The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-27
Much Of It Comes From the Ash Bar
rsls Of Paris.
From the Ne,C York Herald.

From the New York Herald
The best false hair comes from France,
where it is sold by the gramms at prices
which vary according to quality and color.
The most expensive false hair is the silver
white variety, which is in great demand
and very difficult TO find. This is due to the
fact that men grow bald in a majority of
cases before their hair reaches the silver
white stage. and women. whether bald or
not, are not disposed to sell their white
hair at any price, They need it themselves
Still women growing bald must have
white hair TO match the scant allowance
advancing age has left them. The chemists
have taken the matter in hand and are able
to produce by decoloration of hair of any
color a tolerable grade of white hair, which,
however, has a blush tint not at all ap-
preaching in beauty the silvery softness of
hair which has been bleached by nature.
False hair OF the ordinary shades is OBJ
tanned in two ways. The better and more
expensive kind is cut directly from the
heads of peasant women, who sell their
silken tresses sometimes for q mere song and
sometimes for a fair price, according as
they have learned wisdom. Every year the
whole territory of France is Travelled over
by men whose business it is to persuade vii
lage maidens, their mothers and their aust
to part with their hair for financial consid-
erasions.
These men are known as "cutters," and
there are at least 500 of them in the country
always going from house to house, from
farm to farm and through all the villages
In ell the departmental, seeking subjects for
their scissors. A good cutter averages
from two to five heads Of hair a day, and
he pays from francs to 10 francs for each.
1t is estimated that single head of luxuriant
growth weighs about a Deund
The false hair thus obtained-at the cost
of the tears and regrets of many foolish
rnaidens-is the finest in the market, and
sells for an exaggerated price, which puts it
beyond the ordinary purchaser. Besides, il
Is evident that the supply of genuine
Cuttings" must fall far short of the de-
mand for false hair. So the majority
of this wavy merchandise is Obtained
yes, ladies, am exceedingly sorry, but it
Is the fact-from the rag pickers. These
busy searchers of ash heaps and garbage
barrels collect every day in the city of Paris
alone at least 100 pounds Of hair, winch some
hundreds of thousands of women have
combed out OF their heads during the pre-
ceding twenty-four hours. This hair, all
mixed together and soiled, one would think,
beyond redemption, is sold to hair cleaners
at from 81 to 81 so pound, which shows
simply that the fair sex in one city alone
throws away annually about 800, 900 francs
worth Of hair, for which they afterwa
pay-and it is the same hair, mind-conside-
rably over 1000, 900 francs.
The cleanicg of this refuse hair Is an
operation which requires careful attention.
After the hair has been freed from the dust
and dirt and mud and other unpleasant
things with which it has come in contact
in cutters and slop buckets it is rubbed in
saw dust until it shines once more with its
pristine gloss. and then the process of sort
ing is begun. In the first place skilled hands
fix the individual hairs In frames, with the
roots all pointing the same way, and then
then they are arranged according to
color Finally. when a sufficient number
hairs OF one color have been obtained-nor
is this number SO immense as is generally
supposed-they are made into the beautiful
braids which are shown 50 seductively in
the windows of the fashionable coiffures.
If, as the good book says, wisdom goes with
the hair, she who places on her head one of
the conglomerate braids might be said to
receive q portion OF the wisdom of hun
dreds Of thousands of other women who
had worn those hairs before her.
1t is said that the 'cutters" in France
have piled their trade SO industriously that
at present it is hardly possible in the whole
republic, to find a woman who will sell her
hair. The business has been done to death,
aud now the enterprising dealers in false
hair are sending their representa- lives
through Switzerland, Belgium and Norway
canvassing for unsophisticated lasses who
will allow themselves to be robbed of their
hair, which is half of their beauty, for
few pieces OF silver.