Women of the Gibson Girl era put a lot of effort into their hair -- and no surprise, because not only did they lack many of the modern conveniences which we now can use to easily beautify the tresses, but also in a time when use of makeup and cosmetics was so discouraged, hair was second perhaps only to clothes in importance for making one's self attractive (maybe even moreso -- even a poor woman who couldn't afford fancy gowns could still have beautiful hair under the right conditions.)
Many tips were handed out for growing the long hair every woman desired. Most of them were similar to the advice you'd hear now: brush and comb the hair carefully to avoid breakage, and keep hair moisturized and conditioned to promote strength. Interestingly, the old time beauties also seemed to assume hair grew something similar to the branches of a plant: they believed occasional trimming would help promote new growth, just like pruning a tree tends to encourage new growth of healthy leaves and flowers.
Some took this superstition a step farther, and believed that cutting one's hair according to moon phases would produce or restrict new growth. For lengthening the hair, it was said, one should cut hair while the moon was in the waxing phase or on the full moon. If one wished to discourage growth (as for bangs) then it should be cut in the waning phase or on the dark moon. Another superstition was that if you would throw the hair clippings out in a place where they would keep moist, this would also produce a type of sympathetic magic on your scalp which would make it grow the hair more quickly (again, like a plant grows better in damp soil.) However, it was warned to never burn your cast-off hair or else you'd destroy the growth completely!
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