BEAUTY IN NEW YORK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 66

BEAUTY IN NEW YORK.

SHORT HAIR GOING OUT. By Mrs A. R. Osborn. It is said that more monev is spent by women in New York on aids to beauty ! and on dress than goes into any other avenue of business. One is fairly staggered at the amazing number of shops devoted wholly to the beauty business and to side lines contributing to enhancing natural beauty (if any). But the stranger in New York must Ibe careful about choosing her beauty salon if she wants a permanent wave or a water wave or a circuline wave for her naturally straight hair; because there are two kinds of parlours here—one to put the kmk in your hair and one to take r °?u j • e wllite Kiri naturally sighs lor the dainty waves which in her eyes aie so attractive; the coloured girl just as naturally sighs for the straight hair of the lovely white girl. So, while panderers to white beauty’s pride have found a method of inserting a permanent kink in her hair, just as clever discoveries have been made which will take the tight kink out of the black girl’s hair. Thus every here and there we see a black girl with hair as glossily straight as the Italian girl’s, and it has cost a very great deal to perform the miracle. But she is the smartest of the smart in the eyes of her relatives, and quite irresistible as a charmer to coloured men, and she knows it. Particularly with coloured girls who have a strong strain of white blood in their composition is the curly hair detested, and these get rid of every trace of kink, no matter what the expense involved. In the fierce heat of last week I was meandering through the Grand Central station and came upon two blaek people philandering under the stairway. They were both young, and black as Ethiop's night; but the girl was powdering her nose in recognised style! The comicality of it almost made me forget that I was' not watching a comedy on the stage—but subsequent inquiries gave me to understand that the black girl carries her vanity case and its essential aids to beauty as regularly as her white sister does, and she is just as particular about the shade of powder for the tip of her nose and her cheeks, too! I inquired whether she had black or mahogany powder, but was informed that she usee “ flesh ” tints in powder as well as in stockings! Not so long ago I was walking behind a smart and stylishly-dressed woman who was beautifully turned out in black and " flesh ” tints. Her stockings, gloves, and the touch of colour in her hat were exact matches in what we know as “flesh” tints; but when I saw her sit down in the train I discovered she was black as black could be. Since then I have discontinued the use of the word “ flesh ” to describe colour tones. There is jubilation among the comb and hairpin makers at the determination of society to grow long hair. In this connection Mary Pickford had her curls shorn off this week by a New York barber after her return from Europe, and when her battle with the Customs authorities over the prices she paid for her French frocks was over. She has been photographed and beparagraphed over the shorn locks, but the general opinion is that she was paid a big sum to give .up her tresses in order to attempt to stem the rising tide of rebellion against short hair. If wefinen allow their hair to grow, as they are now doing everywhere, there will be thousands of barbers in financial difficulties. What can they do to make up for the millions of money they receive now for barbering girls and women? Yet the fashion leaders have insisted, and the rest are following suit. Short hair is “ out,” despite the “ World’s Sweetheart’s ” attempt to prolong the vogue. A new type of hairpin, not unlike the old-fashioned curler, has been invented to cope with the miseries of hair in the be-twixt-and-between lengths, and these are ornamental as well as efficient for their job. Women are keeping the back hair short while the side hair grows so that, when the back hair is allowed to grow, it will have its awkward lengths concealed by the longer curls. And hats are being made in bigger sizes to accommodate the coil on the nape of the neck. The turn of the tide is unmistakable.

When the s.s. Ihumata was approaching Tauranga wharf after her recent accident (states an exchange), a large body of Natives were gathered there. One Hori, noticing the dent in her bow, seemed highly excited. He looked spellbound for a few seconds, then slapped his thigh and roared, “Py korry, Tom Heeney, hey!”