Hair Care Upsets Watches

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 2

Hair Care Upsets Watches

[By ZALIA THOMAS] LONDON, August 31, Hair care and unpunctuality may have more connexion than is generally realised. It has been proved that certain hair preparations can have a detrimental effect on watches.

A great deal of research was needed before a British firm of watch and clock makers discovered why a few of their gold-plated watches were coming into the service department with glass and case apparently pitted. The reason? The owners had been wearing their watches while spraying their hair with lacquer containing acetone, which is the cause of the trouble. A spokesman in the service' department said a watch had been in several times for re-

pairs for bad time-keeping. The culprit again? Hairdressing—for the owner worked in a hairdressing salon and it was thought to be the fumes from permanent wave solution that had caused the damage. They had dried out all the oil in the watch until time-keeping was badly affected. Hair lacquer could have

the same effect if it actually managed to penetrate the case, again because of the very property which makes acetone-based solutions work wonders on the hair—that of setting and drying quickly. Strangely enough, the treatment given for the surface pitting is to rub over with a cloth which has a very small amount of acetone on it. When this dries it absorbs the minute droplets on the surface without leaving any. A rub with a completely dry cloth completes the cure. Affected watch “glass” which is usually perspex must, however, be replaced.