The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-21
HAIR WORTH 800 AN OUNCE.
If Pure White 1t Costs More Than
Its Weight in Gold.

If Pure White 1t Costs More Than
Its Weight in Gold.
From the New York Sun.
The police reported last week the ar
rest of two young thieves who were ac-
cused of stealing 800 pounds of human
hair from a dealer.
There is probably some mistake
about that case" remarked another
dealer. "If the hair they stole was
only average quality American hair,
and they had 800 pounds of it, its
value was in the neighborhood of $780,
600. If 1t was fine imported hair, its
value could easily have been $250,000
Hair is the most expensive COM
modify on the market, short Of radium
and diamonds. 1t costs more than it's
weight In gold. Some hair costs 500
an ounce. That is $1,000 pound. If
the youthful sneak thieves had made
away with hair of this quality, their
swag would have been in the neighbor-
hood of $4S0.000.
"ButaAthis expensive hair necessarily
exists W very small quantities. That
is why it is so rare and so expensive.
This particular hair which costs 800
an ounce Is the pure white hair, cut
from the head of a living person, and
l3lGdSulIlS db lGcASL NAAA ~ AANANSs
Shorter hair Of the purest white COM
mands a high price, but in order to get
the record value the length must be at
least thirty inches.
And in all the United States there
Is probably not a pound and half of
this perfect white hair for sale. Many
aged people have 1t, but those who do
will not sell.
elderly people with long white hair
10 n rtft a. off
in the hope of getting 500 an ounce for
1t without first having an expert in
spect it. If 1t is tinged with yellow
it's value is reduced to almost nothing.
We can get plenty of long white hair
tinged with yellow. but the pure white
Is extremely rare and very expensive.
"A wig made for the wife of Chi
cago bank president by me two years
ago of this pure white hair cost the
lady 81 200. And 1t took me nearly a
year to collect the hair from all over
the country. l used about five ounces
in the wig.
Girls who live in Harlem or the sub
urbs sometimes get dead broke while
down town and want to know what
they can sell their hair for. A mother
once brought her 14-year-old daughter
in to me to ask II l would buy the
daughters hair. / refused, because l
don't make a business of buying hair
raw, as we say.
"I should say that hair on a young
girls head, If about thirty inches long
and of fair quality, would bring the
owner from IS to $40, according to
length and thickness. But an Ameri-
can girl who sells her hair for this
trifing sum is acting very foolishly.
OF course, il she is only IA or Is ii will
grow long again, and cutting the hair
does improve the growth, but l never
advise any American girl to part with
her hair.
1.-THE most expensive shade. next to
the white hair / have mentioned, is
what is known as ash blonde. 1t is a
mousse colored hair, very rare-not the
pale peroxide blonde produced by arti-
fetal means but the natural pale
blonde Hair of this kind is easily
worth $50 an ounce, but very few peo-
pie have it.
THE cheapest kind of hair is black
Chinese hair, cut from the queues of
Cinnamon. You can buy this hair for
IS a pound. 1t Is used only for stage
purposes. in making what we call Mi
kado wigs.
This is the busy season of the year
for wig-makers. I estimate that be-
tween now and Sept. 1, when the the
atrical season opens, the output for the
season will include about 400 SOU
brette wigs with fluffy curls to be
worn by rough soubrettes; about L.
500 wigs for use in the many Shakes
pearean plays that are scheduled for
production: about 800 Oriental wigs
for Biblical plays: about 500 Japanese
wigs for several big productions; about
900 brown George wigs for general use
and for Shakespearean plays; about the
same number Of fright wigs for use in
the Yough-and-tumble farce comedies,
and a number of special wigs made for
certain persons.
1.-The seasons output will also in
clude no less than 1900 fluffy wigs for
chorus girls. These chorus girls buy
them singly and pay for them them
selves, whereas the management us
ually pays for the wigs of a big pro-
duction. The chorus girl invests in a
wig made for herself because 1t is
easier and prettier to wear a wig ev-
cry night than it is to curl her own
hair.
THE prices on wigs vary from 80
for a rough black wig to 5000 for a very
fine production. / charged $3.50 for a
most peculiar wig which l made few
months ago.
"A beautiful young woman, who re-
fused to give her name, called on me
and said she wanted a wig to be worn
with her own hair, which would reach
to the floor. She was blonde, and
succeeded after some difficulty in
getting the hair she desired.
II made it up so that IL fastened I'M
der her own hair, and when she put
1t on it touched the ground and looked
real. She refused to say why she
wanted II or who she was She paid
me the $3.50 and / have never seen her
since. Since she was not an actress
and didn't look like an advertisement
for hair oil 1 can only conclude that
she wanted to appear in some amateur
theatricals.
There are other people who wear
wigs, too. Some of them are spiritual
istic mediums. For a long time l was
puzzled by orders from the Middle
West, accompanied by photographs Of
elderly men. l was requested to make
up wigs and boards so that they were
exact copies of the particular style Of
hairdressing shown in the photograph.
II never found out until afterward