Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-10-08
ABOUT FALSE HAIR.
Where It Comes From and Other InformA- tIon of Much Interest.

Where It Comes From ana other AntormA-
 tIon of Much Interest.
 The wearing of artificial hair is no modern innovation. 1t was used not only by the Egyptians, but also by the Greeks, the Carthagenians, and es- pecially by the Romans, among whom the sale of human hair, particularly the blonde hair of Germany, was an ordinary species of traffic The most notable period in modern history, prior to the present time, in which false hair was extensively worn, covered a consider able portion of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the peruke was the order of the day, and all hu- manity became bewigged. To France, the great fountain-hoad of fashion, was due the adoption of this head-dress, which sacrificed the beauty of nature to tho delicacies of art The epidemic, which attacked both sexes with equal severity, extended to En- gland, and spread throughout other coun- tries of Europe. It loitered the longest in France, where 1t ragged with great virulence in tie reign of Louis the Fourteenth, and was not eradioated until the time of Marie Antoinette. whom, owing to the Queens hair coming of during a fit of illness, the ladies of the court, out of compliment to Her | Majesty, wore their hair short and the | fashion speedily came to an end. Since then, until a few years ago, the use of false hair has been confined to the wigs of bald-headed old beaux, the fronts" worn by elderly matrons and spinsters | of a ''certain ago." and the braids with which ladies with limited locks were wont to cap their crowns. These were always desirous of keeping the appli- ancc of artificial head-gear a profound secret, though none were enabled to prevent its being noticed But in these la tier years. Hebe herself has been indifferent whether or not we knew that she was indebted to other 1 heads for her teeming tresses.
 1 The consequence was that the trade | in human hair assumed prodigious pro- portions, and it's value increased at an enormous rate. Where does it come from?" is the question the reader will naturally ask. As matter of course, all products required by the artificial decoration of the person find their way l principally to Paris and we according ly regard that city Gs the emporium of the trade in human hair. More than one hundred tons weight of this precious ornament we are informed, has been annually taken there, and thence dis tributed in a raw and manufactured state over the whole of Europe and
 Northern America.
 The hair-crop annually required to
 feed the hungry maw of fashion is al-
 most entirely collected in France, Bel
 gium and Germany. English and
 American women rarely ever sell their
 hair. Black hair comes from Brit,
 tany and the south of France. as we'll
 as from Spain and Italy, whilst light
 hair is the product of Germany and the
 northern states of Europe. The fairest-
 haired inhabitants of the earth ere
 generally to be found north of ths
 forty-eighth parallel of latitude, and the darkest south Of the forty fifth.
 whilst the belt between the two Is 2 kind of neutral ground populated by !
 brown-hairod raoe.
 An eminent German has undergone , the enormous labor of counting the
 number of hairs ip heads of four differ ent colors- In blonde one, he found 7 Iaa. coo; in a brown, 1os, 40; in black lo2, e62, and in rcd one, sS,740. Wha
 the red and black heads wanted in mum ber of hairs was made ap, however, h the greater bulk of the hairs iRdtEidu ally. It is to the hneness and multi
 plicity of hairs that blonde tresses Ow' , the rich and silk-like character of thei dow-N Y Ledger