The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-18
sINGEING THE HAIR


 The reams Of paper that are used up each month in articles in the daily papers and weekly and monthly pa pers-on beauty culture are conclu- sfve evidences that It is as natural for man to Sdesirexto beautify the person as it is asto indulge in the illusions Of hope.s' A sound mind in a sound body suffices the serfous-Enindedk minority, but apparently the innunnerable ma jority. if they had their way. would have coIneIy body and takes their chances on any old kind of a mind, on the principle that 1t fs better to be good looking than wise, because more people have sight than under standing. To decorate and beadtify the body is ar1> tnborn passion: the savage does it differently from uss blf when it comes to the many manipula- tions and remedies that are recom- mended for avoiding wrinkles, giving the eyebrows am artistic arch coaKing' the lashes to Belong and Ianguorous,
 making the ears pink and small OF the nose straight and tl1ins removing a double chin sors taking the coreaout of the Adams apple we have nothing on our unctvi14zed and supposedly more ignorant, brothers. The hair in particular is, the object of all man kinds cosmetics endeavors. When it comes to civilized man he is uniyer- sally engaged in trying to save what he has left or regrow what he has lost. Women, with few exceptions, do not become bald, but all women, in their opinions, are threatened with that 11- speakabIe calamity: men not only may get bald, but a large number of them are already so. And thus the popu- lar remedies for the hair need almost a surgeon-generapg catalog. Vdbratory and electrical treatments, hair tonics tLrs 4Y@ rT@ they grew out of the scalp like broom sedge out of an old field, neat s-foot oil and crude kerosene, massage and l mango cures, all have their futile trials. Among these our particular topic, now is singeing the hair. This l is recommended to overcome split ting at the ends and to prevent fall. 1 ing of the hair, the reason for the latter being that it asscloses the pores and keepsetIe fluid in the fair..ss' With i the long hair of a. woman which has I a tendency to split at the ends, it is possible that singeing the tips may be 1 of some use: it substitutes .. charred
 blunt end of fused horn for one tapering1 to 8 point or cut clean across. But even in cases of this sort l it is less useful than greasing lightly 1 the hair and thus supplying the fat which is lacking in such hair. For l the hair of men, which is kept short, z ing splitting; hair which is not allow l ed to grow to it's natural length does l not split, unless it has a deep-seated disturbance for which there is no such simple remedy. Of course, singeing the hair-ends in order to prevent the fluid in the hair from escaping. like sap from a tree is bas- ed on an entire nisconception of the hairs structure and nutrition. The hair does not contain any more sap than a buggy whip; it is not nourish- ed by any fluid in it, but by the blood plasma that reaches only the hair rott. The hair above the skin surface is a spine of horn, which is even oiled from without, and singeing it's tips has no effect whatever on either it's nourishment or it's growth. It is cer- tain, says The Journal of the Ameri- can Medical Association that singeing the hair is of no value in preventing it's fall; in fact, the only value the procedure has is to the jealous hair dresser who gets his little fee. for do- ing it-un1ess it is worth a, quarter to the seeker after hair to think he is doing something, even if he is not.