Beauty Culture (Woodbury)/Introduction

Beauty and utility in the arts, beauty and health in the person, are often wrongly treated as identical by theoretical writers on these subjects. There are those who would have you believe that to any solidly constructed building which is exactly adapted to its purpose the term beautiful cannot properly be denied. They assert that a well-built, well-lighted, commodious brick factory is as beautiful in its way as a Greek marble temple is in its way. Similarly there are enthusiastic devotees of physical culture who claim that every person in sound health and fine physical development must he considered as a "beautiful" specimen of humanity.

It is only by straining the application of the term ​beauty to an extent unwarranted by common usage and common sense that such a view can be maintained.

It is true, as Emerson says, that "the beautiful rests on the foundations of the necessary," that, for example, true beauty of person cannot exist apart from a sound and well-developed body, but this does not mean that beauty and health are identical. Else why would we have the two terms? The truth is, beauty begins where health ends. Of two equally healthy women in an assembly, one will be passed over as plain, however thoroughly wholesome she may be in appearance, and one pointed out as notable for the attractiveness of her face and figure. Indeed, the derogation in the term "homely," which originally was applied to a woman having every housewifely virtue, and, necessarily, the health requisite to perform her duties, is a striking evidence of the superior regard that is paid to a woman who has taken pains to preserve and enhance the "good looks" which were her inheritance at birth, and to remedy defects in personal appearance which were either natural or occasioned by employment, mode of living, or accident.

Many women are resigned to being thought "plain" and "homely," just as most cripples are to the possession of their deformities, but none is pleased at the thought, and, with the joy of a lame man at discarding his crutch, would hail the opportunity to rid herself of the justification for the obnoxious terms. Indeed, the ideal of most women, however secret they may keep it, even refusing to admit it to themselves, is that they may be considered beautiful, if only in respect to one feature; and the most universal source of feminine grief is the fear of the waning of personal charms. The proof of the predominance of beauty in woman's regard was strikingly shown by the general acclamation by the sex of the ​unparalleled heroism of Madame Breshkoffsky, the noble-born Russian revolutionist, when, on the occasion of her recent banishment to Siberia, the fact transpired that in her youth she had deliberately disfigured her remarkably beautiful face in order to carry on her work among the peasants unrecognized. This immolation of beauty on the altar of patriotism seemed a nobler sacrifice even than would have been the offering of her life.

And rightly, too; for, while as citizen, as mother, as wife, there may be and are higher duties, it is the supreme duty of woman as woman to be as beautiful as careful attention, first to the laws of health, and second to the arts of the toilet, can make her. In so doing she is obeying the instinct of her sex, divinely implanted at creation, when woman was designed to be, as Macaulay says, "the most beautiful object in the world."

Of attention to health in the matters of diet, exercise, and that cultivation of mind which is necessary to give a living soul to the otherwise inert body of beauty, it is not the province of this book to speak save in general terms here and in practical suggestions of immediate connection with specific subjects discussed in the body of the work. The reader is referred to books and periodicals devoted to health, diet, and physical and mental culture, and advised to consult her own physician in regard to her special needs in these matters. Constitutional treatment is required in almost every local disorder, whether of skin, or nails, or hair. Hygienic exercise, simple, natural diet, strict cleanliness, and peace of mind will lay the solid foundations of health upon which the temple of beauty must be reared if it is to stand. Otherwise it must be upheld by unsightly props, such as rouge, badly counterfeiting the blush of health; powder, obviously covering blemishes due to bad blood; ​dead, lack lustre hair, replacing the rich, living growth, and pads inertly rounding out hollows which should be filled with pulsing flesh.

In Beauty Culture proper, the building upon the foundations of general physical health and development, art should proceed along natural lines. The anatomy and physiology of the members and features of the body should be carefully studied, in order that these may be brought as nearly as possible into the form and condition of the ideal set by nature herself for attainment. The purpose of art, said Aristotle, is to fulfil the incomplete designs of nature. Too often, alas, its purpose has been to thwart these designs. Finger-nails are shaped into fantastic forms, such as the "roseleaf," "shield," and "talon," utterly out of harmony with the shapes of the fingers, and thus ruinous not only to the expression of individuality in the hand, but even to its resemblance to a human member (see illustrations on page 37). The hair is dressed according to the passing fancies of fashion, with no regard to enhancing the special charms of the subject's face or minimizing the effect of irregularities of contour or unshapely features.

The one who practises Beauty Culture, either for her own personal adornment or professionally for others, should he filled with the spirit of the artist, enabling her to adapt the mode of the hour to individual requirements, or, if such adaptation is impracticable, giving her resolution to disobey the edicts of fashion and produce results in harmony with the laws of pure beauty. Such a person will not fail of distinction. If she is a professional operator her parlors will fill with patrons, who will go forth to sound her praises among their friends, their encomiums being proved by the evidences of her taste and skill in the treatment of their own persons.

​Of all employments for women, the profession of Beauty Culture is the easiest for a woman of good sense and good taste to learn and establish herself in, and one of the most remunerative as well as agreeable. The cost of instruments is trifling, and their use is readily acquired. Most of the necessary preparations can be made at home, as the best formulas for them are exceedingly simple. Practice can be begun in the home of the operator, or the homes of her patrons. A public beauty parlor need not be established until the increase of custom warrants it. The operator can perform every branch of the work herself until she has too many patrons to attend to properly, when it will be time for her to employ assistants in the simpler operations. These helpers will gladly accept small wages while they are perfecting themselves in the business. There is no need for the proprietor to fear that she is training up competitors who will cut into her profits, since the number of people who employ the services of beauty culturists is increasing far more rapidly than the number of operators. It will be a long time before the business will need to be unionized and apprentices limited. Whenever a second beauty parlor has been opened in a community, the total business has at least quadrupled, since each patron is an advertisement of the practice to her hitherto unmanicured or self-manicured friends.

