526. To know whether Hair Powder is adulterated with Lime.—Put a little crude sal-ammoniac, in powder, to the suspected hair powder, and add a little warm water to the mixture, and stir it about; if the powder has been adulterated with lime, a strong smell of volatile alkali will arise from this mixture.
527. To perfume Hair Powder.—Take one drachm of musk, four ounces of lavender blossoms, one and a half drachm of civet, and half a drachm of ambergris; pound the whole together, and pass it through a sieve. Preserve this mixture in well-stopped bottles, and add more or less thereof, as agreeable, in your hair powder.
528. To improve the Hair.—Powdered hartshorn, mixed with oil, being rubbed upon the head of persons who have lost their hair, will cause it to grow again. A very good oil for the hair is made by mixing one part of the liquid hartshorn with nine parts of pure castor-oil.
529. An economical Hair Wash.—Dissolve in one quart of boiling water one ounce of borax and half an ounce of camphor; these ingredients fine. When cool, the solution will be ready for use. Damp the hair with it frequently. This wash not only cleanses and beautifies, but strengthens the hair, preserves the color, and prevents baldness.
530. To remove Superfluous Hair.—This is very difficult, for if you pull the hair out by the roots from those places which it disfigures, there are thousands of roots ready to start through the skin the moment you make room for them. Old authors recommend depilatories in great variety. The principal of these methods consist in rubbing upon the part from which the hair is to be removed, leaven, parsley water, juice of acacia, the gum of ivy or of the cherry-tree, dissolved in spirits of wine, &c. Madame Elisi Voiart, in her "Encyclopédie des Dames," recommends a few drops of dulcified spirit of salt, (that is, muriatic acid distilled with rectified spirits of wine,) to be applied with a camel hair pencil.