PRICE OF BEAUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 19, 22 January 1910, Page 16

PRICE OF BEAUTY.

PAIN FOR A DIMPLE OR AN EYELASH. "Women will suffer anything and pay anything for beauty," a well-known doctor remarked a short time ago, and, judging by a number of specialists who have established themselves in most of our large cities, there is not much doubt that their particular business is in n very flourishing condition to-day. Almost every week one hears of new methods for the treatment of Nature's defects in the appearance of women, and as most of the clientele of beauty doctors are society women, who consider that the payment of £500 or £600 for a more youthful looking complexion, for instance, is a good bargain, it naturally follows that the cures are not characterised by cheapness. In some beauty doctors' establishments as much as from £10 to £20 is paid by society women for preparing their hair and complexions for one evening. Sixtyguinea courses of massage treatment, manicuring at four or five guineas a time, salveH, powders and lotions at 10/ to 20/ a bottle or box, and five guineas a month to have one's hair dyed and redyed—these are a few of the items ir beauty doctors' biUs.

Not only, however, do beauty doctcj renovate the hair and complexion, remove wrinkles, crowsfeet and cure red noses and freckles by means of creams, massages, etc., but they also claim to be able to provide an entirely new complexion by removing the old one, add inches to the height of a woman, make dimples, plant eyelashes, alter noses and make cheeks plump, smooth and girlish looking, no matter how sunken they may be or how old the patient.

Perhaps the most painful of these treatments is that of removing the whole skin of the face by means of a blistering lotion—a desperately long and tedious process—and then cultivating a new skin. Anything from 50 to 100 guineas will be charged for this operation, and the woman who agrees to the treatment must be prepared to suffer agony for many months. There are several brazen quacks in America who claim to be able to provide new complexions and wipe the impress of twenty years off a woman's face. They usually fail, and often make a woman's complexion worse than it was before. On the other hand, there are many specialists in this country who have sucessfully performed this operation.

One of the latest methods of treating the complexion is what is known as "face tucking," a process by which the wrinkled and shrivelled skin of a woman of seventy can, so the specialists claim, be made to look as firm as that of a girl of twenty-five. Minute tucks are taken in the skin all over the face, and the sagging of the tissues thus, for a time at least, corrected. There are not a great many beauty doctors, however, who will undertake this task, and those who do charge something like £1000 for the treatment, which is equally as painful as that of removing the old skin by the blistering operation.

One of the quickest, and at the same time most beneficial, methods of treating the complexion is an operation which surgeons have sometimes been induced to perform. It consists 0 f cutting a threecornered piece out of the scalp, after a strong local anaesthetic has been applied, and sewing the wound quickly and skilfully together. This draws up the whole skin of the face, which at once assumes a more youthful appearance. The deep lines 0 n either side of the mouth disappear or become softened, while a prominent double chin will bo held up.

An elderly lady had such an operation performed some time ago, chiefly to obliterate a double chin and general sagging of the face. At first the results were not so obvious, but after six months, when the muscles that had been disturbed tightened and grew together again, the chin became firm and of good contour nnd the whole face spemed to have lifted, taking away at least ten years from the woman's apparent age.

10ns of the latest inventions of tho beauty doctor is a process by which he claims to be able to manufacture dimples. The skin of the cheek is lifted, a tiny bit of the flesh removed, the skin replaced, and presto! a brand new dimple appears in due course. But they take time and patience to manufacture properly, and the patient must be prepared to suffer a pain approaching acute neuralgia for some time, especially if it is decided to eat out the little dent by acid.s, as is sometimes done, instead of cutting. And the price is somewhere between £30 nnd £60, according to the position of the dimple. The girl who is not satisfied with her eyelashes has a choice of two treatments specially recommended by beauty specialists. The least painful one consists of gumming on false eyelashes, and this is done so skilfully that the closest inspection does not " reveal the false hairs. Constant washing of the face naturally loosens them. But it is easy to tell when it is time to take them off, have them regummed and stuck on again. Gummed eyelashes la-st quite well for two or three days, and after the first time it is a very simple matter to adjust them.

The latest novelty in female coquetry, however, is the planting of eyelashes and eyebrows—a very delicate and painful operation. A long hair is singled out of the patient's head. A needle is threaded with it, and fcrced in and out of the skin along the edge of the evclid. These loops are then cut at the extremities with a pair of scissor.-, and the rows of lashes thus obtained are cm led upward with curlers. When the operation v finished, the patient baa to spend twelve hours with an oiled bandage over the e}'es.

'there is a certain Ameri.-jn beauty spi-cwlle: who guarantee to add wo or three inches to the height of any lady without the aid of Five pounds—massage and gymnastic exercises being extra—is his charge for etch pulling and stretching operation, and as the treatment lusts from six'tv to ninety dayi, the cost of incre. t s, n „" the staUre by his methods works out at something like £500 an inch As a matter of fact, there is no end to the claims of some beauty special lsts. They will Romanise the turnedtip nose, flatten back protruding ears make badly-shaped lips more symmetrical, and alter the figure to anv'si/e and shape required. Perhaps, however the most extraordinary cure for the' im proveraent of the figure was that suggested to a certain actress by a German beauty doctor. He told his patient to spend so much time daily standing on her head, assuring her that this upside-down position would enhance the appearance of her fioure. Upon the actress declining to adopt such a course, or pay the fees demanded, the irate specialist at once retaliated by commencing action for the recovery of £500 for services rendered. Needless to- say, ho lost Jus, case,—."(TitBits," . - ' «■