Transplanting Hair

1895

A Dexterous Frenchman's Way of Correcting the Forehead's Fringe.

A dexterous French feat is that of growing hair along the foreheads of women with whom nature has been cruel in arranging for the hair to grow too far back on the forehead, where the hair springs in an ugly, irregular line.

From other parts of the head short, new, sprouting hairs are delicately extracted and replanted along the top of an uncomely forehead. This system of repotting hair is done according to the rules nature observes in the management of her hair crops, and after about three months of careful, regular attention daily at the office of a specialist a woman comes forth browed like a Madonna or the glorious Greek Venuses, just as she may have selected.

The inventor of the new process clings boldly to the argument that no woman can ever expect to lay any claim to beauty whose forehead is, as he expresses it, "ungracefully draped," and that of all beautiful women he never found a face that for half its charm did not depend upon the lovely framing of the forehead.

Modern training, he argues, has enlarged the size of women's heads nearly a half inch all round and added, too, a half inch of what he chooses to call "bald face" to her forehead's depth. The increase in the head's size has taken from perfect feminine grace, and the widening of forehead from eyebrows to hair roots has nearly destroyed the low, Madonna browed woman, the type of most perfect feminine loveliness. — San Francisco Argonaut.


Trivia

Toward the middle of this century an extensive manufacture sprang up in England of candles made from the oil of a tar brought from Burma.

Account books such as were used by merchants in the days of Pericles cost 18 cents.

Beaufort, S. C., was named after Henry, duke of Beaufort.

Eva Gildersleeve Lost Her Hair

New York, 1895

Eva Gildersleeve, 13 years old, was on the highway leading to Mt. Sinai, when, according to her story, a man sprang out from the roadside, and catching hold of her braid of hair, drew a keen knife across it and quickly made his escape with the trophy.

Note: There's a later clipping on this story about Eva.


Robbed Two Houses

Burglars entered the residence of Charles E. Meyers at Hempstead Friday morning, and also the residence of Dr. Gautier. In the first house they obtained a gold watch, silver plate and money worth $550. In the Gautier residence a $350 gun, clothing and other articles were taken.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.

Dyspepsia and Baldness

1895

Dyspepsia is one of the most common causes of baldness. Nature is a great economizer, and when the nutrient elements furnished by the blood are insufficient to properly support the whole body she cuts off the supply to parts the least vital, like the hair and nails, that the heart, lungs and other vital organs may be better nourished. In cases of severe fevers, this economy is particularly noticeable. A single hair is a sort of history of the physical condition of an individual during the time it has been growing, if one could read closely enough. Take a hair from the beard or from the head and scrutinize it, and you will see that it shows some attenuated places, indicating that at some period of its growth the blood supply was deficient from overwork, anxiety or underfeeding.

The hair falls out when the strength of its roots is insufficient to sustain its weight any longer, and a new hair will take its place unless the root is diseased. For this reason each person has a certain definite length of hair. When the hair begins to split or fall out, massage to the scalp is excellent. Place the tip of the fingers firmly upon the scalp and then vibrate or move the scalp, while holding the pressure steadily. This will stimulate the blood vessels underneath and bring about better nourishment of the hair. A brush of unevenly tufted bristles is also excellent to use upon the scalp, not the hair. — Hall's Journal of Health.

Growth of the Hair

1895

The hair is not like plants. It is nothing more than unsensible threads of skin, or rather papilae, as they are called, which grow in their proper places under the same conditions as the nails on the finger ends.

The hair papillae do not lie on the surface of the skin, but are sunk more or less deeply into it — more deeply as the hair is longer, so that long hairs adhere in a deep sac. The number of these hair papillae of course varies considerably with different people, but for each individual is constant and unchangeable and cannot be increased any more than can the number of one's finger nails. The number of hairs depends on the papillae; consequently if there are no papillae there can be no hair. Moreover, the number of these papillae is constant, so that the idea of increasing their number by clipping the hair must be abandoned. the growth of the hairs depends rather on the well being of all the papillae, but they are constituent parts of skin and share its fate alike in both good and evil days. — Chautauquan.

Sell Lock of Napoleon's Hair

1920

LONDON, England, Jan. 1. — A lock of Napoleon's hair has been auctioned for $80. It was originally presented by Napoleon's valet to Henry Hollingsworth, captain of the 20th Regiment, which was on guard at St. Helena at the time of the Emperor's death.

