The Toilet
The Toilet.—Beyond the advice to avoid all cheap scented soaps, the following notes will be useful:—
The Hands.—A little ammonia or borax in the water you wash your hands with, and that water just lukewarm, will keep the skin clean and soft. A little oatmeal mixed with the water will whiten the hands. Many people use glycerine on their hands when they go to bed, wearing gloves to keep the bedding clean; but glycerine does not agree with every one. It makes some skins harsh and red. These people should rub their hands with dry oatmeal and wear gloves in bed. The best preparation for the hands at night is the white of egg with a grain of alum dissolved in it. Quacks have a fancy name for it; but all can make it and spread it over their hands, and the job is done. They also make the Roman toilet paste. It is merely white of egg, barley flour, and honey. They say it was used by the Romans in olden time. Any way, it is a first-rate thing; but it is a sticky sort of stuff to use, and does not do the work any better than oatmeal. The roughest and hardest hands can be made soft and white in a month’s time by doctoring them a little at bed time, and all the tools you need are a nail brush, a bottle of ammonia, a box of powdered borax, and a little fine white sand to rub the stains off, or a cut of lemon, which will do even better. To soften hard water use Maignen’s “anti-calcaire.” If a man works at any mechanical business, or any which involves muscular exertion, the hands will always, do what he may to them, show signs thereof. But some men’s hands show work much more than others. In some the epidermis does not seem to get callous and horny, nor the muscles thicken nor swell much, while in others the least contact with tools makes the hand look as if the owner had worked as a day-labourer all his life. It seems to me that the thinner the skin, the more, as a rule, the hands show the effect of work. The only palliative is working in gloves, but this is a great nuisance. Sandballs or pumice soap will remove horniness. Now, as to the care of the nails. The great beauty of the nails is being long, the “quick” coming close to the extremity of the fingers, and the “half-moon” near the root being as large as possible. The best chance of cultivating these merits is, first, never to touch the quick with a penknife and to press back with a towel, on drying the hands, the skin which grows over the half-moon. This skin ought never to be cut, as that only stimulates and increases its growth. In some, however, it seems to show no tendency to do so. Nothing more than this can be done by art towards obtaining delicate finger nails, which, of course, are a great attraction in either sex; and, as they show personal cleanliness and niceness, are a laudable object of ambition.
Removing a Tight Ring.—A novel method of effecting the removal of a ring which has become constricted around a swollen finger, or in any other similar situation, consists simply in enveloping the afflicted member, after the manner of a circular bandage, in a length of flat indiarubber braid, such as ladies make use of to keep their hats on the top of their heads. This should be accurately applied—beginning, not close to the ring, but at the tip of the finger, and leaving no intervals between the successive turns, so as to exert its elastic force gradually and gently upon the tissues underneath. When the binding is complete, the hand should be held aloft in a vertical position, and in a few minutes the swelling will be perceptibly diminished. The braid is then taken off and immediately applied in the same manner, when, after another 5 minutes, the finger, if again rapidly uncovered, will be small enough for the ring to be removed with ease. This plan need only be resorted to when wetting and soaping the fingers have failed.
The Hair.—Baldness comes chiefly of the artificial determination of blood to the head, and to the heat and perspiration thence arising. The result is a relaxed condition of the scalp and loss of hair. If the skin of the head be kept in a healthy state the hair will not fall off. To keep it healthy, the head-covering should be light and porous, the head kept clean by washings with water, and the hair cut short.
Ladies are often in trouble about their hair between the ages of 17-30. The hair may be unruly; it may come out; the scalp may be at fault, or the fat-glands act improperly. The hair may be too dry, and get brittle; this arises sometimes from the too free use of spirit washes of various kinds, or from dyes. The remedy is plain. The great complaint is that the hair gets thin. If there be any debility present the hair will mostly thin out. In these cases it is as well, for a time at any rate, to keep the hair rather shorter than usual, and to take general tonics. If there be indigestion present this must be remedied; if neuralgia, quinine should be taken. The most troublesome instances of loss of hair follow in the wake of violent attacks of neuralgia of the head, brought on by some mental excitement or depression. In these cases very much may be done by the use internally of remedies that give tone to the nervous system, such as nux vomica, bark, quinine, and steel. After these have done good service, local applications, especially ammonia, are serviceable.
It is a fashion with very many young ladies to wear their hair in different styles, that necessitate frequent variations in its length. This is productive of much harm. At one time nature has to furnish a large, at other times a small crop, and lapses into a state of indifferent weakness in consequence. The one great cause of thinning of the hair is unquestionably general debility. In the majority of such cases 1 teaspoonful tincture of gentian, with about 10 drops diluted hydrochloric acid, should be taken twice a day in a wineglassful of water, and the scalp rubbed with some such as the following lotion night and morning: Distilled vinegar, 2 oz.; tincture of nux vomica, 3 dr.; tincture of capsicum, 7 dr.; otto of roses, 2 drops; and rosewater, 4 oz. It is almost identical with the nux vomica lotion of Corbyn and Co., Bond Street, the very best preparation of its kind.
The heated and crowded rooms at balls and parties are in some cases very injurious to a good state of the hair. The gas acts very hurtfully in those cases in which the hair and the scalp are very dry. The only plan here is to use to the scalp such a simple preventive as the glycerine lotion already recommended.
At no time is general thinning of the hair more marked or more frequent than after confinements, or in mothers who are nursing when in a somewhat debilitated condition. Here general tonics are needed. The following lotion, of a stimulating character, may be employed with great advantage at the same time: Distilled vinegar, 2 oz.; rum, 1 oz.; glycerine 2 dr.; tincture of lytta, 4 dr.; elder-flower water, 4 oz.; or tincture of bark, 4 dr.; cherry-laurel water, 4 oz.; glycerine, 2 dr. It will be seen at once that the treatment of almost all cases of general thinning of the hair is not merely local but constitutional, and that we may pour and besmear tons of the most nutritious liquids and pastes, pomades, and the like upon an unfortunate head without doing much good. It is necessary that the machinery itself be given the power to work healthily and happily, and such power is given from the nutritive organs in the centre of our bodies, and by the vital fluid that flows in our veins and arteries.
As a remedy for dandriff, a French physician recommends that a solution of chloral hydrate, containing 5 per cent., should be applied to the scalp by means of a sponge every morning. The quantity employed should be ½-1 oz. A slight burning sensation and reddening of the scalp occurs, disappearing after 2 minutes. If the hair has fallen off in consequence of the dandriff it will be renewed in about a month.