KEEPING THE HANDS, ARMS AND SHOULDERS YOUNG
If I were to summarize my experience and the advice I wish to give
about the hands in one sentence I would say: “Never let the hands get
cold.” The advice is very comprehensive, and in a sense sufficient.
If you never let your hands grow cold they will be soft and white and
retain their natural shape and size.
For example, the fresh air curists travel the radical road to the point
of keeping their bathrooms cool or cold. That is absurd. The bathroom
should be kept at an unvarying temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
The bather should step from tepid water into surrounding air two or
three degrees warmer. Yet I have seen a famous beauty step from an ice
cold tub of water upon her bath mat and shiveringly towel herself dry
in a bathroom whose window opened for six inches above and below upon a
court where the air was at zero. And she wondered why the skin of her
hands and face were rough and purplish.
Another friend, an athletic beauty, disliked carrying a muff, and
December and January found her swinging along Fifth Avenue, her pretty
hands covered only with a pair of cold, thin, cramping kid gloves. She
called at my atelier and showed me her hands. They were shockingly red
and rough. Both she and my friend of the cold bath room had violated
the first command of the care of the hands: “Always keep them warm.”
For each of them I prescribed first changing their habits. “Always wash
your hands in tepid or hot water,” I said to the first. “Carry your
muff from October to April,” I said to the second. And when they had
promised, I having sternly exacted that essential thing, I set about
removing the ugliness. The first aid was to show them the right way to
wash their hands. Not one person in fifty knows how to wash the hands.
The water should be tepid. If it is what is known as “hard water” it
may be softened with a little borax, say one teaspoonful to a quart of
water. Or, if possible, it would be well to use distilled water, since
borax must be used with discretion.
Then dip into the water a cake of the best soap. A scented soap is not
necessarily a bad soap. So I try various kinds, liking one, but seeking
another that is better. When I have dipped the soap into the water long
enough to make a dainty lather I plunge my hands into it.
Then I dry them, but only partly, upon a soft linen towel. Before the
hands have time to dry, and especially before they have time to chill,
I take from my toilet shelf or medicine chest a bottle of my favorite
hand cleanser. The bottle may be large or small, but the proportions of
the mixture I keep always the same. Here is how it is made:
Hydrated glycerine (glycerine mixed with water), 1 tablespoonful; any
favorite perfume (mine is Italian pink), 3 drops.
Rub the hands thoroughly with this. Rub is not a strong enough word for
the process. It does not suggest the thoroughness of the process. Say
rather, wash your hands in it. Ten minutes is none too long for washing
the hands. Five minutes should be given to the water, five to the
glycerine bath. Then dry thoroughly with a towel. Observe how soft your
hands are after such a bath and you will be surprised and delighted
with this treatment.
[Illustration: ANNA HELD The fascinating beauty of her eyes is famous
the world over.]
I am aware that there is some prejudice against glycerine. Would-be
authorities will rise and say that glycerine burns an exceedingly
delicate skin--that it is an irritant in some cases. So it is. The
person who uses it must be a judge of that herself. It has always
“agreed” with my hands, making them soft and white and supple. But for
those whose hands burn and itch after using it there is this lotion for
occasional, not regular, use, for I am opposed to a too free use of
peroxide of hydrogen:
Peroxide of hydrogen, ¼ wineglass; witch hazel, ¾ wineglass; always
shake well before using.
I should not advise this oftener than three times a week, at most. And
I should vary it with rubbing with olive oil, which is of especial
value to thin hands. A few weeks of using it will result in a
perceptible plumpening of them.
Or, to whiten and soften the hands, this has many advocates, and I see
no objection to its occasional use. Ammonia is too powerful for regular
use:
Olive oil, 1 wineglass; ammonia, 6 drops.
But to assure beautiful hands, and that in the shortest possible time,
massage them with a simple cold cream and wear rubber gloves at night.
But the gloves should be at least two sizes larger than the 5¾ or 6 you
wear in kids, and they should be punctured as freely as the top of a
pepper box. Ventilation is necessary to the health of the hands and of
the owner of the hands.
For a cold cream for the hands for the night toilet I should advise
this mixture:
Spermaceti, 2 ounces; white wax, 1 ounce; almond oil, 2 gills.
There are two pastes that are excellent to be used as a night cosmetic
with gloves:
Rosewater, 6 ounces; honey, 4 ounces; yellow beeswax, 2 ounces; myrrh,
1 ounce.
This can be prepared at home, if you desire. Melt the wax. Stir the
powdered myrrh while hot. Add the honey and rosewater, drop by drop. If
the preparation seems to be a bit too thick to handle comfortably thin
it with a few drops of hydrated glycerine.
