Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-10
TAKES GREAT PAINS
The French Girl is Proud Of
Her Hair.
FROM EARLIEST YOUTH
WILLING TO SUFFER IN ORDER TO
BE BEAUTIFUL.
Some Useful Recipes - Undu1ation
Without the Hot Iron - The
Art of Curling.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, September l, 1904.
ITO be beautiful you must suffer! Pour
etre belle il faut souffrirn'
The French girl begins hearing this
phrase cary; but up to the age OF ten years
she has comparative ease with her hair.
The custom is practically universal;
mothers let their little daughters hair flow
absolutely loose. 1t is only after ten years
that this hair-hanging down her back, as
in the song-gets to be pulled together in a
single place, midway up, tied in a small
ribbon.
But when girls have i.at hair it does not
look nice hanging fiat. Pour etre belle II
faut souffrir," The little girl not yet ten
learns the of cuIl-papers.
Size had already suffered from the comb
among her tangles: from the shampooing
ordeal; and from the notwithstanding and
dry-scalp-remedying operations.
You cannot begin too early. The hair
must be kept clean, French mothers insist
Now the shampooing is for cleanliness and
cleanliness only It's efficacy in removing
dandruff is wretchedly temporary.
Suppose you have little girl given to the
production of dandruff. The scalp Is dry;
it functions weakly; and the hair is Ill
nourished. This weak-functioning scalp
may also declare itself without dandru1,
III tH6 Simple ldlii1lS Oul VI tiiC Hoii.
French mothers know what to do for this
state of things. Here Is an old recipe useo
in ten thousand families:
Infusion Of camomile, 100 grammes; al
cOhOl, at 80 degrees, % grammeS; Dollc
acid, grammeS.
This is not a shampooing mixture. 1t is
to prevent dandruff and hair-falling. You
keep parting the hair, all around the mead,
to show the bare scalp i'll long lines, you
understand? Then you wet a little bunch
OF hydrophie cotton in the above lotion,
and dab it along the lines, wetting the
scalp and not the hair 1t is lotion for the
scalp alone. The roots of the hair get nat
urally wet with it during the operation;
and that is all.
l know families in which the girls scalps
are thus lotioned at least three times
week This lotion penetrates the scalp,
causes it to function normally and so nour-
ish the hair; while as for dandruff it is held
in check by the same fact that the scalp
functions normally.
Curling the Hair.
1 have mentioned curl papers. When l
speak of them henceforth you will under
stand that l mean bigoudis--that is to say,
either primitive curl papers or leads or lit
tie irons or any such cold crimpng or curl
ing devices by which little meshes are
wound and held tight The little French
girl begins bigoudis before the age of ten
in case her hair be destitute of natural
waviness. and the bigoudi curl papers
stays with her until she marrles. Up to
the age of sixteen it's sole use is to give
slightly wavy tendency to hair when it is
fiat. Between the ages of ten and fourteen
this wavy hair hangs in great loose braid.
Around about fourteen or fifteen years of
age this big braid is lifted by it's bottom
end and pinned up double in a loop and at
sixteen the hair is lifted completely in a
chignon, very simple, her mother SO insist
ing.
From childhood up the mother insists
She insists on simplicity. She insists on
the shampooing for cleanliness and the
camomle lotion for robustness. She in
sists that no other experiment shall be
made Blondes, who in France very
proud of their blonditude, have by this age
probably begun with the decoction of Pan
anna wood. Experimenting with different
strengths, they arrive at decoction which
they find suitable to their tint. 1t Is uni
versally believed to be capable of prevent
ing the blonde hair from darkening. 1t is
used like a shampoo
The Curling Iron.
And now begin the struggles over the
curling iron. Between the ages of seven
teen and eighteen years the young French
girl cOnquers a complete couture with
frisettes, undulations and the whole ira
la-la The great row Is naturally over the
curling iron.
AS long as you are with u.s." I have
heard French mother say to her daugh-
ter, ''as long as you are with US no hot iron
Shall touch your hairi"
And on what occasion do you think she
sad II! why, on the very eve of the girls
marriage!
I will tell you how they undulated this
girls hair for the great ceremony because
we may call it typical case of a family of
good society The girls father is a colonel
in active service, his father having been
a general. 1t was the eve of the marriage
The girl, who had never felt the hot iron
IN her life, insisted on becoming undula-
mother uttered the remarkable saving
worthy to be repeated:
NO, Suzette, you are still with us. and
as long as you remain with us no hot irnn
Shall touch your hair,''
Another Story.
Unmarried French girls are Wonderfully
obedient; after they marry it is another
story. So Suzette. promising herself to h,,v
curling iron the very next day on the first
halt in her bridal tour dutifully acouieseed
In the ingenious makeshift proposed by tho
family council ~ 'he
1ouns ladies' at home who wish to o;ya
pleasure to your mothers, here is the trick.
you can try 1t yourselves " eh'
To undulate the hair without =, ho. ,
you take lot of hairpins Common hJ'
pms the longer the better. Take one hair
pm Separate a little mesh of hair -
the rest and commence with it. You
weave the mesh back and forth in tho bair
pin just as you lace a shoe string in a
shoe. do you understand?
Ihen you begin with another bairnin
and another mesh. And then another ana
another And so on. By the time the
last mesh is DONE the whole lot-sav tor
hafrpins-extend around the sides and
front of the head. Gar"
Then you do as suzette's mother per-
mftted to be done for her on the unusnaI
occasion. You take a fiat curling tongs-
like long pair of fiat pincers-and heat
ing 1t slightly, you press fiat each hair
laced hairpin.
Only for an instant each. Then Won
take the hairpins carefully out of the
tresses. The tresses are unduIated,
1t is tremendously important ones.
ton. You may say, indeed, that undula
ton is everything; for girls in all lands
readily pick up new modes for the ar
rangement of the hair itself, and a becom-
ing couture once found, the trick is to
modify it as little possible while fol-
lowing the tendency of the mode
The Cold Process.
Numerous devices have been invented
all with the me object-to undulate
the hair without the hot iron Take fine
case of young unmarried girl whom we
may call Jeanette, another French officers
! daughter, this time a general, and the
family extremely swell. Hayin; been