An Actress Tells About Health and Good Looks

1900

Something Useful May Be Learned From Her Experience

One of the most admired of American actresses, both for her grace and comeliness, has been divulging some of the secrets by which she has preserved her beauty.

"Vigilance," she says, "is the first requisite. I am ever on the alert and when I discover traces of fatigue or any other beauty-destroying symptoms in my face or figure I set about remedying it at once. I don't attempt to be anything but a professional woman during the theatrical season. I don't receive and I don't go to other people's houses, I simply haven't time, and I don't make it.

"My mode of life is very simple. I sleep nine or ten hours as a rule — never less than eight. I eat regularly and heartily, and avoid everything that would be apt to give me indigestion. Indigestion is a powerful foe to beauty, a greater foe than age, as great even as worry. I walk every day, rain or shine, and I wear a corded corset waist and stout flat-heeled boots. I try not to worry, no matter what happens, and I never tire myself unnecessarily.

"My method is so very simple few women would care to try it. It has no balms or diets, and I don't even go in for fancy baths. A warm bath at night and a cold bath in the morning are good enough for me. On Sundays I don't have to go to the theater, but I don't devote it to lolling or receiving visitors. I have my usual amount of exercise and then devote most of the day to manicure and hairdresser. When one's hair is five feet long and very thick it is not an easy task to have it shampooed.

"How do I keep the same weight all the time? Why, by vigilance and determination. If I gain a pound I immediately stop drinking water at meals and give up sugar for a while. If the bones in my neck begin to show I eat bananas and cream and put an extra spoonful of oil in my salad. It's so simple, but, of course, it precludes much pleasure."

Neatness More Desirable Than Beauty

1908

Writer Makes Good Argument In Favor of Neatness

We all long for beauty, but there is within the grasp of all women something even more desirable than beauty — namely, exquisite neatness.

The writer has descanted on the desirability of neatness more than once, but it is something that will bear to be talked about more than once, or twice, or even a dozen times. "Faith," says Pat, when reproved for lying, "Oi have such a respect for Truth, Oi wud not be dhragging her out on every occashun." The writer differs in this respect from Pat. She has such a respect for neatness that she would be dragging her out on every occasion.

A man who had traveled much and seen many women in many countries, said the other day, "I prefer neatness to beauty. Beauty does not last, while the woman of 80 can still be charmingly neat." By neatness he meant more than simple tidiness. It included style and care and taste and the indefinable art of putting on one's clothes properly.

It is a faculty, alas, that Canadian women do not possess to any extent, says a writer in the Montreal Herald. They doubtless inherit the lack of it from their English ancestors, who are noticeably untidy. The mass of Englishwoman do not seem to know the meaning of the word. Their skirts and belts always separate at the back. Their hair is never beautifully coiffed like the Frenchwoman's, their whole aspect is frowsy to an extreme. Of course, this does not apply to all Englishwomen. There are exceptions to every rule.

On the other hand, the Americans are neat, and hence smart, for it is impossible to be smart without perfect neatness. They have a trim, trig way of wearing their clothes that gives a style to the cheapest ready-made. If you cannot be beautiful you can at least be charmingly neat. And neatness has an attractiveness that mere beauty lacks.

A Remarkable Pilgrim — 103, Walks Long Way, Fails

1900

Aged Woman Determined to See Paris Exposition

An almost incredible story comes from France of the resolution and energy of an old Alsatian woman who was determined to see the exposition. She was found, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, on a road in the department of the Marne.

When her strength had been restored somewhat by medical treatment and food she told the following story: She was born in Alsace on January 2, 1797, and is therefore 103 years old. Seized with a burning desire to see the exposition, she had left Alsace two weeks before, intending to walk all the way to Paris, for she had a horror of railroads, and, besides was poor.

She had accomplished more than half the journey and had walked more than 150 miles. On her shoulders she carried her luggage, two bundles weighing fifty-nine livres (pounds). Her money, which she carried in a handkerchief, was a trifling burden, as it consisted of one 2-franc piece. In this financial condition it is needless to add that the courageous old woman had resolved at the outset not to enter an inn or restaurant during her journey. She subsisted entirely on bread and cheese, slept in barns when she could or in default of shelter passed the night under the trees by the wayside.

As soon as she had recovered her senses — for she was unconscious when found — she wished to resume her journey, and it was difficult to make her understand that Paris was yet a long way off. At last she understood and seemed resigned to her failure.


