inferior quality
and shades rs 1t is almost all comb
ings and hair cuts from the dead.
The better grades and shades are from
Germany and Norway, is obtained by
peddlars who make yearly rounds
among the provincial peasant
girls exchanging trinkets for
their crops of hair. The suit
is never cut, but thinned with a Pc
culiar sharp knife made expressly for
the purpose, thus enabling the same
girl to sell a crop every year. The
yield is about two ounces to the head,
the price paid, as a rule, about !
mark "a so. The great shipping
points are Hamburg, Havre and Ge-
noa. Raw hair is prepared for ship
ping by immersion in a chemical
bath to prevent it's being injured by
the salt air and ON its arrival
here, though very precious, is
awfuIIy nasty to look at or
smell, and if some of our dainty bang
wearers could see it, they would hest
tate to don the pretty ringlets into
which it is finally evolved, though it
undergoes a most thorough cleansing
process. The first is to boil it for sew
eral days and nights continuously,
when it is taken from the kettles and
hung on copper lines to dry. ven
thoroughly dried, the preparing pro-
cess begins. This work is done by
experienced men, who are paid large
salaries, many earning as high as $75
per week. The work requires skill
and absolute patience. The colors
are first sorted, carded and drawn
into lengths through heckles Ia board
eight or ten inches square, containing
hundreds of perpendicular needles.
The colors that are perfect without
any chemical process are now ready
70: manufacturing, and are tied in
bundles Of uniform length. Those
that are muddy or "off,"are bleached,
blonde or drab, and white. The pro.
cess of bleaching is very interesting
though simple, and our ladies who
possess dusky ringlets and a pen
chant for blond ones a take a tip
from this. The chemicals used are
the same though the method Is some-
what different. The hair selected for
coloring is thrown pell-mell into large
wooden tubs, and Is completely
saturated with about 80 parts of II
vol per oxide OF hydrogen to 10 OF
amonia. The tubs are tightly covered
for six hours, when removed the hair
is a dark blonde, or aburn shade. If
blonde Is desired the peroxide of am
monia Is carefully strained off, the
hair wrung perfectly dry through or
binary rubber clothes wringers, re-
placed In the tub and again saturated
as before; this is continued changing
the peroxide and wringing the hair
every twenty-tour hours, until the
hair is perfectly white. To bleach it
white usually requires five days, and
is constantly watched to prevent the
chemicals from burning 1t.
The prepared" hair is now ready
to manufacture. We will deal with
in lengths from 6 inches or 20
centimeters, to Is inches so cent?
meters. 1t is curled to be
made into bangs, wigs, curls, NOUS
taches, &C., this is what is known as
natural curler" hair, though in the
literal acceptation of the term, natu.
raj curled hair, there is no such thing