COSMETICS AND COSMETOLOGY IN GENERAL EDUCATION By FLORENCE E. •/VALL, M.A. Consultant, New York WHEN COMPARED with cosmetics, of which the history has been un- broken for about six thousand years, the branch of study called cos- metology, which can boast of only sixty years, is so relatively new that it is still difficult to view it objectively and evaluate it. For all in the industry the specific meaning and connotations of cosmetics as products have been more than adequately defined by law. The scope and implications of cosmetology are not so generally understood, and many in the industry seem to believe that it is quite outside of their particular interests. As it is a vast field through which cosmetic products and accessories reach millions of users, everyone should be at least curious about what goes on and how possibly mutual interests might be served. Cosmetology has been defined variously, from merely "A treatise on dress and bodily cleanliness" (1) to "The art or practice of cosmetic treat- ment of the skin, hair, and nails and professional application of cosmetics" (2). Most broadly, then, the term could cover all use of cosmetic products and treatments by consumers in their personal grooming, but--at least in the United States--cosmetology has come to mean the use of cosmetic products and treatments in beauty salons, and the educational preparation of those that work in them. The terms cosmetology for the work, and cosmetologist as the analogous term for the practitioner, were adopted a few years after the National Hairdressers Association was founded (1921), on the recommendation of C. W. Godefroy of St. Louis, then a vice president of the Association and chairman of its committee on technical terms. They satisfied the long time demand by women shop owners whose training and services not only included but also far exceeded the implications of the old generic term hairdresser (3). The word cosmetology has occasionally been questioned by those in the so-called learned professions, and even by legislators. There it was in the respected dictionaries, however, showing appropriate etymology and venerable ancestry, so it has maintained its legitimacy. It has been 169

170 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS made official by the (now called) National Hairdressers and Cosmetologists Association, in an effort to discourage the use of awkward neologisms. HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL COSMETOLOGY The movement toward formal education for what was first called beauty culture--now cosmetology--in the U.S.A. originated in Chicago. Docu- mentary evidence on all the early claims is either not available or incon- clusive, but it seems to prove that the first real school grew out of a school for barbers. Until late in the 19th century, all the arts in barbering and hairdressing-- that is, shampooing, dyeing, bleaching, shaving and haircutting for men, hairdressing for women and the making of hair pieces for both--could be learned only through a long and arduous period of personal bondage, called apprenticeship, with some established master (4). Almost without exception, the best-known hairdressers of the time were men, born in Europe, and trained by this method. Many of them went regularly to the homes of their patrons, but "hairdressing parlors" were gradually opened in at least all the larger cities throughout the country. Meanwhile, the rapid development of the cosmetic industry was making commercially available all types of products which had formerly been made in the home. Much of the demand for these products had been engendered through the publications of professional beauties (5), the newly-created beauty editors on periodical staffs (6) and others (7), all of which enthusiastically featured beautifying products and treatments for scalp, face and hands. Skilled experts were soon in demand to adminis- ter such treatments correctly, either in or outside of the home. The modern "beauty shoppe" was on its way. At first there was no way of training these operators except by apprentice- ship to some self-appointed authority. It soon became apparent that although the arts of hairdressing could still be learned by long fumbling practice of the what-to-do-and-how-to-do-it, required for the hand- training in all trades, any treatment that calls for the manipulating of bodily structures must be learned correctly at once, and to mechanical skill must be added judgment--the when-to-do-it-and-why, required for the head-training in all professions (4). The practical work, therefore, had to be supplemented by classroom in- struction in anatomy and physiology, some simple dermatology and some physical therapy, for the principles of massage and the use of electrical and mechanical devices. Fundamental also were the knowledge and. practical application of sanitary regulations, "new-fangled ideas," un- heard-of or little heeded, by the established apprentice-trained hairdressers. The first school for barbers was opened late in 1893 by Arthur B. Moler, a practicing barber of Chicago, as a protest against the three years of