Q 01/05

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

A) Bloodletting

B) Tooth pulling

C) Bone setting

D) Wound dressing

Answer · why

A) Bloodletting

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 ...

Q 02/05

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

A) Arabic

B) Hindi

C) Persian

D) Turkish

Answer · why

B) Hindi

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 ...

Q 03/05

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

A) Collagen

B) Elastin

C) Chitin

D) Keratin

Answer · why

D) Keratin

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.

Q 04/05

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

A) Sarah Spencer Washington

B) Estée Lauder

C) Madam C. J. Walker

D) Mary Kay Ash

Answer · why

C) Madam C. J. Walker

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 be...

Q 05/05

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

A) Nail

B) Finger

C) Hand

D) Skin

Answer · why

C) Hand

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.