THE HAIR THIEF.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2151, 18 May 1914, Page 2

THE HAIR THIEF.

THE VAMJE OF THE SPOILS.

.Gifts- who .'a re the possessors of benutilul long plaits of hair must be having many anxious moments when thev -are walking in the streets just now"with suck dangers abroad as tho hair thief,. Some .of them are talcing the precaution of bringing.their- plaits well over « w lj shoulder sa that it would bo impossible ™ "is thief to despoil them of their tresses without some knowledge of his or her _ iutentions. ..Some .information' concerning' the comfliereial value of hair is contained in the fa-Having letter from a p eorrespoftdent, "Hair Expert," lie writes:—

"A rcprcsentfttive of vow paper interviewed a young "laiiv who bad beeit ilespoiled. of part of her hair by a thii'E. \otsr represoatativc gave'your readers some intWmatiosi about the'hair' trade which is quite correct, but hx> omitted._to say that while the price of hair varies very much according to the texture aud colour it varies mstlis much in price according to live'length. If thief robbed the young lady of about 12 inches of her treasure his spoils were commercially of small valtio, A Russian student who was arrested in Berlin had \ft collection of iO tresses of hair. He excused his robheriss by declarinc; that an irresistible Impulse - dmve him to .commit his depredations. Women who sell their hair are naturally desneratcly poor, and do not belong to 'that stratum ef society where cleanliness becomes second nature. Neither is hair nicked ■ oat of ashbins, nor are collected 'combings in axlcan state when, thev arrive at the factories. Ladies, however, need not bo afraid.. If they would see, like I have, how many washings and steaming* ahd brusbiiigg the raw material has to undergo, how carefully the hair is disinfected before the factory hands tench it, no fear of had consequences need prevent them of makinn; themselves even mare beautiful than thc-y are already. I regret, however, to say that there is a report of a lady in Danzig who is supposed to have contracted leprosy by, wearing a switch made of Chiness hair. The germs of this, the most dreadful of all infections diseases, must, if the report is true, have survived in spite of'ail precautions. I can. assure the ladies that to the best of ray extensive knowledge of the trade iio hairworker in New Zealand uses Chinese hair, which is always black and very coarse, and must .consequently always be dvf-xl, and no dye has yet "been invented which resists the attack of tlio sun and air. for any length of time. A superficial inspection will be sufficient, to detect the 'difference between hair origmsting from this white and tho yellow races."