Confidential Chats with Girls

by William Lee Howard

The girl who was noted for her fine, soft and smooth skin when she was eight or ten years of age, commences at puberty to have pimples and blackheads on her nose, cheeks and forehead. This being about the time she takes more notice of herself and others around her, these little facial blotches worry her. It is the opening of a new life and much attention is given dress, hair and complexion; to her whole appearance. She brushes and fixes her hair with great care; tries all sorts of experiments. She probably uses the brush of her older sister or one belonging to some of her family, or more frequently it is the common one at school or in the store. She does not intentionally use a dirty brush, nor will she use one which she has the least suspicion has been used by the unclean. But even the brush of her mother or sister carries germs that at this time do much injury to her skin and scalp, because the skin of the forehead is affected by the germs which get to the scalp.

This germ is one which is always to be found in the glands of any person’s scalp or hairy portions of the body. These glands are known as the sebaceous glands. They are the ones which secrete the oily substance that is necessary for the health of the skin and hair. You have enough of the oily substances in your own hair and skin, and it is usually free from germs at this time if you have used only YOUR OWN BRUSH. But the moment you use a brush belonging to some older and full-grown woman you carry to your own scalp these germs. If some of the other germs which are sometimes found upon common brushes get onto your scalp, there is another trouble for you to combat—dandruff. In the first case you simply add oily stuff to your own supply, get over-much of the oil; in the other case, dandruff is piled thick with the fatty material and then comes scalp disease.

This may go on for some time and not noticeably affect you, but it may cause in a few weeks a certain form of eczema about the forehead and even the face. This is a very important matter for all girls and young women to remember. I have shown you that on the approach and for some time after puberty, all the tiny glands of the skin are enlarged and very active, so you can now see that there are hundreds of thousands of little holes for the germs to get into, and they do so from the brushes you are in the habit of using—that is, most of you. When these germs have located themselves upon the scalp, they soon commence to show the fact by giving you a muddy complexion. Sometimes you will be accused of not thoroughly washing your face, so marked is the line around your forehead and neck made by the attack of these germs. When the openings of the glands begin to gape, the effect is not agreeable to you nor to your friends.

The pimples commence to irritate you on account of the increase of the oily substance, and soon you see that little creamy spot, then you or a misguided friend will squeeze it out. Often before this harmful procedure is gone through with, a formation of a little cocoon-like body is formed and then you have blackheads. This is not all dirt as is generally supposed, but a little cylinder filled with fatty stuff, water and some dirt from the skin. If these blackheads keep coming and if you go on squeezing them, if you insist upon covering the pimples with powder or lotion, a real skin disease will be the result. This skin disease we call acne, and it is a difficult and trying one to cure. Never mind all those fetching advertisements in the papers which claim to cure acne in a few applications. Don’t touch such harmful stuff. All these advertised lotions simply COVER UP the symptoms of the disease, drive it further into the skin, and when you finally have to go to a reputable doctor, too much harm has been done for him to save you from being marked for life. Never trifle with advertised cures, go to a well-known doctor, or if you cannot afford to pay a specialist’s price, seek one at the outdoor clinics. There you will receive the same kind and careful treatment you would if you went to his office in an automobile of your own.

What are we to do to keep from having all these disagreeable pimples and their after-effects? Prevent them. You understand; not cure, but prevention; for I want to put you all in a position to keep from having any trouble which needs a CURE in the medical sense.

The first thing to do is to look out for your scalp as soon as you recognize the approach of puberty and for ever after. I do not mean that even a little girl should ever have her scalp neglected, but that you must, as soon as your menstrual time comes, NEVER use any other brush than your own and this must be a new one. No matter how old you are, get a new brush every few months and guard it as you would your jewels or your most precious gift. You should consider a brush for the hair as sacred as the one for your teeth. You surely would not think of brushing your teeth with any old toothbrush which happened to come along; neither should you use any other hairbrush but your own.

And all this is such a simple matter, for whatever you do, wherever you go, whether you attend school, work in an office or store, you can easily carry with you your own hairbrush as you do your own toothbrush. Of course the same rule applies to comb, soap and towel.

The habit some girls have of brushing and combing each other’s hair is all very well if only your brush is used upon your hair, and only upon your hair. As a rule girls take one brush and go over each other’s scalps, thereby contaminating all the scalps; carrying oily matter from head to head. The scalp of a blonde-haired girl is not kept in good condition by the same quality or amount of secretions that a brunette requires; a woman’s scalp that has been neglected will carry to a young woman’s sensitive skin germs which will affect her scalp and complexion, but would not probably affect a middle-aged person. So let no person use your brush and allow no other person’s brush used upon you.

The habit of promiscuously kissing each other that some girls at this age of puberty so often have, is a dangerous habit, because you may have placed upon your lips some of the germs which cause pimples, and then comes trouble again. Anyway, a girl is too young to be kissed and not old enough to kiss—without danger to herself.

There are many, many more little things which cause a poor complexion in the girl and grown woman. First of all is that curse of American girls and women—constipation—the result of our false and injurious prudery. I warned you we should have to refer to it again and again, for it is a condition that enters into the cause of many women’s illnesses, indispositions, tumors, open sores, headaches and other avoidable troubles.