By Charles Geniaux.
The traffic in artificial hair is a big business. It is interesting in itself, and quite a readable article might be prepared as the result of an interview with an extensive dealer in human hair in London or any other great capital. This information, however, is accessible to any journalist who cares to go and get it, and beyond bare mention it forms no part of this paper, which deals rather with the very fountainhead (the joke is not intentional) of this curious industry.
I visited one of the great Paris coiffeurs, and he made the startling statement that "when they reach a certain age - say, forty or fifty years, almost all the ladies in Paris use artificial hair, particularly those who wear their hair in twists, or who affect the archaic style. Why," he said, " do you know the price of a single kilogram (over 2lb.) of first class hair - hair that has been sorted, cleaned, and prepared? Well, sir, I do not sell it under a thousand or eighteen hundred francs, according to color, texture, and general beauty.