Origin of the Chinese Queue

The custom of Chinamen wearing pigtails is not ancient, considering the period that China has existed as a nation. It dates from 1627, when the Manchus, who then commenced the contest of the Celestial Empire, enforced this fashion of doing the hair as a sign of degradation. The average queue is three feet long, and, reasoning that the adult Chinamen number 200,000,000, we get a united pigtail measuring 113,636 miles long, sufficient to go four and a half times round the earth! — Golden Penny.

Long Wars Due to Whiskers

1910

Trivial Incident Led to Three Hundred Years of Fighting

For ages beards were the delight of ancient beauties. The sight of a shaved chin excited sentiments of horror and aversion.

To obey the injunctions of his bishops, Louis VII of France cropped his hair a la pompadour and shaved off his luxuriant whiskers. Eleanor of Aquitane, his consort, found him with this uncommon appearance very ridiculous and very contemptible. She revenged herself by becoming something more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce.

She then married the count of Anjou, who shortly afterward ascended the French throne, and gave him as her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poiton and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for 300 years ravaged France and which cost the French nation 3,000,000 men.

All of which, probably, would have never taken place if Louis VII had not been so rash as to shave off his whiskers, by which he made himself so disgusting to the fair Eleanor.


Love Affairs of the Sexes

It is only her first love affair that a woman cherishes and remembers. Man is so lacking in originality that all the others are merely duplicates.

People Retain Belief in Amulets

1910

Superstitions That Once Were General Throughout the World Not Yet Entirety Gone

Faith in the virtue of amulets was well-nigh universal in ancient days; Lord Bacon says the historians had firm belief in them. Indeed, much of the art of medicine consisted in the direction for their employment. Gems, gold, stones, bones, bits of parchment with sacred writing, cylinders of stones, unicorns' horns, all of these would protect against the invading spirits or the influence of the evil eye.

This is the origin of countless popular superstitions that remain to this day. The form has been handed down, while the theories which prompted it have long since been lost sight of. This is why some people carry in their pocket a horse chestnut or a new potato to ward off rheumatism; this is why others tie around the necks of their children a tarred rope as a preventive against all the diseases common to children; this is why others think a gold chain will prevent quinsy sore throat, or a string of root beads worn around the neck will help children to cut teeth.

The coral beads which ease the troubles of teething children and the amber beads which cure asthma are beliefs which are firmly adhered to to this day. Pliny relates that Domitius Nero used to wear the hair of his wife on his neck, thinking it beneficial because it was amber colored. Amulets for teething are of very old date, and as red was a favorite color for an amulet, it can easily be seen how the coral necklace came to be so popular for infants who were teething.

Red was considered very potent in warding off the evil eye. In time of trouble, when the evil eye was especially triumphant, all the red tape in a certain county in England was brought up to ward off its baleful influence. The remains of this superstition still prevail, for many people believe that a red string around the neck is an excellent remedy for asthma, measles and mumps. The preservation of faith in red still exists, as is shown in the great virtues of red flannel, and the belief that the milk of the red cow is better than that of a cow of another color.

The German peasant, if he cuts himself, thinks he stanches the blood better with a red ribbon. This may be accounted for not only by tradition, but by the fact that blood would not form so startling a contrast when wetting a red ribbon as when wetting a white one.


They Really Believe It

Some people cling to the old-fashioned idea that a man must be a genius if he goes about with hair.

She Shot Him Just for Fun

1911

The Editor Muses

A St. Louis woman, asked why she shot her husband, said she did it "just for fun." And yet they say women have no sense of humor.

The agitation to make the upper berth lower continues; but no matter at what figure they fix the price it will still be high.

A St. Louis man made his wife cut his hair. Barbering, however, will never be included in any domestic science course.

There is a woman wireless operator. The old saw must be amended to read: "What man has done, a woman can and will do."

Fashionable women in the national capital climb the Washington monument to reduce their flesh. Thus does the uplift reach society.

A woman of ninety-one in Massachusetts wants to go up in a balloon. Another example of how people are as young in times as they want to be.

If a girl has a grown up brother she acquires a pretty fair knowledge of men without having to pass through the agonies of matrimony.

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future. — Euripides.

