Popular Science Monthly 



Vol. 9^2 

 No. 3 



225 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York City 



March, 1918 



$1.50 



Annually 



The Secret of Those Curly Locks 



Science steps in and waves 

 the straightest hair 



FOR years and years, probably ever 

 since Eve's day, seductive woman 

 has tried to fulfill man's idea of 

 loveliness. Does he admire blondes? 

 Forthwith the peroxide bottle appears. 

 Does he prefer curly hair? The dear 

 ladies undergo tortures in sleeping on 

 lumpy curl-papers, and burn oflf enough 

 hair with hot irons to supply the armies 

 of the world with mattresses. Every 

 drug store is a beauty shop, crammed 

 with numberless lotions, ointments, freckle 

 removers and skin foods, all to be applied 

 in the endeavor to please man's critical 

 eye. 



Man has watched this struggle of 

 woman throughout the ages. When he 

 found he couldn't bear the spectacle any 

 longer, he gallantly came to her relief. 

 It is he who invents and manufactures all 

 the wrinkle-removers, chin-straps, hair- 

 trainers, and lip sticks. Even science 

 takes a hand in the game. " Step right up 

 ladies. Give two hours of your precious 

 time to the scientific beautifier. Fido can 

 get on without you for that long and the 

 great bargain in yon shop will be there 

 two hours hence; so step right up and 

 change yourself into a Mary Pickford. 



Your hair is straight, and you want it 

 waved — permanently? Walk into this 

 little room. It is spotless white and 

 gleaming gold, quite to your feminine 

 taste. What are they doing now? Just 

 tying a rubber mat in back of your head. 

 Why are they swathing you in sheets? 

 To protect your clothes. Next, they 

 take down your hair, and you lean back 

 luxuriously, your head over a basin, while 

 your hair is given a thorough shampoo. 

 What dries it so quickly? Electricity, 

 my dear. 



"Please walk in here," says the scien- 

 tific hair man. It is another little room. 

 Above your head is something that looks 

 like a huge, old-fashioned chandelier. 

 Only instead of lights, about fifty little 

 round devices that look like sockets for 

 electric lights hang on long, pendulous 

 green cords. 



You are seated directly beneath this 

 device. Quick, deft fingers dampen your 

 hair with a solution. But what's this? 

 Oh, he's wrapping it around small, 

 hollow pieces of metal. They are curlers 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter 

 and about four inches in length. Each 

 curler is fastened in one of the pendent 

 sockets. The current is turned on. 



For ten minutes you sit breathlessly 

 awaiting the miracle. The current is 

 turned oflf. The baking process is over. 

 They wash your hair and dry it again. 

 Now look in the mirror. Your aston- 

 ished and delighted eyes behold a perfect 

 riot of curls where straight wisps dis- 

 gusted you but a short time ago. But 

 that's not all. 



Man has done much for woman, but he 

 hasn't been able to make her hair grow in 

 curly. Perhaps he will, by and by, who 

 knows? In the meantime, your hair 

 will grow, and if you want those curls to 

 start in right at the root of your hair, 

 you have to have the new hair curled 

 once every six months. The long hair 

 that was first curled will retain its curl to 

 the end of time. 



When the permanent wave was first 

 invented, the piocess was much more 

 troublesome than it now is. It used to 

 take nearly all day to do the trick, but 

 to-day it is possible to have the whole 

 thing over and done with in two hours. 



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