SEARCH FOR BEAUTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 4

SEARCH FOR BEAUTY

COST IN UNITED STATES # ' t > ELECTRICAL TREATMENTS "Last year American women spent more than two billion pounds upon beauty treatments and various beauty aids," said Miss C. W. Young, of South Otago, who returned yesterday with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Young, by the Maunganui after an extended visit to England, France, the United States and Australia.

While in Los Angeles Miss Young took part in a large physical culture display which was organised for charity and conducted upon a tremendous scale. About 5000 requests were received from girls and young women wishing to take part in the display, but most of the performers were secured by invitation. The participants were required to be more thaii oft. 3in. tall and to have good complexions and teeth and good figures. "American women are not really more beautiful than any others," said Miss Young, who thought that a great deal of their reputation was based on good grooming and the fact that most American women spent so much time and money on a bewildering variety of beauty aids that it had the psychological effect of making them feel beautiful. Electricity had been developed to an excess and was used in beauty treatments in the United States much more than anywhere else. Many of the new electrical contrivances were actually dangerous in the hands of any other than expert attendants, and in many cases trained nurses were maintained at beauty parlours to test the heart reactions of the clients before and during treatment. So many of the treatments were also practically useless. On one occasion Miss Young was taken 011 a visit to one of the iarcest beauty parlours in New York and was amazed at the suffering which many women endured for the sake of an improved appearance. Many of the treatments were so painful that only a few minutes a day could be endured. A striking lack of self - consciousness characterised American women, and visitors to the beauty parlours were taken as a matter of course. In the most modern establishments in New York. where glass windows and fittings were fashionable, women sat contentedly through a permanent wave or a face massage untroubled by the fact that they were almost 011 the street.