PART V.
THE HAIR.
It is often a great consolation to a girl who has but a plain face to possess a fine head of hair. One can understand how annoyed she must feel when her hair starts combing out in handfuls, and she sees her one good possession getting less and less every day.
There are very many causes why the hair should comb out, and as it is absolutely necessary to know which cause is at work before attempting to cure it, we will discuss briefly the chief causes that are common.
Undoubtedly the gravity of hair combing out is greatly exaggerated. If you comb out a few hairs every morning and save up the several combings to see how much hair you lose in the month, you will be surprised and annoyed at the result. Many girls do this and fancy that there is something wrong with the hair and that they are going bald.
It is natural for the hair to comb out. The life of a hair is of very varying duration, but it only lives a certain time. At the expiration of this time it dies, and a new hair springs from the same root. If it were not for this, what do you think would be the state of the hair at fifty?
Now let us look at the causes of the hair falling out excessively and the resulting condition—baldness.
When the health is disturbed, the hair often falls more rapidly than before. After severe illnesses it is not uncommon for the hair to fall out wholesale, often producing absolute baldness. In both these cases the hair almost invariably comes back as strong as before when the health has returned.
In men, age is a cause of baldness, and there is no reason to think that this cause acts less powerfully in the fair sex. Absolute baldness is not common in women, but their hair gets thinner and shorter after they have passed the meridian.
The fashion of tying the hair with a ribbon or fillet will cause the hair to fall out by compressing it and therefore interfering with its nutrition. If you remove the fillet occasionally, it will do no harm to the hair. Curling the fringe with hot tongs is a very common cause of bald foreheads. If the tongs are used properly, that is, if they are not overheated, they will do little or no damage to the hair. But usually women curl their hair with tongs that are nearly red-hot, thereby singeing and killing the hair, which consequently falls out, and in the end leaves the forehead bare.
The commonest causes (and fortunately the easiest to remedy) of the hair falling out are affections of the scalp.
Dandruff, scurf or seborrhœa, as it is better named, is a condition of the scalp in which the sebaceous glands, which secrete the oil which lubricates the hair, are out of gear. They secrete too much oil of a very inferior quality. The hair loses its lustre, becomes brittle, usually dark in colour, breaks, falls out, and becomes covered with scurf. What this is exactly due to is not known. It is probably the result of a microbe. It usually becomes manifest about the age of thirteen or thereabouts, and may exist throughout life. It can hardly be called a disease, but if neglected may lead to the various forms of eczema that attack the scalp. The treatment for this condition is to wash the hair about once a week with the following lotion: Borax, one tablespoonful; carbonate of soda, one teaspoonful; glycerine, two tablespoonfuls, and water to the quart. After washing and drying the head well, rub into the scalp a very little sulphur ointment.
Often a girl will come complaining that her hair falls out from one part of her head, leaving a bald patch. This is called "alopœcia." Of its cause nothing is known. It is very common in girls when about fifteen years old, but it may occur at any age. The hair always grows again on the bald places, but it may not do so for a year or more. Painting the bald spot with a tincture of iodine is as good as anything, but it is Nature, and not drugs, that cures the affection.
The colour of the hair is extremely variable, and not uncommonly it changes from one colour to another in a very short time. The hair, like every other coloured organ in the body, obtains its colour from the iron in the blood. One would therefore think that taking iron or improving the circulation would darken the hair. It will not do so. In anæmia, where the iron in the blood is very deficient, the hair remains unaltered!
Severe emotion or sorrow will cause the hair to fade. Why it should do so we do not know, any more than why Father Time should meddle with it.
The only way in which the colour of the hair can be altered voluntarily is by external applications. No hair dye is really satisfactory, and most of them are dangerous. The hair will, however, sometimes change its colour completely without any external help.
The hair may lose its lustre from many causes. Dandruff is the commonest cause of this, but a very fertile factor in the causation of brittle lustreless hair is the constant employment of pomatums and greases to the hair. Nature supplies you with hair-oil of first-class quality. Every hair has two glands to secrete this oil (sebum). If you use an artificial grease (which can only be of a tenth-rate quality when compared with the natural substance), do you suppose the glands will go on working for nothing when the fruits of their labours are despised? Not they. They will strike work at once, and though they will resume their function if the external application is discontinued, it is better not to interfere with them at all. Girls with their long hair, however, need some form of application to keep the hair clean and glossy, and there is no objection to their using a really good substance, if they apply it to the hair itself and not to the scalp. You should never apply anything in the way of oil, grease, or pomatum to the roots of the hair, if it is healthy.
The applications of most value for the hair are the following:—
1. Brilliantine.—This is a pleasant emulsion, and it is very useful when the hair shows a tendency to fall out.
2. Bay Rum.—Occasionally I have seen this do good to the hair. Usually, however, it is better avoided.
3. Applications containing Cantharides are supposed to promote the growth of the hair. Possibly they do, but the action is not due to the Cantharides.
4. Rosemary is a nice clean preparation for the hair, and there are many good lotions containing this drug.
5. Marrow fat, Bear's grease, etc.—The solid fats are much used, and if you do not object to their messiness, they are not without merit.
6. Petroleum jelly, vaseline, etc.—These are simple, non-irritating, more or less inert substances, which may be applied to the ends of the hairs when a simple lubricant is necessary.
ANGELIE.
[ANGELIE.]
By WILLIAM T. SAWARD.
There are clouds on the mountain's brow, Angelie!
And our soft blue skies are frowning now, Angelie!
O say it is well in that far-off land,
Where the mountains rise from the sea-girt strand;
Our daily prayers are to Heaven for thee, Angelie!
We listen for thee at the morning prime, Angelie!
With the Matin-bell and its holy chime, Angelie!
And at night, under Heaven's blue canopy,
When the angels have lighted their tapers for thee,
A silver voice comes over the sea,
"It is well, it is well, with your Angelie!"
O the clouds may cover the mountain's brow, Angelie!
And hide their wreaths of eternal snow, Angelie!
And the fiend of the storm may shriek at will,
And the lightning leap from hill to hill,
For the night is past and I come to thee,
My bride, my beautiful Angelie!
["SISTER WARWICK": A STORY OF INFLUENCE.]
By H. MARY WILSON, Author of "In Warwick Ward," "In Monmouth Ward," "Miss Elsie," etc.