40 Fun Facts About Cosmetology

Which service once performed by barber-surgeons does the red stripe on a barber's pole represent?

Bloodletting was once a barber's job, and the red stripe advertised it. The pole itself stands for the staff a patient gripped to encourage the blood to flow.

From which language did English borrow the word shampoo, which first described a kneading massage?

Hindi supplied the word in the 1700s, from a verb meaning to press or knead. Indian entrepreneur Dean Mahomed later opened England's first commercial shampooing bath in Brighton.

Which tough protein makes up human hair and nails as well as the horns of cattle and rhinos?

Keratin also builds feathers, claws, hooves and the outer layer of skin. That means a haircut, a manicure and a facial all work on the same material.

Which hair-care pioneer does Guinness record as America's first self-made woman millionaire?

Madam C. J. Walker was a laundress who sold her scalp treatments door to door before building a factory and a beauty school. Several thousand women became her sales agents.

The word manicure joins the Latin for care with the Latin name of which part of the body?

Hand in Latin is manus and care is cura, which French joined as manucure. Pedicure follows the same pattern with pes, the Latin word for foot.

Which color of shampoo do bleached blondes use to counteract brassy yellow undertones in their hair?

Purple shampoo leaves a trace of violet pigment behind. On the traditional color wheel purple sits directly across from yellow, so the two cancel each other out.

Which short haircut did dancer Irene Castle help bring to America before 1920s flappers adopted it?

The bob was a shocking statement of independence when film stars such as Louise Brooks wore it. By the mid-1920s it was the dominant women's hairstyle in the Western world.

What was the day job of Fred Slack, who invented the acrylic nail after cutting his own at work?

Dentist Fred Slack patched his thumbnail with dental acrylic resin and aluminum foil. He and his brother Tom then patented an improved version and started a company called Patti Nails.

Despite its name, the contagious scalp condition ringworm is caused by which type of organism?

A fungus causes scalp ringworm, which textbooks call tinea capitis. It passes between people, animals and objects that carry it, and it can leave itchy bald patches behind.

Which pigment, made in black-brown and red-yellow forms, gives human hair its natural color?

Melanin fades with age, and gray hair holds no gray pigment at all. The clear strands only look gray or white because of the way light reflects from them.

What is the name of the pale half-moon at the base of a fingernail, most visible on the thumb?

Lunula means small moon in Latin. It looks white because of the way light reflects at the point where the nail's growing tissue meets the nail bed.

Which skin layer marks the limit of a licensed esthetician's general scope of practice?

Epidermis is as deep as an esthetician's general scope goes, which is why facials, light chemical peels and microdermabrasion all work on the surface of the skin.

Which middle layer of a hair, beneath the shingle-like cuticle, provides most of its strength?

Cortex cells also hold the granules that give hair its color, which is why permanent dye has to get past the overlapping outer scales to reach them.

Which phase of the hair cycle is the active growing stage that most follicles are in at any time?

Anagen takes its name from the Greek prefix for up. The cycle then moves into a short regressing phase and a resting phase before the old hair is shed.

Which chemical bonds in hair are broken by one lotion and rebuilt by a second to lock in new curls?

Disulfide bonds give hair its elasticity. Because the second lotion closes them while the hair is still wrapped, each strand keeps the shape of its rod.

Which skin reaction appears when the tiny arrector pili muscle on each hair follicle contracts?

Goosebumps matter more to furry animals, whose raised hairs trap an insulating layer of air and make them look larger to an enemy.

Which secretion do glands in the hair follicles release to lubricate skin and hair?

Sebum is Latin for fat or tallow. The glands that make it are densest on the face and scalp, and the only skin without them is on the palms and the soles of the feet.

Where does healthy skin's surface, protected by a thin film of sweat and oil, sit on the pH scale?

Slightly acidic is the healthy state, with a surface pH between about 4.5 and 6.5. The film is called the acid mantle, and it works as a barrier against germs.

Which tiny parasites infest the scalp in the condition known medically as pediculosis capitis?

Head lice are confirmed only by finding a live one. Empty eggshells, known as nits, are not enough for a diagnosis, and dandruff or dried hairspray is often mistaken for them.

Which pungent ingredient in permanent hair color opens the cuticle so that dye can get inside?

Ammonia does the opening, and a developer does the rest. Demi-permanent colors swap it for gentler alkaline agents, so they barely lighten the hair's natural shade.

