GIRL WHO MUST WEAR A WIG

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 19

GIRL WHO MUST WEAR A WIG

£lOOO Award For Loss of Hair Pope's reference in “The Rape of the Lock” to “fair tresses” was quoted at Manchester Assizes recently when a girl was awarded £lOl2, with costs, for the loss of her hair. Alice Sharp, aged 16, of Manchester, part of whose hair had been caught in a machine and torn off, sued Norbury, Natzio and Go., Ltd., printers, of Old Trafford, Manchester. Mr. B. S. Wingate-Saul, for the girl, said that liability was admitted, the only question being the amount of damages. Miss Sharp was cleaning a machine when her hair became entangled in a rotating shaft. The whole scalp was torn off from near the forehead almost to the back of the head, leaving her with just a fringe of hair at the sides and the back. In hospital skin from her right thigh was successfully grafted on the crown of her head, but no hair could grow the affected part of the head. Miss Sharp would have to wear a wig in public. Referring to Miss Sharp’s chances of marriage, Mr. Wingate-Saul quoted from Pope’s lines: “Fair tresses man’s imperial race insnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.” Mr. A. D. Gerard, defending, expressed the hope that he was not putting that in as a matter of law. Mr. Justice Lawrence, after examining Miss Sharp’s injuries in his private room, remarked, on returning to court, that a girl’s hair was a matter of nature and not of artificial adornment.