KEEP YOUNG
A beautiful woman, who combines in her person a greater number of charms than do most fascinating women, gives her formula for keeping young and handsome in spite of a life of constant study, hard work, and comparatively no play: “Vigilance and determination and perhaps a little self-sacrifice are the price I pay for being considered a good-looking woman,” she says.
Remember, this beauty can act and is entitled to be called a star of the first magnitude. “I am ever on the alert and when I discover traces of fatigue or any destroying symptoms, I set about at once to eradicate them. During the theatrical season I don’t attempt to be anything but a professional woman. I don’t receive, nor do I go to other people’s houses. I simply haven’t the time and I don’t make it.
“My mode of life is very simple. As a rule I sleep nine or ten hours out of the twenty-four, never less than eight. I eat regularly and avoid everything that will give me indigestion. You know that indigestion is one of beauty’s most powerful foes, a greater enemy than age, as great even as worry.
“I walk every day, rain or shine, wear a short skirt and low-heeled shoes. I keep the French heels for the stage. I try not to worry, no matter what happens, and never tire myself unnecessarily. My method has no frills or isms; perhaps few women would care to try it. As Turkish baths agree with me, I am devoted to them, and I consider a good complexion cream as important, almost, as cold water.”
On Sunday, she explained, she was not obliged to go to the theatre. “Yet I do not spend that day in idleness nor in receiving visitors. When one’s hair is five feet long and very thick, it is not an easy task to have it shampooed, so I am almost ashamed to confess the entire day is quite given over to self-preservation.
“How do I keep the same weight all the time? Why, by vigilance, determination, and a good pair of scales frequently consulted. If I gain a pound I immediately stop drinking at meals and give up sugar and sweets absolutely. Yes, even water is tabooed. This all sounds very simple, but, of course, it precludes much pleasure and relaxation.”
There, mesdames, you have the beauty régime of a woman who always pleases her public and who possesses the love and admiration of countless friends. She is no longer in her girlhood, yet gives not the faintest indication of maturity. Her figure is slender and svelte, a succession of soft curves, with not a bone to disfigure its surface. Her skin is fresh and pink as a small child’s and her hair shows vigorous health.
While all women may not be beautiful, cleanliness and fine grooming and an ordinary amount of exercise will render them most attractive. Stout women should bathe oftener than lean ones, but let them avoid the use of hot water; it has a tendency to produce headache with the full-blooded individual. Always follow a warm bath with a dash of cold water—it contracts the pores and inspires circulation. For persons with weak nerves, sponging is better than tubbing or the shock of the shower. Cold water must be used with judgment.
A hot foot bath accompanied by vigorous rubbing is often beneficial in cases of insomnia. In bathing be careful to “go beneath the upper layer of the skin, get down to the underlying tissues,” and give them the benefit of the friction. The mere exercise attendant upon rubbing the body is salutary and helps in a great measure to keep circulation at top notch.
Laxity or downright laziness in home bathing is one of the sins of the age, though one may not deny that this century is the apotheosis of cleanliness as compared to the methods adopted by the beauties of long ago. A flick of the wash rag constituted their daily ablution, and the weekly bath was looked upon as a function.
Lean persons should be wary of the Turkish bath, while the victim of corpulency must avoid the Russian. The Roman bath, in reality an oil bath, is productive of flesh, therefore beneficial to badly nourished bodies. Bathing should never be indulged in directly after eating and never carried to the point of over-exertion.
After a fatiguing day a woman can do nothing which will more quickly restore tone to throbbing nerves, rob strained, tense muscles of their aching weariness, and refit her for the duties of housekeeper and hostess, than to take some kind of aromatic bath or to follow the ordinary warm bath by spraying the whole body with eau de cologne.
If the head aches, bathe the face in hot, perfumed water, do it slowly, rubbing the forehead and temples in a rotary motion and let the hot cloth linger behind the ears and on the nape of the neck. This treatment will do as much for you as an hour’s sleep.
A salt rub is also a tonic and should be taken in the morning, after a tepid bath; take a handful of damp sea salt and rub it vigorously upon the body. Follow this with a rapid sponging of the stinging spray.
Oatmeal bags are pleasant and easily prepared. At home you can make a dozen for the price of one. They whiten the skin and give it a velvety softness, besides imparting a delicate fragrance.
Make the bags of cheesecloth, about four inches square, and fill them loosely with the following mixture: Five pounds of oatmeal, one pound of powdered Florentine orris, one pound of almond meal and half a pound of pure castile soap scraped to a powder. One bag will be sufficient for a bath.