Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1875 — False Hair. [ARTICLE]

False Hair.

In all our large cities may be seen a number of signs, often of large size, bearing the inscription: “ Human Hair,” and suggesting at first sight startlingthoughts of tomahawks and scalping-knives. What commodities these establishments contain, and what heavy prices they put upon them, few ladies, at least, need be told. But the immense increase that has taken place in the business of buying and selling human hair within a comparatively recent time is not so well known. At the beginning of the present century, and for some time afterward, the use of “ false hair” waslookedupon with some contempt, and was considered at least as discreditable as the employment of rouge for the complexion. But with the accession of the Empress Eugenie to the throne of France a great Change quickly took place in this respect. In that country human hair, which had been selling for four francs per pound, soon reached the price of eight, and shortly afterward of ten, francs. It became more and more generally worn there, until at last no woman or girl who made any attempt to be in the style could endure being without a greater or less quantity of hair which had grown on the head of some other person. Most of this capillary’addition to the coiffure was fastened to the back of the head, and allowed to hang down over the nape of the neck, called in French chignon ; and that was the origin of that now femous name.

About the year 1865 this style of decorating the head began to spread rapidly outs’de of France, and in a very short time had made its way into almost every civilized country in the world. It became immensely popular wherever it was known, and even women of the lowest rank aspired to the honor of possessing chignon* of some kind. The price of human hair rose rapidly in consequence of this suddenly-increased demand, Jn 1866 unprepared hair was sold in France for twenty francs per pound; in 1867 for thirty-five francs; in 1868 for forty-five francs; and in- 1870 for fifty-five francs. That which had been prepared for use brought twice and three times those amounts. The demand was, and still is, supplied from.the rural districts of, France, Switzerland and Germany, being sometimes cut from the heads of dead persons and sometimes sold by the women and girls on whose heads it grew to traveling agents of Paris houses. The most beautiful hair obtained in this Way homes from the French provinces of Bretagne and Auvergne. When a peasant woman dies in those localities Jier hair is immediately cut off by her affectionate relatives, not as a memorial of the departed, but to be sold for as much as it will bring. But the hair of the living is much more valuable as an article ot commerce than that of the dead; and the blonde peasants of the districts before named often receive 1,500, and sometimes as much as 2,000, francs for their heads of hair. Many of theseyoung women “ save up” their long locks until they are about to be married and then dispose of them for money to assist in setting up as housekeepers. Of late years gray hair has been bringing higher prices than anjMaher kind, partly on account of its greater scarcity, and partly because it is now considered very elegant and stylish in fashionable circles. Cheap substitutes for human hair, composed of jute and other vegetable substances, were for some time manufactured in vast quantities. But the abuse of this practice caused the first check to be given to the habit of wearing additions to the natural hair; for the unpleasant developments which a year or two since followed the scientific examination of some ordinanr artificial chignon* had the effect of suddenly decreasing the demand for such articles, and finally of bringing them into disuse. Since that time it has been declared by skillful physicians that the use of additional hair of any kind is very apt to produce a bad effect upon the head of the wearer, and that many severe headaches, nervous fevers and other painful affections of a similar character are directly traceable to. the constant weight and heat upon the head, and strain upon the roots of the real hair, which this fashion necessarily involves to a greater or less extent. — Hearth and Home.