Ware of Fashion

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 361, 23 May 1928, Page 1

Ware of Fashion

Auckland Harbour Board Feels Uneasy NEW BEAUTY DEVICE The Harbour Board coughed slightly, blinked, grew red of neck and stirred uneasily in its seat. Its chairman was reading something. His face was grave and his neck was also red. The board listened, stole timid glances at itself and sighed. Do not jump to conclusions. Not to allegations of - -- I, graft did its emovanced. Could the board see its way graciously to permit of the waving of women’s hair within the sanctuary of its waitingrooms? Hair-waving in public? What new perfidy was this? Handbag-mirrors, powdering of noses, theatre-queue combs and tram-car manicures, all that was perfectly understandable. Quite the accepted thing, of course. But little hot tongs, wisps of hair —temporary permanent waving in the public view ? The chairman continued to read: “W'e will install the machines without cost to the board, which we ask to pay only for the cost of current for heating the tongs—a trifling figure. Each machine is controlled by a clock which automatically cuts off the power after the machine has been running for two minutes. “The customer puts a threepenny bit in the slot and the coin sets in motion the electric clock, which in turn heats up a pair of tongs hot enough for three .and, a-half to four minutes. “It is not intended to enter into competition with hairdressers, ' but is for tidjdng up and touching up the hair of the user. The board is offered 25 per cent, of the takings. Our little device is quite the thing in Paris, in America, in Australia. Several large city emporiums have installed our machines.” The board thawed. It began to expand, chuckled a little in a dignified sort of way, and suggested that its engineer, its harbourmaster, its chairman—anybody but itself, should grapple with the discomfiting problem, which it then referred to itself in committee.