Which caustic chemical, also used to make soap and clear drains, powers traditional hair relaxers?

Sodium hydroxide, better known as lye, makes the hair fiber swell open so that its natural curls loosen. Left on too long, it can give the scalp severe chemical burns.

Which solvent in most nail polish removers is also produced naturally by the human body?

Acetone can also take off artificial nails made of acrylic or cured gel. Gel polish is tougher than ordinary polish and needs a soak of five to fifteen minutes.

Which kind of light hardens gel nail polish under a salon lamp?

Ultraviolet light is needed because gel polish never dries by itself. Once the lamp has cured it, the color can last as long as two weeks without chipping.

Which blue disinfectant, invented by Maurice King, soaks combs and shears in jars at salons?

Barbicide dates from 1947. Fifty years later its makers gave a jar, with combs and scissors inside, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Which highlighting technique, painted freely onto the hair, is named from the French for sweeping?

Balayage is done on clean, styled hair, and the results are subtle. That is why it looks more natural than foiled or chunky highlights.

Which hair-removal method from India and Iran plucks eyebrow hairs with a twisted loop of cotton?

Threading can remove a short row of hairs at once, where tweezers pull them out one at a time. Fans say it shapes brows more precisely than wax and is gentler on the skin.

Which hair-removal method was first reported in 1875 by an eye doctor removing ingrown eyelashes?

Electrolysis removes hair permanently, which is more than a laser may claim. US regulators allow laser treatments to promise only a reduction in hair growth.

Which medical term for hair loss or baldness comes from the ancient Greek word for a fox?

Alopecia may recall foxes that lost fur to mange, or simply the way a fox sheds its coat twice a year. One form, alopecia areata, is an autoimmune condition.

What is the everyday name for an open comedo, a clogged pore whose tip is exposed to the air?

Blackhead color comes from oxidation, not from dirt or poor hygiene. Squeezing one may clear it, but it can also damage the skin.

Which London hairdresser was flown to Hollywood to cut Mia Farrow's hair for Rosemary's Baby?

Vidal Sassoon made his name with sharp geometric cuts such as the five-point, worn by designer Mary Quant. He had spent seven years of his childhood in an orphanage.

Which mistress of King Louis XV gave her name to the swept-up hairstyle later worn by Elvis Presley?

Madame de Pompadour never wore the style that carries her name. In her day hair was worn low and swept back, and nobody called it a pompadour.

Which 1960s hairstyle, nicknamed the B-52, did Chicago stylist Margaret Vinci Heldt create?

The beehive owes its name to a hat pin. Heldt finished her design with a bee-shaped pin, and a magazine reporter said the whole thing looked just like a hive.

Which salon service did Karl Nessler invent with an electric machine that heated hair on rods?

A permanent wave was hard won: Nessler's first two attempts burned off his partner Katharina's hair. The finished process used about twelve brass rollers and took six hours.

Which heated tool is used for marcelling, the 1870s styling technique credited to Marcel Grateau?

Curling tongs were heated to press the shape in. Marcel went on to patent his own curling iron in the United States in 1905, and an electric version followed in 1918.

Which inventor of a traffic signal and a smoke hood also sold an early hair-straightening cream?

Garrett Morgan hit on his formula while experimenting with a liquid for polishing sewing machine needles. He found that it worked on a neighbor's dog and on his own hair.

Which common hair problem, caused by heat and mechanical stress, is formally called trichoptilosis?

Split ends take their formal name from words for hair and feathers. In the type called a feather split, the tip really does splay out into many strands.

Which light massage stroke, used to begin and end a session, has a French name meaning to skim?

Effleurage warms up the muscles before any deeper work begins, and it also serves as the linking move between one stroke and the next.

Which fine, short body hair is nicknamed peach fuzz and takes its name from the Latin for fleece?

Vellus hair is easiest to see on children and women. At puberty, hormones turn much of it into the more visible terminal hair.

Which structure at a hair follicle's base is made mainly of connective tissue and a capillary loop?

Dermal papilla size and shape help decide how a person's hair looks and feels. When a hair stops growing, it is cut off from this blood supply and later shed.

Which salon hair-care brand did the creator of the Jheri curl co-found with Paula Kent?

Redken blends the surnames of its founders, Jheri Redding and Paula Kent. It sold itself on a scientific approach to beauty and brought protein reconditioning into the salon.