MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1938, Page 12

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF, INTEREST

PERMANENT WAVE.

A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY

America is going crazy over a new method of hair-waving. by /which a permanent, wave is really permanent., say.-i the “Sunday Express.’’ In other words, once done it. lasts lor .ever. Il is done by a special t .kind .pt’ cutting’, and it may. it is suggested : alread\. prove as revolutionary a discovery as the’ Marcel wave. The inventor, Kenneth Christy, is a, small hairdresser of Parker s Landing, a. town of 595 inhabitants in Pennsylvania. This l is how it all began:

Ten years ago a. small schoolboy wanted a, scar on his head hidden. Christy cut his hair in such a wny that it not only concealed Ihe scar, but appeared to wave as it bad never done before. And even after the scar had gone the wave remained. That set Christy thinking. He studied hair find how it grew. He offered free haircuts to the young women of Parker's Landing. They soon came back for more. For. with a pair of scisiors. a comb, a little water and deft fingers. Christy succeeded in. ptftting' waves into lank hair.

And waves that stayed in. Last year his records sjiowcd 15i'H) wave-cuts and no 'ficiiu-i'ts. So he patented his process and set out to make the fortune he fell sure lay jit his- idea. A Pittsburg department store was the first, to take up tite idea. They soon found they required ten Christytrained assistants to deal with the demand for wave-cuts fit £3 each. Chiisty licences hi.- trainees when they fire proficient, lie charges them £7lt for the licence and I lien draws ;>. 2tf per cent royally on their turnover. The idea, spread to New York. lA. big Fifth Avenue store now has I twenty-six assistants doing Christy I cuts at £5 each. Now his method is being adopted throughout the. United States—in the teeth of opposition, for it means goodbye to long land expensive) waving land curling processes. . 'The “Sunday Express” realising the ' ChriAty idea is bound to cross the Atlantic, as soon as British women' hear of it. sent, a representative to look for a willing girl witli thick, lanky hair, so unmanagetible. anyhow, that she didn’t mind risking lite experiment. She writes: — I found her aud took her to a hairdresser who had been informed as fully ast possible about the Christy method. He studied her face and discussed the style that would suit her. Then he lifted Iter thick locks and cut from underneath great chunks of hair in grooves. Ho damped the hair above, pressing it. with a comb and his fingers into the groove, Yvhore it at; once took the form of a soft-looking wave. Ho repeated the process right across the head, the hair shaping itself as if by magic. He thinned tho hair round the face so that it fell into natural-looking curls.

• .But be pointed out that the ends of the hair, which he twisted into curls in the more ,usual way. would need constant resetting, as they had not the advantage of. '‘grooves” beneath them to'keep ' them in. Also that those wanting’ more elab-orate-looking ..coiffures would have to resort to'more elaborate methods.

COMMENTARY ON CURVES. The number of inches yon measure round the bust is not. a really infallible guide to the size brassiere you need (writes a Fashion Expert). From masses of statistics compiled on the subject, it has been proved that there are seven different, fittings or shapes to every bust size. For instance, a woman who takes a. 31-iiicli brassiere might need any of seven diereni bust contours. So the old hii-or-miss way of buying brassieres by bust measurement only is now becoming obsolete. as corsetry becomes more' and more a. science. You tire familiar with the principle of multiple' fittings in shoes—and now you see this principle applied to brassieres. , Many women are content to buy a brassiere across the count'er —“Size 36 please”—and worry not at all that it. does nothing to flatter. 'Even worwe. they have no guarantee that it is not actually harmful. All the best

rfores keep skilled corsetieres who a.ro highly trained and competent to advise, as well as to fit with scientific exactness and make any necessary adjustments. If you cheat yourself of this fitting service through fal.ee modesty, you would be well advised Io overcome your qualms and t c-member that nakedness is all in the day’s work to the corsi.-t.icre, who thinks m> mor<- of it than does a trained nurse.

ENGLISH COOKERY

CAKES AND HISTORIC PIES

11 lias been said that ihc history of civilisation might be written from idle, standard of cookery, not always to file credit of civilisation. Mass production may. be inevitable with the increase of the: world’- population, tail it tends to produce sameness just as machinery produces articles of meihanical precision (writes Florence White in the. London “DaiL Tele-

graph”). There, is no doubt about il one. gets a, better flavour in food cooked in small quantities, and this is realh the secret of our attachment to good homo cookery. It is not, of course, alway.- cheap. It docs not matter how plain and homely Ihc. food, there: k-> a distinction about its special preparation. that cannot be denied. In every instance we may he sure ihat the cakes and dishes that may have come- down to us throughout, the ages- handed on from mother to daughter in succeeding generations--are most certainly instances of the survival of the fittest.