Hair Cut Off As She Slept

Printed Jan. 1915

Girl Awakes to Find Her Tresses, the Family's Pride, Gone — Act of Revenge

Orange, N. J. — When Mary Carnova, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Antonio Carnova of 12 Forest street, Orange, awoke one morning recently she found that her long black hair, which was of exceptional beauty and the pride of the family, had been cut off. She did not know how or when she had been despoiled.

The police arrested Polo Cripsy, aged fifty-one, a boarder at the Carnova home, but Carnova would not believe Cripsy was guilty, and the charge against him was dismissed. Chief of Police Drabell believes that the hair was cut off for revenge by some enemy of the girl's father.


To Mend Celluloid

Any article made of celluloid may be mended with collodion. Scratch the broken edges to be mended with a sharp knife until a smooth surface is secured. Apply the collodion and press tightly together for several minutes. Let stand for at least twenty-four hours. Liquid court plaster will answer as well, since the main ingredient is collodion.

Character In the Eyebrows

1907

An arched eyebrow does not indicate the highest order of intelligence, but is expressive of great sensibility. Scant growth of the eyebrows denotes lack of vitality. On the contrary, heavy, thick eyebrows indicate a strong constitution and great physical endurance. They are not beautiful on a woman's face, however much they may signify either mental or bodily vigor, and when they are not only heavy, but droop and meet at the nose they are disagreeable and are said to accompany an insincere and prying nature. Long, drooping eyebrows, lying wide apart, indicate an amiable disposition. Where the eyebrows are lighter in color than the hair the indications are lack of vitality and great sensitiveness.

Faintly defined eyebrows placed high above the nose are signs of indolence and weakness. Very black eyebrows give the face an intense and searching expression. When natural, they accompany a passionate temperament.

Very light eyebrows rarely are seen on strongly intellectual faces, although the color of the eyebrows is not accepted simply as denoting lack of intelligence. The form gives the key to the faculties and their direction. Red eyebrows denote great fervor and ambition; brown, a medium between the red and black. — Exchange.

The Magical Box — Great Trick of Magicians

1874

MAGICAL BOX

A magician has lately been giving a series of performances, some of which are as surprising as they are entertaining and amusing. One of them is as follows:

A common empty packing box, with a lid hung by iron, hinges, is placed upon the stage, and a committee from the audience asked to examine it. They report that it is a firmly made packing box. After a thorough examination, outside and inside, they take a rope and tie it up, passing twice around the ends and sides, passing it through the staples for the two padlocks, and then tie the ends firmly, and seal them with sealing wax. They then envelop the box in a canvas, which covers all six sides, when another rope is added, tied and sealed. Surely the box is safe from any attempt to get into or out of it without removing the ropes!

The assistant then comes forward with a canvas sack, open at one end. This is examined by the committee and by the audience. It is then placed over the head of the assistant, and tied below his feet and the knots sealed. He is then laid in the box, and the box surrounded by a screen. In two and a half minutes the sack is thrown over the screen, the knot and seals untouched. The screen is instantly removed, and the committee, after examining the seals and finding them unbroken, commence untying the ropes and removing the canvas. The box is opened and the man found inside!


1909

No More Teddy Bears?

The days of the Teddy bear are over, but while they lasted, the inventor of that popular plaything reaped a rich harvest. It is said his profits are up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Genius Hair

"Why is it," asks a writer in Fliegende Blatter, "that when a man discovers that he is a 'genius' he allows his hair to grow long, and that when a woman becomes similarly conscious she has her hair cut short?"

—Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1909, p. 2.

Singular Freaks of Nature — Cut Hair Continues to Grow

1878

Says an exchange: Our old friend, Dr. S. Haly, has exhibited to us a lock of hair cut from his boy's head when eighteen months old, and since carefully wrapped up, marked and laid away in the family Bible. At that time the lock was two inches long. Now it is fully six inches, and seems to be still growing with all its old-time lustre, fineness and beauty preserved. The son is alive and sixteen years old. The Doctor assures us there can be no mistake as to the identity of the hair, and wants an explanation. We know the hair and nails of corpses are known to flourish for a while, but these have whereupon to feed. This lock of hair had not.


