Board-Work; or the Art of Wig-making, Etc. / Designed For the Use of Hairdressers and Especially of Young Men in the Trade. To Which Is Added Remarks Upon Razors, Razor-sharpening, Razor Strops, & Miscellaneous Recipes, Specially Selected.

by Edwin Creer

Fig. 15.

By means of this contrivance the hair is drawn through spaces easily made by the fingers, and, as can readily be discerned, the plaited chignon well holds itself together. The final disposition of the ends must be completed upon the head, when they (as well as the natural hair) should be made into rouleaux, etc., as may be found most convenient and tasteful. Where lightness has to be considered, perhaps two well-covered inserted stems might take the place of a quantity of hair—a hint which is not likely to be overlooked by clever hairdressers.

Fig. 16.

Probably, at this juncture, some remarks on chignons in general will not be thought out of place. Chignons may be considered as “old as the hills,” for the word simply means as I interpret it—a back hair dressing without reference to any particular shape. Were I to designate the mere “knot” at the back of the head a chignon, perhaps my meaning would not be clearly understood, but it is in reality as much a chignon as the most elaborate one could be. In the ordinary acceptation of the word, however, a fanciful style of dressing the back hair is meant, and “Board-work” would not be complete without special allusion being made to chignons, seeing that their manufacture a few years ago gave employment to thousands of people of both sexes.

M. Alphonse Bouchard, writing in The Hairdresser’s Chronicle on the subject of “False Hair,” says that “the compilers of the General Catalogue of the Universal Exhibition, 1867, have given us figures, which it would be very difficult to check; but they, no doubt, used the same sources which I have had recourse to, and to prove the exactness and authority of this essay, I shall quote a few data.

“This official document reports as follows:—The manufacture of hair is to-day of very great importance. Paris is the place where the hair is well prepared, and where the headdresses arrive at the highest degree of perfection. The price of raw hair, says this catalogue, is about 50 francs on an average per kilo. It was 65 francs in 1865; and it is said to have been sold even at 100 francs. The price of prepared hair is 140 francs the kilo. The price of postiches is about 40 francs apiece; the prices of the fashionable coiffures, called chignons, range from 15 francs to 200 francs, and even as far as 500 francs apiece. In France about 70,000 kilos. of cut hair are sold. Of this quantity 40,000 kilos. are French, and 20,000 kilos. are imported from Italy, Belgium, Germany and other countries. 8,000 kilos. are collected in the workshops and other places; this is called ‘waste.’ America, England and Prussia buy 30,000 kilos. of hair of us; 25,000 kilos. are used in France in the manufacture of postiches; and about 13,000 kilos. are exported to different countries. Marseilles is next to Paris in importance for the hair trade. M. Joseph Mathieu has given us some curious details on the hair trade in Marseilles. He tells us, that the statutes of the wig-makers of Marseilles date from 1696. Their number was for a long time limited to twenty. In 1760, the master-wigmakers of Marseilles, seeing that a large number of ladies’ hairdressers established themselves in that city, commenced an action against them. But a decree of the 20th June, 1761, rejected these pretensions, and gave full and entire freedom to the ladies’ hairdressers to exercise their calling.

“In 1789, the number of hairdressers and ladies’ hairdressers of Marseilles was considerable. It is well known how complicated the headdresses of that period were, and according to the records of that time, Marseilles was one of the first cities in France for elegance and good taste.

“After the Revolution the number of hairdressers increased gradually, but it is more especially during the last ten years that this increase has been mostly noticed, and to-day we have at Marseilles 397 coiffeurs.

“Four houses, employing about forty workmen, hold the monopoly of the hair trade. The trade has increased fourfold during the last thirty years. The houses in the trade receive together annually 6,000 kilos. of hair, from the Tyrol, Bohemia, Dalmatia and Italy. Having been worked, 3,000 kilos. of this quantity is sent to the provinces and to foreign countries, and 3,000 kilos. remain for town consumption.