The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09
GRIMES IN BEkBrF'S NAME.
PERIL Turks IN THE CUT RATE
MARCEL WAVE.
Also In tho Facial Massage at Ham Price
-Incompctcnt Operators Turned Out
BY Hundreds Cheap Beauty ParlOrs
where Pupils PRACTISE on Gust Omers.

The woman who sets out TO be beautified
In these days had better be careful about
whom sho chooses to marcel her hair or
ooloy il, massage her face, manicure her
fingers or trim her eyebrows into the proper
arch. In support Of this warning consider
the suits for damages brought by women
who have had their hair turned green,
their eyebrows singed of or their COM
plexions permanently disfgured by in
competent operators.
The cause OF the trouble is that hundreds
OF inoompetents are being turned out.
Various establishments on the principal
shopping streets now endeavor to win
custom by making extremely low rates
for the various brsnche Of beauty work.
The shops are practically schools, where
girls who want to take up manicuring and
hairdressing pay from $50 to SIS and even
less for a course OF lessons.
These lessons consist largely in the privi-
lege OF watching so-called expert operators
at work, after which the pupil is allowed
TO practise on her fellow pupils and then
on the ~unsuspecting transient patron,
usually from out OF town and indulging
suTreptitiously in the beauty cult.
Such a customer returns to her home.
perhaps to find her hair burned beyond all
hope, broken and singed from the use Of
improperly heated irons in the hands Of
incompetent girls studying the marcel
wave and expecting to master it in the
course OF from three to five weeks.
Hundreds Of these graduates are also
being turned out to seek private patronage.
They advertise as visiting maids and un-
dertake work OF which they have only a
slight knowledge.
.1,AI.Ar,,. " ro-.ttoo ha,,Hn
their regular patrons do not, OF course,
rave these colleges in beauty work. All
expert hairdressers and massage opera
tors smile at the idea of any ones learning
the business in a few weeks. They explain
the long apprenticeship that must he served
in any branch OF beauty culture before the
learner is ft to touch the head or face
or hand OF a living person.
The great rush Of women TO learn the
beauty secrets is Tue to the fact that this
line OF work has experienced a boom within
the last few years. Before that time such
things anked among the Injuries, and in
the minds Of some persons of old fashioned
ideas were confused with the Use Of rouge
and cosmetics, and condemned.
But certain women Of the stage whose
wonderfully beautiful and youthful APP
pearance proved conclusively the benefits
to be obtained from creams and lotions,
massage and a careful arrangement Of
the hair, from attention to the hands and
the body generally. were probably respon-
sible for the craze for beauty.
No longer was it held that a woman must
be born a beauty. She could make her
self into, one and in the beauty shops abroad
ugly and ungraceful too fat or too thin
girls were turned out immensely improved
after massage, surgical operations, diets,
exercises and general training, costing
in some cases thousands of dollars.
In America women first took up simple
methods which they could employ at nome
and most OF which were beneficial and
harmless. But the hairdressers also ex-
perienced a great increase in trade, which
bad been very dull.
At the big fashionable shops where the
marcel wave is well done it costs 81 for
each head. At some of the colleges it
may be had for rs cents. This for the reason
that the college gets good SUM for allowing
pupils to stand behind the chair, watching
the operator wave the locks OF the customer
from out Of town who has been lured by
It is needless to say that the art Of marcel
waving il not to be learned in this manner.
Yet at the end Of a week or ten days the
4 EIuOtUL 10 w o~tHV vi N"t
unwaryc customer.
First the pupil practises on her friends
and then on the customers. III she gets
on without burning on the hair or eye
brows or rousing the rage OF some injured
woman, she receives a diploma in "A few
DAYS more and il turned loose on what
ever victims she can secure, and they are
to be had in plenty.
The manager OF a famous estaphslifhen
that has dressed the hair OF several genera
tions Of New York women said in regard
TO the beauty colleges:
THE decline of the marcel wave is en-
tirely due TO the fact that so many incom-
Eetent operators are engaged IN producing
II at bargain prices.
ITO do the work properly a certain
amount of time Ia necessary and only
skilled and careful labor can accomplish
the work properly. As ~ Is treinendons
and unframed operators to use improperly
heated irons on their hair.
There is also great danger in the work
Of m~anicuring and face massage. The in
used in manicurinR are sharp
and must be cleverly manipulated. They
should also he kept antiseptically clean
and the hands OF the operator must be
cIeansed between operations. II X need
less 70 say that in these college shops " here
work must be finished in twenty minutes
or 40 it cannot be done properly.
The same rule applies to facial massage
Muscles are made fabby and cheeks baRgy
bV imDrOper treatmen WINE skin diseases
are often conveyed by n ~coreless worker.
ABROAD the very highest testimonial
are required from persons engaged in this
line Of beauty culture. In this country
Young women go about in apartment houses
soliciting trade for manicuring and marco
waving and thew get custo1ne r. in this way
although they are incompetent.
at is absurd to think hat the art OF
DIRE ssing hair can be acquired in a few
weeks course. II is a trade that requires
wears to become perfect in. In Paris a
Young girl will serve an apprenticeship of a
year or two for a few francs n week and Is
advanced SLOWLY TO a position as a sham
pooer where soap and water IL the only
thing used.
20 intrust an untaught young woman
with hot irons and sharp scissors and files
with which to experiment on human beings
is nothing less than a crime.
Women are complaining that the marco
wave is running their hair, but this is only
for the reason that il is improperly done
II is fine work and must be deity accom-
pIished or else the hair bre axis at the line OF
the unduIation. A certain degree OF sire ngth
is requisite, a. we'll as dexterity, and for this
-,on can do this UDrE hettaT than