A Strange Fish

One day last week, after a hard struggle, George Whitney captured on Cockenoes bar off Norwalk, a fish seldom seen in these parts. It answered the description given by ichthyologists of the goose fish or angler, also known as the fishing frog. It was four or five feet long, nearly as broad, flat, had one flap on each side something like a scale with an opening or pocket behind running forward under the mouth, and two small legs with five toes webbed together. The strangest feature, however, was its immense mortar-shaped mouth. When open it was frightful to contemplate, and would just about comfortably take in an ordinary keg. It was on exhibition for several days. It is a worthless fish and lives on muddy bottoms. — New Haven Palladium.

Brittany's Hair Harvest – Country Girls Selling Their Hair

1916

It is at Easter time that the curious "hair harvest" of Brittany is "reaped" by the traveling merchants, who go from village to village buying the beautiful hair for which the Breton belles are famous. This is later destined to be made up into "transformations," "fringes" and other mysterious arrangements with which ladies less abundantly endowed by nature make up their shortcomings in the matter of "woman's crowning glory."

The clients of the hair buyers are chiefly country lasses in the remoter districts, who are only too pleased to sell their tresses in order to obtain a little money to spend at the Easter fairs. The "harvest" however, is said not to be so good as formerly, as with the spread of education and the love of display many girls prefer to keep their hair.— Wide World Magazine

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.

Refused 15 Cents Refused 15 Cents For Haircut, Man Asks For Divorce

La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1917

James B. Taylor is what some women would call a "model husband." He admits that every month he brought home his pay envelope to Friend Wife, whom her fond parents had christened Rena, and it seemed natural to him that he should have some rights with respect to the contents of the package for which he worked hard six days of the week, but—

She refused to give him 15 cents for a hair cut and once she hit him over the head with a book because he failed to account for 80 cents of his wages.

Those are the allegations which he makes in a divorce complaint filed in circuit court here Monday. James charges his wife with being "penurious, stingy and miserly" and nagging him for eight years. On top of that he charges that she admitted being in love with one Joe Crockeroff and also names one Louis Kinnear. both non-residents. The complaint recites that she left her husband to keep house for an uncle at Kendall, telling her provider that she "could not live with him if he was the last man in the world."

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 23, 1917, page 1.

The Romans Liked Red Hair, Nobody Else

1912

RED HAIR ALWAYS DISLIKED

With the Exception of the Romans, Ancient Peoples Had Strong Aversion to It

Red is the fashionable color of woman's hair just now, but in many periods and countries to have red hair meant to test the depths of misfortune, even of death.

Prejudice against red hair runs back even to Egyptian times, for in that land of decided opinions and strong prejudices it was the custom to burn alive some unfortunate individual cursed with red hair, so it was decidedly uncomfortable to have red hair in Egypt, as no one knew whose turn would come next.

That the Chinese shared this prejudice against red hair is proved by their epithet for the English, whom they called "red-haired barbarians" or "red-haired devils."

The great exception to this rule among ancient nations is the Romans, for since the time of Nero they have praised red hair in the highest terms. They preferred a dark red, almost brown, such as we term auburn, and modern Romans share this liking. It is said that among the patrician families of Rome and Florence there is an abnormally large number of red-haired women. Modern Greeks share this predilection with the Romans and they heighten the reddish effect of the hair by wearing dull gold ornaments.

One of the most frequent causes of the prejudice against red hair in Christian countries undoubtedly goes back to the tradition that Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, had red hair, and most of the artists paint him thus. Shakespeare refers to this in "As You Like It," when Rosalind says of Orlando, "His very hair is of the dissembling color," and Celia answers: "Something browner than Judas."

The Brahmins were forbidden to marry red-haired women and as has been said: "The populace of most countries, confounding moral with aesthetic impressions, accuse red-haired people of various shortcomings."

Besides the old tradition of Judas having been red-haired aiding to create the prejudice existing in many lands the fact of the feeling against red hair in England is set down to the red-haired Danes, who could not be regarded save as invaders and barbarians.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 3.

It Grows Hair

Wyeth's Sage & Sulphur Hair Restorer

Chas. A. Phillips, a Rochester, N. Y., Barber, says, "It is a safe and pleasant Tonic and Dressing for the hair. It removes dandruff in a few days, stops hair falling in one week, and starts a new growth in from one to three months."

50c. and $1 Bottles
At All Druggists or Sent Prepaid Upon Receipt of Price

Wyeth Chemical Company
74 Cortlandt St.
NEW YORK, N. Y.

For sale and recommended by
WILL M. BARTON, Special Agent,
Mansfield, O.
See Window Display

-- The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, April 22, 1909, page 4.