Investigations which have been carried on by Dr. Kyo Hashimoto, of the Niigata Medital Col-lose, has led him to announce that the highly complicated mechanical equipment for permanent waving of the hair is most injurious because of the high temperature at which it is operated, and that women resorting to this aid to beauty must prepare ultimately to become bald. As one form or another of inducing graceful curves into ordinarily straight hair has been in use for at least the last twenty years, without any such evil results having become widely spread, it will generally be felt that the pronouncement comes somewhat late in the day, and it is unlikely that this threat, which has not yet become very apparent, will deter women from having permanent, or more properly temporarily permanent curls arranged for them by their hairdressers. Women who will suffer al" most anything for, beauty's sweet sake are not likely to be put off by the possibility that at some future date their hair may become very short, or entire baldness ensue, and it is almost as unlikely that they would refrain from present practices if a degree of inevitability were imported into the pronouncement which at present is missing. That the process is attended with some risk is clear from the number of damage suits which actually are tried in the courts, and the much larger number which never engage the attention of the judges, but this fact has had no effect upon the willingness of women to take the risks involved in the operation. Whether there is merit or not in Dr. Hashimoto's discovery still remains to be seen, but he conveys a little comfort, if what he says is, correct, in his additional statement that women will not worry because wigs are now very skilfully made and are obtainable at moderate prices. However much they might dislike the idea of wearing such confections, the women will probably argue that as long as their hair lasts to give them the curled appearance they desire while good looks are.of paramount appearance, they will bother very little whether they have to wear wigs or not when passing years bring them to the time when such things no longer matter. The doctors discovery is, therefore, very likely to influence women either one way or the other, while it is more than a little offset by the discovery of the American hairdresser who has developed a method whereby all women may be given permanent waves by a new method of cutting the hair. His discovery has already been tried out in the western hemisphere, while he has recently been teaching it to people in the United Kingdom. Should the scheme be as successful as is already claimed, the time will soon come when women will no longer spend hours under the hands of present day sorcerers, but having delivered themselves over the expert wielder of the scissors for a few times, spend the rest of their lives free from all the terrors of the modern phantastie-looking machine whereby such results are at present obtained.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.