HAIR WORKERS.

299. Artists.

The making of hair ornaments is a distinct branch of labor. Some very beautiful and ingenious pieces of workmanship have been executed. Bracelets, earrings, breastpins, and guards are the most common articles. The work is nicely adapted to the nimble fingers of women, whether engaged in it for pastime or profit. A foreign lady, that does ornamental hair work, told me that it is a right profitable business to one that can do it well, but American women have not patience to learn to do it in a superior manner. A hair jeweller in Philadelphia told me he employs six girls—all Americans, and he thinks they do better than foreigners. He pays a girl seventy-five cents a week, for three or four weeks. By that time she has learned enough to earn $3 or $4 a week. Formerly he required a girl to spend two years learning, and paid her nothing during the time. He mentioned one firm that required three years' apprenticeship. But the girls often became discouraged, and went at something else. Now the business is not so much of a secret. He has now and then paid as high as $12 a week, for a hand that was very ingenious and successful. They pay high for their designs. The gentleman had paid $50, the week previous, for a design. His girls all work in the establishment, and spend about nine hours at their work. It is done altogether by hand. The only disadvantage attending it is the confinement that pertains to it, or any other employment of that kind. An artist on Fifth street gives work out of the house. The average rate of wages he pays is $4 a week. Hair artists, when employed by the week, receive from $4 to $5. At S.'s, New York, they pay a good hand from $4 to $5 a week, ten hours a day. A person of good abilities can learn most of the patterns in three weeks. An ornamental hair worker told me she charges fifty cents a lesson of an hour. A lady was taking lessons who had recently married a jeweller, and was going to Louisiana to live. A good price can be got for such work in the South, for Southerners have had all such work done in the North. A German, who made very pretty ornamental hair work in New York, told me he charges from $25 to $50 for teaching the art—those that wish to learn in a short time, and so require much of his attention, pay $100. It can be very well learned in six months. He pays $10 a week to good hands. The work is the same at all seasons. Strong eyes, nimble fingers, and a clear head are the essentials for a learner.

300. Dressers.

The business of a barber was performed by females among the Romans, about the time of the Christian era. I have read that there are now women barbers in Paris, Normandy, England, and Western Africa. In the reign of Louis XIV. it was not unusual for ladies of rank and wealth to dress the whiskers of their favorite friends. Both men and women are engaged in the United States in the business of dressing ladies' hair. We think women most suitable for it, and should be patronized to the exclusion of men. The business requires practice and taste. Some ladies of wealth have their dressing maids to learn the art and perform that office of the toilet. Most hair dressers charge 50 cents to $1.50 for dressing the hair. The price is regulated by the style in which it is done and the reputation of the dresser. The demands for a hair dresser are sometimes such, in a fashionable season, that a lady must have her hair dressed as early as noon, to wear to the opera at 8, or to a party at 10

P. M.

Mrs. W., New York, charges 50 cents for dressing hair, 75 for shampooing and dressing, and $1 if she sends out. She never sends any one out to dress hair where she is not acquainted. She thinks there are about 200 hair dressers in New York. At an establishment in Broadway they give instruction in hair dressing—price, $1 a lesson. A person of ordinary abilities can learn to dress hair plainly in three or four lessons. C. says he thinks more women could find employment as hair dressers in New York; but I think, from the number of signs I saw, no demand can exist. He thinks it strange that they do not make engagements by the week, as they do in the cities of the old countries, where there are 200 or 300 in every large city that go out daily to the houses of their customers. I have since learned that there are some in New York that do. Mrs. G. goes out by the week, and receives $3 per week. She makes such engagements for the morning only, as she is likely to be called in the afternoon to prepare ladies for parties. From the middle of June until September she is at Saratoga. C. had a woman four years learning the styles of dressing and making up hair. The third year he paid her $4 a week, and the fourth year $5 a week. He says it requires so long to learn it that women generally get discouraged and go at something else. Women employed by the week to dress hair receive from $4 to $5. A lady told me she charges 50 cents a lesson, and a person can learn in from fourteen to twenty lessons. Two years' time is generally given to learn hair work in all its branches, weaving, mounting, &c. It takes time and capital to establish a business for one's self, as hair is a costly article. I saw one lady who teaches hair dressing for $10. A young woman told me it requires two weeks of constant practice to become a hair dresser. Nearly everything at it is done in winter. Practice makes perfect. The best plan is to get regular customers, and go to their houses every day, including Sunday, for which it is usual to charge from $1.50 a week up, for one head. She charges 50 cents a lesson. Some chambermaids at hotels take a few lessons, to enable them to dress hair plainly. For shampooing, most of which is done in summer, she charges 50 cents; for braiding front hair, 50 cents; and with the back hair, 75 cents. Miss S. told me many female hair dressers board with the family of the employer, because of being up late at night, and receive their board and $10 a month and up. For weaving hair her mother pays 6 cents per yard; for the finer kind, 12 cents per yard. Her mother earns from $1.75 to $2 per day. A person that can weave and make front pieces can get work at any time. There are only three months dull time in a city—June, July, and August. Some ladies pay a hair dresser $10 a month for dressing the hair every day but Sunday, when a separate and higher charge is made. For dressing a bride entirely, $5 is charged. One needs taste and ability to please; at any rate, one must be civil and obliging. Fashionable watering places present the best openings. Saratoga and Newport present favorable ones, at the first of which there is but one permanent hair dresser. D., hair dresser and wig maker, requires learners to be bound for four years. The first year he gives a girl her board, lodging, washing, and $4 a month. The next year he gives the same, with an increase of $1 a month; and so continues that increase each succeeding year until the apprenticeship expires. He gives to journeywomen their dinner, supper, and $4 a week. The business is not confined to regular hours, on account of hair dressing, which is done mostly in the evening. He charges 50 cents for dressing a lady's hair at his rooms, and $1 at her house. A Frenchman, under Fifth Avenue Hotel, pays $5 a week to a girl who receives the pay of his customers. She is there at 8, and can leave at dark. He charges 75 cents a head at the saloon, and at the ladies' residences the same. He has rooms fitted up, and has many customers from the hotel. He employs three girls, paying them one half of what they earn. He keeps but one there constantly. The other two live near, and when he needs their services he sends for them. He is going to teach hair dressing, and charge $1 a lesson; forty or fifty (?) lessons are usually taken, according to the extent it is learned. Mrs. B. told me men teach ladies wig making, but ladies give instruction mostly in hair dressing to those of their own sex. It is usual to pay learners something after a few months' or a year's practice. Those that work for others get most to do in winter. Those that have establishments of their own can of course work all the time. Most employers pay by the week. Mrs. Dall has the following sentence in her "Woman's Right to Labor:" "I think there is room in Boston for an establishment from which a woman could come to a sickroom, to shave the heated head or cut the beard of the dying; a place where women's and children's wants could be attended to, without necessary contact with men."

