The Hair Trade in America

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 38, 3 August 1870, Page 7

The Hair Trade in America

The hair trade has recently become a great interest, anti has all the importance of a medieval guild. There are a score or so of heavy wholesale houses engaged in this trad- in New York, and several of these do a large importing business. Some of them not only import but manufacture, and have retail shops also, so as to improve all ways of profit. Tresses of 20 inches bring §SO per pound, while those of 40 inches are worth §l2O. At this price, or at a proportionate rate, many women could be found willing to part with their tresses. The enormous price of hair has led to the adoption of substitutes, the most popular of which is jute, a species of hemp. This , is largely used in the manufacture of waterfalls and chignons, and when properly i dressed looks very well. But jute, though cheaper than hair, is still a high-priced I article, and hence Yankee ingenuity has been sot to work to find another substitute. This was discovered lately by an enterprising mail in the bark of a species of basswood, which, when dried, combed out, and oiled, makes a very pretty article. The cheap coils now sold under the attractive name of “Japan hair” are of this character. The hairdresser’s hill is a costly one to our young ladies of means, and the changes in the fashions are very annoyin'*. A waterfaW or chignon costs from two to ten dollars, and sometimes much more. The curl which dangles in solitary beauty down the maiden shoulder costs from two to six dollars, and is one of the most graceful of this class of fashions. Hairdressers charge for dressing a lady’s hair for a party from two to five dollars. They have a fee for cleaning dust out of waterfalls, and for many other similar duties, A hairdresser was recently employed to cut off a lady’s hair because her health required it, and was told by her husband that he could give him out of it a braided watch-guard. The hail dresser did so, and then sold the tresses for §75. They were forty inches in length, which is very rare. —Troy (New York) Times.