The suburban citizen., 1901-04-06
TO CUT, OR NOT TO CUT. HAIR.
Widespread Badness Among Mon is As.
cribed TO Too Much Barberlng.

hiue spread bAluneeh among Mon rs AS
cribed TO Too Much Barberlng.
Alexander Rowland, who wrote an
interesting treatise about fifty years
ago on the human hair, with special
reference to it's preservation improve
ment and adornment, said MANY
mothers are in the habit of having the
hair Of their daughters cut close when
young, on the supposition that this will
tend to prevent badness and improve
the hair by causing it to grow longer,
thicker and more abundant This is a
mistaken notion, and 1t Is rather calcu-
lated to injure it's beauty and retaird
It's maximum growth. 1t is quite sufi-
Client to have the ends tipped or short
tened occasionally, as the original hair
is always the finest and most beauti-
full" Notwithstanding that opinion by
an expert, the opinion that cutting
does make the hair grow has continued
to prevail among the professional hair
dressers.
The Frankfurter Wochenblatt says:
"Thls belief begins with the involun-
tary comparison of the hair with a
plant AS grass that is often cut short
grows again and becomes thicker, so,
il is believed, the hair should do when
it is cut. This comparison, however, is
a false one. A developed hair is per-
fectly formed mass Of horn, which has
nothing further to do with the case in
which the hair rests than to receive
it from below further growth and to
be held firmly by it.
I'm this mass of horn, as in the nails
of the fingers and the toes, there is no
longer any sap in circulation; this
mass, so to speak, is a product which
cannot be quickened and strengthened
by new nourishment because the lat
ter cannot enter it. On the other hand,
what happens in the blade Of grass is
totally different. The blade Of grass is
n network of fine ducts in which is
constantly circulating the nourishment
which the blade draws from the roof;
it presents, in contrast with the dead
body Of the hair, a living, vegetating
substance which has a most intimate
connection with the condition of its
root, and which dries up infalllbly
when it is separated from its root,
while the hair will remain unaffected
for thousands of years after its pa
pilla has withered away, There is one
irresistible proof of this-the hair on
the heads of mummies. The root Of
the hair as long as it exists produces
a new hair when the old hair has fal-
len out, while the root of many a plant
gives existence to one sprout only and
then together with it declines and dies.
"The more a hair is disturbed in its
natural growth by continually cutting
off its end the less rest its papilla,
the real producer of the hair, finds;
the papilla, being constantly excited
to excessive production, wavers finally
in its activity, decays and dies. For
this reason a woman with bald head
is never or seldom seen, as the natural
or very slow process of the growth of
womans hair is not disturbed. The
individual hair reaches a definite
length; after years it falls out of it.
self and a new hair begins to appear
as soon as the papilla has had time to
rest itself thoroughly and to prepare
itself for the process of a new growth.
These are the reasons which lead to
the obviously valid conclusions that
cutting the hair is rather injurious
than useful. American Hairdresser.