301. Dyers.

B. will want some nice women to dye ladies' hair. Now he has it done by men. He wants but one at first—one who has worked with hair—for instance, a lady's maid would be most suitable. She must not be afraid to color her hands, or to work. When not working at that, she will spend her time making wigs. He will teach her how to do both, and, if she proves herself competent, he will give her fair wages. For two or three weeks he will board her and pay all her expenses. Then he will pay her $5 a week. He will take another when needed, and so increase the number as he has occasion. He employs some women to put up hair dye and perfumery, and pays $3 a week.

302. Growers.

Dr. Gardner says: "At Caen, in France, there is a market, whither young girls resort, and stand hour after hour, with their flowing hair, rich and glossy, deriving additional lustre from the contrast with their naked shoulders. This is the resort of the merchant barbers, some of whom come even from England. The merchants pass along among them, examine the color, texture, evenness, and other qualities of the beautiful fleece, haggle for a sou, and finally buy. The hair then, after being cut as closely as possible to the head, is weighed and paid for, and the girl goes home to let another suit grow out for shearing time."

303. Manufacturers.

The woman at S.'s says they have constant application to receive hands, and have to turn a great many away. They have trouble to get good workers. The girls will not take time to learn to do their work perfectly. They ought to spend some years learning. At C.'s, they employ a number of women in making wigs, scalps, and toupees, who can earn from $4 to $5 a week. It requires six months to learn that branch. At another place I was told it requires but a few weeks to learn to make wigs only. Workers at it earn from $3 to $5. This branch of work is profitable. Mrs. R. told me that those who make wigs can be at work all the year, but hair dressing is mostly confined to seasons. In different stores, the wages of employées vary. It is well for a person to learn all the branches, if she has time, so that if one fails her, she can take up another. Her work is mostly done in the country—no doubt because she can get it done more cheaply. Weaving hair pays best. It is paid for by the yard, and generally done at the home of the worker. If done in the house, it is most likely to be paid for by the week, and ten—the usual number of working hours—spent at it. American women form a majority in the business. It is a good business, for a small capital, when living near the importers. It is extending West and South. A hair manufacturer in Rochester writes: "The occupation is permanent, and my employées have work at all seasons. There is a demand in many places for workers in this line." A hair manufacturer in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who has three women braiding hair for jewelry, and making wigs, pays by the day, of ten hours. They receive from $3 to $8 per week, and work the same at all seasons.

304. Merchants.

Most of the hair made up in this country is bought in France and Italy. The price paid for each head of hair ranges from one to five francs, according to its weight and beauty. From one of the cyclopædias we learn, that 200,000 pounds of women's hair is annually sold in France; that the price paid for it is usually six cents an ounce." "Whether dark or light, the hair purchased by the dealer is so closely scrutinized, that he can discriminate between the German and French article by the smell alone; nay, he even claims the power, 'when his nose is in,' of distinguishing accurately between the English, the Welsh, the Irish, and the Scotch commodities."