What Dress Makes of Us | Page 4

crown of her head, and makes them appear to be set lower than they really are by building her hair high, and by brushing her bang back so severely from her brow. A bald forehead is rarely becoming to any woman. A few stray curls or soft waves lend grace to even the most perfect of brows.
[Illustration: NO. 11]
By bringing the hair down over the forehead, as suggested in No. 11, a woman with this type of face can easily improve her appearance. By this graceful arrangement her face loses the childish and sometimes stupid expression that is peculiar to the type, as may be discerned in No. 10. When the hair is properly arranged this element of childlikeness lends a certain appealing sweetness not unattractive even in the faces of matured matrons. By dressing the hair low so the coil does not appear above the crown, as in No. 11, the eyes are apparently properly placed.
For Long Faces with Long Noses.
The woman who wears her silken tresses arranged on either side of her head, draped like curtains from a central parting, is to be envied if she can do it and yet look young and pretty. She is the Madonna type and seems to possess all the attributes of gentleness, modesty, and meekness, and angelic sweetness that are supposed to characterize the distinctively feminine woman. This is the ideal style of coiffure much bepraised by man, because, according to a bright modern Amazon, "it makes a woman look so meek."
[Illustration: NO. 12]
The only type to which it is really becoming is the Italian. The type with matte complexion, soft eyes, finely chiselled nose, and delicately oval chin, look ideally sweet and feminine with the hair arranged _�� la_ Madonna.
[Illustration: NO. 13]
Long faces of the form pictured by No. 12 exaggerate the longness and leanness of their faces by wearing their locks like looped curtains. A long nose with two long lines on either side of the cheek seems longer than it is, as the observer may discern three lines instead of only the nasal one, and the impression of longness is emphasized. Not only is the length of the countenance made more noticeable, but years and years are apparently added to the actual age.
That No. 13, which shows a parting and soft waves that do not come below the ears, is to be preferred by a woman whose features are of this character need hardly be explained. The improvement in looks is quite obvious.
[Illustration: NOS. 14 AND 15]
No. 14 is an example of a misguided woman of the pudgy type who, for some inexplicable reason, arranges her hair in the Madonna style. It is utterly unsuited to her face. Unless her ears are deformed this style of hirsute lambrequins should not be worn by a full, round-faced woman. The arrangement sketched in No 15 adds effectively to her appearance, not only making her look younger, but less inane.
[Illustration: NO. 16]
For Faces with Protruding Noses.
Women with decidedly protruding, or irregular, tip-tilted noses should be especially careful in arranging their coiffures.
Any woman who arranges her hair as in sketch No. 16 caricatures her facial defects by increasing the too protuberant lines of her nose. The distance from the end of her nose and the tip of the topmost knot of hair is too long for either beauty or intelligence. The shape of her head acquires idiotic proportions, and her nose is placed entirely "out of drawing" and is obtrusively conspicuous when seen in profile. This type of woman is generally classified among the inquisitive, bright, and energetic. She should aim to modify the unhappy angularity of her profile as well as to repress her gossipy tendencies. The graduated coil of hair and waved coiffure, shown by No. 17, are most felicitous in their effect on this type of face.
[Illustration: NO. 17]
[Illustration: NO. 18]
No. 18 reveals an error in an opposite direction. The snubbed-nose girl, by fixing her hair in a bun-like coil, gives the impression that her coiffure is held by invisible strings by her nose, which gets a more elevated look than it otherwise would have, because of the bad angle at which the coil is placed.
[Illustration: NO. 19]
No. 19, which is a picturesque variation of the popular coif, manifestly improves this type of face, and makes the nose appear less obtrusive.
A woman should carefully study the contour of her head from every side; the modelling of her face; the length and inclination of her nose; the setting of her eyes; and the breadth and form of her brow, and adopt a becoming coiffure that will give artistic balance to her face, and never absolutely change the style whatever the mode in hair-dressing may be. In England, the court hair-dresser years ago studied the character of the head and face