“It is estimated that of these, 500 kilos. are used for men’s wigs, and 2,500 kilos. for postiches for women. The postiches, chignons, cache-folies and false plaits are employed to such an extent, that there are at Marseilles actually 75,000 women, or the whole grown-up female population, who wear false hair. This observation applies equally to Paris and to some large towns abroad. All coiffeurs at Marseilles trade in chignons more or less, and their annual production of this article amounts to 55,000. Of these, 30,000 are sent to the provinces, and 25,000 are sold in the city and its suburbs.
1. Coiled Chignon, measuring thirty-six inches, or more, when undone. 2. Pair of side Frizzetts. 3. Seven Strand Double Plait. 4. Marguerite Plait: This can be plaited in 4, 5, 6, or 7 strands, as may be decided upon. 5. Bertha Frizzett (set of three), for Plaited Chignon: The stems are made with straight hair inserted, of medium thickness, and seventeen inches in length.
“Corresponding with the advance of education in France, the difficulty to find young countrywomen who are ready to part with their chevelure increases. Nowadays it requires a sum of money to induce a girl to undergo the ordeal of the cutter’s scissors; consequently we have been obliged to go elsewhere in search of this article, principally to Germany, Austria, Italy, and more particularly to Sicily, the Neapolitan provinces, and the former Papal states. The large religious communities of women furnish also great quantities of hair. In certain Catholic countries the hair of the novice who enters a religious order is sold for the benefit of the convent where the vow is taken, and those beautiful tresses, sacrificed at the foot of the altar by virgins who renounce the world, return to it again other heads to adorn. The Italian hair is imported into France viâ Marseilles, and the figure of this importation reached in 1865 17,367 kilos.
“In 1830, the value of raw and manufactured hair exported from France amounted to 104,488 francs; in 1865 it had increased to 1,206,605 francs. Numbers of people at Paris, at Marseilles, and in other large towns, have realised fortunes in the hair trade. Let us mention one house in the Palais Royal quarter which, in 1868, did business to the amount of 1,552,000 francs. We may safely say that the French hairdressers sell annually 68,000 kilos. of hair, which, made into plaits, curls, crape, etc., represents a sum of 80,000,000 francs. Let us further mention that another house sold, within sixteen months, in 1871 and 1872, 16,000 chignons, at prices varying from 12 to 70 francs each, but of course there are much more expensive ones sold, chignons of a natural red or golden tinted hair, which is principally imported from Scotland, being the most expensive.”[[7]]
From the foregoing, the reader can learn what the trade was a few years ago; but what it is now, his every-day experience can answer.
Undoubtedly the manufacture of chignons was a thriving trade so long as it lasted, and we have it on record that of a certain dyed material termed “hair” (which it greatly resembled) “hundreds of thousands of tons” were used in the making of frizzettes, pads, etc.[[8]]
It would be useless now to enter upon the method of constructing chignons, for their patterns are almost endless; but with inserted stems, or pads, and suitable hair, an ingenious hairdresser ought to be able, after what I have already said, to make several of neat and pretty designs.