108 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS unless we use all of them on the hair we wish to wave, we cannot be certain what our solutions will do when they meet the actual test in the field. The second problem which we have to face in the future is that of experimentation in electronic radi- ation and electronic heating as Jt can affect the waving of hair. There we have to be extremely careful'because when we work with high-frequency radiation, we are dealing with the brain. Waves have been given by means of electronic radiation, whether it be high fre- quency or otherwise, when the hair was on a wooden block. But I,o personally, would be rather wary of using the same methods on a human being. What will the high fre- quency do to the brain matter? That is something that' will have to be discovered. Also, what would happen if there were a short in the high frequency machine? Shorts in high frequency 'machines have been known to kill instantly anyone Jn contact with them. I want to end this little discussion with a warning--I am now speaking principally and primarily about permanent waving as it is done in the beauty shop field. 'A lot of permanent waves .today are being sold in packages in the drug stores, and it is seriously affecting the business done by beauty shops. We must be careful not to introduce any items in the beauty shop field unless we are absolutely sure of them. Too many hairdressers have had 'to pay by being the guinea pigs of manufacturers' experimentations. They do not like it, and in the proc- ess of this experimentation a lot of ill will is created and women are driven away from beauty shops. Whereas no actual figures are available, it is fairly certain today that no more women get permanent waves,. percentage-wise, than they did ten years ago. They have just been stung too many times and have had their hair ruined too many times. Whether it be the fault of the products or the operat- ors-they do not care. We have a man-size job ahead of us in development work. A-few large companies who, for the past 10 or 15 years, have conscientiously followed careful and progressive experimentation, will suffer if they do not see to it •that certain stand- ards are developed by all the manu- facturers concerned, and it might not be a bad idea if the manufac- turers in the permanent. waving 'field were to establish a scholarship or set up a course in research work at one of our ufiiversities, similar to the research work that has been done for many years by Dr. Speak- man at Leeds University in Eng- land. So far as I know, Leeds is the only university in the world that has done some far-reaching work in the whys and wherefores of permanent waving. I hope that this little talk has given you some idea about the problems of permanent waving. Should you have any questions, I will be glad to answer them.

PERMANENT WAVING OF HUMAN HAIR: COLD PROCESS* THE By RAYMOND E. REED'•, M. DENBESTE, and FRED L. HUMOLLER, PH.D.S Research Division of Raymond Laboratories, oenc., St. Paul, Minn. APPROXIMATELY one-half bil- lion dollars will be spent during the current year by American women for permanent waves, yet the scien- tific literature contains only few and scattered references to chemical and physical studies of the process of permanent waving. To those who are familiar with the subject this is not at all surprising, for it should be realized that permanent waving as an industry is relatively young, and a robustly growing and expanding industry is not particu- larly well suited to provide the equa- nimity and objectivity which are so conducive to fundamental studies. Then, too, in those few laboratories where fundamental studies have been carried out for a number of years, the workers involved are fully aware that they are studying one of the most profound subjects in biological chemistry, the .'chem- istry and physiochemistry of pro- teins. It is, therefore, not at all surprising that they have been quite guarded in publishing and discussing * Presented at the May 13, 1947, Meeting New York City. t Present address, The Toni Company. :1: Present address, University of Nebraska. the results of their studies. Fur- thermore, before much progress can be made in any field of scientific endeavor, tools and quantitative methods for evaluating experimental results must be developed and standardized. In the case of the chemistry of hair waving, few methods have yet found their way into scientific literature, although it can be stated with some degree of confidence that in the near future several will be published. The desire of the human race to alter the natural pattern of the scalp hair is a rather strange phenome- non, for we find that among Euro- peans .and Americans among whom straight hair is the rule, there is a pronounced desire for curly hair, whereas among negroes and others among whom curly hair is prevalent, the desire for straight hair is just as pronounced. It is only since the turn of the century that it has been possible to impart a more or less permanent curl to normally straight hair. Looking back now, we can- not help but admire the courage and ingenuity of Charles Nessler, the pioneer of the process of perma- 109