The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-21
OUR IMPORTED TRESSES
American Women Wear Tons of
Foreign Human Hair.
So General II the Use OF False Locks
Tint Ii Is Hard to Tell which
Is switch - The Very Hest Hair
Comes From Bohemia and Austria.

There is more false hair worn in the
United States than in all the rest of the
world put together. This isn't because
| American women are so marvelously i'll
supplied with their browning glory, but
simply and solely because they have the
price to pay for reinforcing their own
locks
II saw an announcement the other day."
said hair importer to a writer in the
New York Sun" that London mer-
chants use five tons of human hair an
nually. Humph, There is more than five
tons Of human hair sold every month
here in New York, OF course, that
doesn't mean that it all stays in New
YORK. III it did every woman in New
York would he wearing Bath bun as
big as loaf of bread in few years.
This city is the distributing point for the
whole country, though. and the five tons
a month estimate is no exaggeration.
| When 1t comes to human hair this
country Is the consumer; never the pro-
ducer. There's no American hair for
sale. There may be isolated cases where
a girl or woman sells her hair but she
doesntd do it unless she is hard up, or
unless she wants to have her hair cut
for some particular reason; because of
severe headaches, for instance Even
when an American woman does cut her
hair she doesn't sell it unless very poor.
The bulk OF the hair supply comes
from France, Italy, and Russia, but the
very best hair comes from certain
provinces in Bohemia and Austria. Ger
! many and Sweden don't furnish much
hair for the market, because almost no.
| BODY Is allowed to cut it. In Germany
| there are just two men who have the
hair-cutting privilege, and they have had
1t for couple of hundred years"
| How much is hair worth at whole
saIe?"
That depends on its length, it's quality,
and its color: most of all on it's color.
| Natural white hair costs most. If you
can get hold of some pure white hair
twenty inches long you can sell it to any
| jobber for SO an ounce. Yes, SO an
ounce. But 1 advise you not to sit up
nights thinking how you are going to
| spend the money. for white hair twenty
! inches long doesn't grow on one head in
I a million"
/ But white hair is common enough
| Grey hair is, but not white hair In
| the first place, womans hair generally
| grows thin as she grows old, so that even
WREN you have found your white hair
there's not likely to be much of it. And
| even so-called white hair isn't white 1t
| is generally white only at the temples
and around the edges. At the ends it is
| yellowish and toward the neck ii is
darker sometimes quite the original col
| or Pure white hair is almost impossible
| to find.
Next in value come the extra shades,
such as mouse drab and pink drab and
genuine deep black Blonde hair doesn't
| bring high price to its wearer, because
| we can produce the shades artifcially and
the imitation cannot be detected. OF
tafztv .nsasa duo t.safr ii
suit Is never perfect Red hair brings a
fairly good price, but we can get plenty
of it.
The poorest supply of hair, so far as
quality goes, is from Russia. We get a
great deal from there. but it IS cut from
the heads of peasant girls who work in
the fields, without hats, in all sorts of
weather and whose hair is never cared
for-at least not while they wear it.
THAT is the trouble with false hair.
IL IS cut in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred from peasant women who live
away from civilization and who are abso--
lutely wanting in cleanliness.
1t isn't pleasant, is it? But we thor
oughly wash and cleanse every bit of
hair we handle and the retailer of course
does the same. When we get the hair it
is tied up just as it was cut from the
head. We have to comb it, straighten it
out, sort it into lengths and either sell it
in that shape to dealers who make it
up themselves, or make it up ourselves
for sale to the small dealers"
But how about the cost?
"Oh, yes. Well, We pay SIS kilo-
that's about two pounds-for ordinary
hair. When we have sorted Il there is a
good deal which is short, so that we
have to sell the sorted hair at good
deal more than 80 a pound. Extra shades
bring higher prices according to their
rarity. The weight of an average head
of hair isn't more than half a pound. so
you see there's no great money in 1t for
the women who sell their hair. II we
pay $3.50 for half pound, after all the
trouble the first buyer has had, you may
ha no Il iuFr
sum for it.
That's one reason there's no American
hair on the market. The women over
here aren't poor enough Those who have
medium-long hair would see you further
before they'd sell it to You for few dol
lars. You go to an Italian peasant girl
that never sees the color of money and
offer her or 6 lire for her hair. and she'd
let you pull it out if you couldn't get it
any other way. Go to woman here and
offer her dollar for her hair and shield
throw you out. If she didn't, her nearest
male relative would.
That's the reason America is such a
good market for hair. The people here
have got the price to pay for il. And
they've got il now more than ever. We've
sold more hair during the last foGr years
than we had in ten years before that.
Take a servant girl in New York. If
her hairs thin she wont think anything
of taking 50 out of her months wages and
a good many years. anyway. 1t really
wont cost so much in the end. Not any
more than she used to pay for 1ute
What did she do with jute?''
Wore it instead of hair. oh, my, yes!
| remember the time when Servant girls
used to buy jute switches. They had to
get new one almost every Saturday
night. Paid quarter for them. It's
cheaper 70 buy the real thing.
But DO you sell much false hair to poor
women"
We'll, If it weren't for the poorer wo-
men we'd have to go out of business. 1t
amt the rich women that keep the hair
business going. Why. count the number
of swell hair dealers with rich customers.
There aren't more than a dozen of them
in this city.
"Of course, they get fancy prices for
what they sell. If rich women has
confidence in the dealer she'll pay any
thing for exactly the thing she wants
Well, even supposing the man made $50
on a switch. While he's selling that one
switch TO the rich woman there are a
hundred women buying switches from
the questionable dealer. who is content
with profit of $50. It's all right. He
makes $3.50 to the swell dealers $50"
But why do the rich women buy so
little?
I'm the first place, because there are
so few of them to buy. Another thing
they take care of their hair and keep It
better. And then, too, they care more
than the poorer woman does about being
caught wearing false hair They can
of hair. too. They have time to fuss with
it, or maids to make the most of it. You
see there are a good many reasons"
is the hair which grows on corpses sold
and worn?'
People say so. but don't believe much
in it. | shouldn't think it would be
good. The hair sympathizes with the rest
he hon "a, mar t., s.f.r