A notable instance occurred the other day when the King and Queen visited Lanea.-liire. Whilst they were staying with Lord Derby at Knowsicy a deputation of the leading men of Eceh s v. ere commissioned to have a. dozen Eccles cakes ma.de: to be talo n to Lord Derby for the King and Queen.

These cakes are made by the same recipe in a. shop built on the site of the original cottage where they wore made by a. woman for her own family more than 200 years ago—nearer 300 years. I should say. if the following be- true: “At. all events, il. seems pretty certain that Eccles' cakes were in existence at the time of Oliver Cromwell, because there is a. record of the Puritans. when, they prohibited such reprehensible entertainments as dancing on the village green, including among the sins committed on such cccasions the eating of Eccles cakes. “It is possible that their objection to this particular form of food was not merely that it. tasted nice, but al-o that, the eating of the. cakes was part of some ancient and superstitious religious ceremonial.’’ Eccles cakes, arc an outstanding example. of a very common development which occurred at the end of the ISI.li and tho first half at least of the ItJth century.

This was the commercialisation of Ihe good things, not only cakes but a variety of food, first prepared in a ccttagc or farmhouse kitchen or dairy and then started as a business venture which in time became a widely esteemed manufactured product.

The original .Eccles cakes, however, still retain their home-made excellence. although the cakes arc made by other people and arc popular all over the North.

• Cherley cakes are rather like Eccles cakes, but made with short crust, and filled with currants, not such a rich mixture as the Eccles mixture, but with more currants. Coventry God cakes are another delicacy of Iho same type, but more in the form of an Foscolos triangle, an elongated form of our childhood's favourite, the three-cornered jam puffs which, it is interesting to note, arc. know in the trade as Coventries. BANBURY AND SIMNEL. Travelling a little tardier south, we have- the world famous Banburj- cakes made somewhat in the form of a weaver's shuttle. A different type, and probably still elder form of cake is the Shrewsbury Simnel. made in a raised crust coloured and flavoured with saffron, a customary way of making pies before earthenware di-lies were intro-j duced and pewter ones were too expensive for general use. Ihe name given to these raised pie cases was “Caffyns.” The famous Warden, pies were made in a. raised pie-crust. The only surviving example I know’ that is made to-day is the “Mansfield Gooseberry fie.”' which is a, feature of Mansfield Fair. No one will believe you have been to the Fair if you do not take home a. pie. Apple pies? used to be made in a. raised crust, in Devonshire.

The nearest approach I can cite to the Shrewsbury Simnel is the. wellknown. Scotch Bun, but. raised meat pies of which the Melton Mowbray pork pie is au outstanding example, are still made with a. variety ol tillings to-day. Glasgow keeping up the tradition of little mutton pies.

Other types of Simnel cakes are tile Bury Simnel and the star-shaped Devizes Simnel, both of which arc verv good.

Excellent Rock Buns which seem to be a. derivative of the Bury Simnel. are round in shape, and smaller in size. Lardy cakes are another Fareham speciality. The various sweet pics such as Manchester Pudding. I’akewcll Pudding. Dcddinglon Pudding Pic. Kent I’ndI’ding Pie. and innumerable others all made to-day in pie-dishes or saucers lor cans lined with pastry. are doubt less developments of those made in raised pie-crusts. Mention was made above of (hi' possible objection of the Puritans to Eccles cakes on account of some suspicion of ;i hidden ceremonial or symbolic religious idea, they wished lo suppress. Nor did their suspicion fall very far short of the mark. QuainC. religious practices entered (illite simply into the everyday life ol the people. Fiel.'ore the lit formation. ('ll list mas minri.: pi- s W'-rc made oval in shape, not. round, to rt present the crib in which Iho infant Christ was laid in the cradle, at. Bethlehem, and I strongly suspect that the elongated form of Illi- God Cakes of Coventry was due to the church of that town being

iledicaicil lo the Hole’ Trinity. At. Great. Yarmouth I discovered that in pre-lleformai ion days it was the custom to time the grilling, or as they said in those days, broiling of fresh hoi rings or bloaters by repeat-

ing one Pater Nosier and then turning it. again. In tin; same way other processes were timed by saying one or more Ave Marias. 1

Till!; VINFGAJi BO't'l' L.J*;, Vinegar will be found a very useful agent. Mixed with blacklead it will give an added brilliancy to the grate or stove, or mix'd wit.li equal parts of oli'-e oil it. mal;es a splendid polish I for fu mil n ' >■ leather coeds, i r I , I used, to scour pair. l in "Ih'. Li i .abbw:‘'. I

fish, or onions have been cooked, it v. ill remove all odour, or. if burnt on a shovel, in a room in which there is a smell of smoke, it will be quickly cleared.