In other women's work the rank and file of workers must be and usually are satisfied, if they can average ten dollars weekly the year round. Nurses barely do it by being on duty twenty-four hours a day. Waitresses and saleswomen cannot possibly reach this level. In any direction you seek, you will find ten dollars a week a high average income for a woman.

On the contrary, the low average income of a beauty ​culturist is not less than double this amount. Even two manicures an hour at the lowest price—thirty-five cents—net her six dollars a day, while better paid operations, say a hair-tinting one, may bring in anywhere from fifteen dollars to fifty dollars for two hours' work.

Incomes of beauty culturists vary from one thousand to twenty thousand dollars a year, the average of a good operator being possibly between twenty-five and thirty dollars a week. This, mind you, for an employee working on a salary and commission. Those who employ themselves, whether “by appointment” or as owners of beauty shops, may make more, even double or treble this amount. There are scores who take in a clear profit the year round of one hundred dollars a week and over.

The big rewards of the business are* dependent on two things which must be combined to make up the successful practice of Beauty Culture. The operator must not only be deftly skilful and capable of meeting any requirement of her patronage, but she must also be equally well grounded in practical business management.

The successful beauty culturist must, above all, he modest, tactful, and discreet. The common impression that she should be a dashing beauty is erroneous. The appearance of good health and the evidence of good humor are better assets than good looks without these accompaniments. A clear skin and bright eye, simply arranged hair, neat dress, and a self-effacing manner will win patrons where an artificially treated complexion, hair dressed in the extreme of fashion, gaudy ornaments, and conscious pride in appearance will repel them.

Above all, the operator should see to it that her hands and nails are as near perfection in contour, trim, and lustre as her art can keep them, for with these she is ​earning her livelihood, and they are always under the close observation of patrons.

The beauty culturist should have strict regard to professional ethics. She should never gossip, avoiding in particular the discussion of a patron, man or woman, with a patron of the opposite sex. One infraction of this rule may wreck her business, and render it impossible for her to build it up again, even in a new place.

In short, the beauty culturist should be a plain business woman, proving the fact by minding her business. If she does her work conscientiously, and with pride in it, rather than in her appearance and her social graces, she is bound to prosper.

It goes without saying that the beauty culturist should keep herself informed of the best practices in her profession. This is more important than to know the latest fashions in it. She should keep in communication with specialists in the treatment of the parts of the body with which she has to deal, and confer with them upon any difficult problems which may arise in her practice. As a rule she should place little dependence upon advice given in the "beauty column" of newspapers and women's magazines, unless this department is conducted by an expert of approved reputation, who gives the advice himself instead of merely lending his name as editor. Far too much of this advice is prepared by clever newspaper sub-editors who employ their powers of invention for lack of real knowledge of the subject. In nine cases out of ten, the information they give is harmless, for, in order to be safe, they confine themselves to obvious suggestions, often bordering on nonsense, but in the tenth case they may give absolutely injurious advice.

All recipes for skin lotions and other preparations, wherever these are published, should be specially exam​ined to see if there is responsible expert authority for their safety, as irremediable harm may result from their use.

Above all, every woman interested in beauty culture should view with distrust the frequent advertisements of "Beauty Secrets," announcements of wonderful methods of removing superfluous hair, developing the bust, etc., which are not generally known in the profession. These "secrets" are either the methods belonging to the early unscientific stage of the art, and discarded for better methods by the present experts as harmful or ineffective, or they are "fakes" pure and simple, designed to accomplish the sale at an extravagant price of some cheap cream or lotion which the advertisers expect to sell only once to each purchaser. In the case of depilatories they usually remove the hair, only to have it grow again, since the effect is only that of a deep, sub-cutaneous shave.

Really the only Beauty Secrets are those which, if not generally known to the public, are common to the practice of the trained specialists. For business reasons, these practitioners are not prone to publish the names and proportions of the ingredients of their most effective preparations, or the details of their manipulating processes. They are wrong in this, not alone from the ethical, hut even from the commercial point of view, since the prevalence of the best methods in beauty culture would lead to a discrimination by the public in favor of the class of legitimate practitioners to which they belong.

The author of the present book entered as a young man into close business association with the man who is acknowledged as the founder and greatest exponent of dermatology—John H. Woodbury. Together they in​vented new methods and preparations in Beauty Culture, and carefully tested these and others which were brought to their attention. Mr. John H. Woodbury saw fit to refrain from publishing these to the world while he was in active practice, and, indeed, protected by law the manufacture of a few of the preparations. At that time the author protested, though in vain, against the policy of secrecy in regard to those recipes and methods which were unprotected and in which there was no manufacturing interest. As the advertising agent of the business he believed in the wisdom of the widest and frankest publicity, especially as the methods and recipes had become the common property of the profession through the fact that the concern was the great training school of the leading dermatologists and beauty culturists of the country.

Since the death of John H. Woodbury, the author has devoted himself to the dissemination of the best methods of beauty culture. He is neither an operator nor a manufacturer. He is simply an instructor, imparting whatever special knowledge he may possess, as other teachers and writers upon subjects of interest and value to the public are wont to do. In the present book he has collated the most important information upon Beauty Culture which he has acquired, and presents it in the form of a practical progressive course of instruction, stripped of technicalities, and suited to the needs of both the professional practitioner and the person who is interested in the art for the sake only of herself and members of her family. He holds himself responsible for every process and preparation that he describes and endorses in the book, since he has thoroughly tested their efficacy, some, indeed, being of his own devising.