Another delightful paste has the following ingredients:
Tincture of benzoin, 2 drams; fresh yolks of eggs, 2 drams; rice flour,
1 dram; rose water, 1 ounce; oil of sweet almonds, 2 drams; glycerine,
1 dram.
This is a home preparation and because of the perishable nature of the
eggs can only be kept for a few days.
Now as to how to massage the hands. For the face a rotary motion, but
for the hands a lengthwise one. I can best describe the massage for
the hands by summoning your imagination. Fancy that you are wearing a
pair of gloves for the first time. That you have accurately fitted the
fingers and that you have now only to see that the glove fits smoothly
upon the back of the hands. You stroke the back of the right hand
gently, but firmly, with the fingers of the left, and the left hand
with the fingers of the right. Do this at least twenty times for each
hand. Then lightly pinch the ends of each finger, pressing the sides of
the fingers between the thumb and second finger.
Some excessively nervous or anæmic persons are annoyed by cold, moist,
clammy hands. This is a remedy that is safe and efficacious:
Tannic acid, 10 grains; tincture of benzoin, ½ ounce; elder flower
water, 3 ounces; rosewater, 6 ounces.
If there is a strong objection to soap, try the liquid sort. If your
objection persists then substitute fine almond meal, a handful for one
cleansing of the hands. Tincture of benzoin is also a good softening
agent for the water, and its odor is refreshing. Four drops to a quart
of tepid water are sufficient.
“How can I have nice, white hands, though I do my own work?” This is
the problem many housewives continually face. By wearing loose gloves
as much as possible about your work. By thoroughly drying your hands
after washing them, or, better still, by washing them again before
they are dried, in:
Glycerine, 1 ounce; lemon juice, 1 ounce.
The beauty of the hands suffers in different ways at different times
of year. In winter the cold winds frequently chap them. For this
disagreeable condition I have used with good results a lotion made as
follows:
Glycerine, 1 ounce; spirits of wine, 1 ounce; violet extract, 1 ounce.
Pour over the hands after washing.
If the chapping has made the hands too sensitive to bear the glycerine
try this:
Oil of almonds, 1 ounce; lime water, 1 fluid ounce; borax, 6 grains.
In summer the hands and arms often suffer as much if not more than the
face from the sun’s burning rays. Here is a lotion which will cool them
and reduce their unlovely redness:
Lemon juice, 1 ounce; strained honey, 1 ounce; cologne, 1 ounce.
If the sunburn results in freckles apply with a small sponge or a bit
of absorbent cotton or a camel’s hair brush the following:
Powdered borax, ½ dram; sugar, ½ dram; lemon juice, 1 ounce.
Here is still another remedy which answers the purpose as well as the
ones just described:
Muriate of ammonia, ⅜ dram; lavender water, 1 ounce; distilled water, 4
ounces.
For a mild case of freckles here is a simple remedy that will often
prove sufficient:
Peroxide of hydrogen, 1 ounce; ammonia, 10 drops. Apply with a camel’s
hair brush.
Of no part of the body is it quite so true that curves are the lines of
beauty as it is of the arms and shoulders. A lovely woman in an evening
gown always reminds me of a beautiful bouquet rising out of a vase.
The woman’s head and shoulders and arms are the flowers, the gown and
the rest of her body the vase. Fancy a bouquet with one fresh, purple
pansy in the center and all about it withered yellow flowers. It is not
a pleasant picture even in fancy, but that is precisely how the woman
with a charming face and unlovely arms and shoulders looks.
Beautiful shoulders must first of all be symmetrical shoulders. They
must be just broad enough to balance finely the figure. If the figure
which they surmount be slender the shoulders also should be slender.
But they should never be thin. For beauty’s sake they must be soft,
not muscular. They must be overlaid with a veiling of firm flesh. They
must slope gently into the lines of the arms and bust and back by
almost imperceptible degrees. While they are plump in front they should
be thin at the back. A roll of flesh between the shoulder blades is
unsightly and gives the appearance of age.
After shapeliness of the shoulders in importance comes whiteness.
Shoulders well cared for should be the whitest part of a woman’s body.
A third important element in the beauty of the shoulders is the texture
of the skin. It should be of satin fineness.
To attain shapely shoulders begin with the chest. The woman with a
high chest always has beautifully shaped shoulders. Form the habit of
breathing deeply. A shop girl in one of New York’s department stores
had so fine a development of chest and shoulders that I asked her how
she achieved it. Her figure was so slender that I knew she must have
built up those shoulders and the chest by some wise system of exercise.
“Yes, haven’t I done fine?” she answered. “Two years ago I was the
scrawniest thing you ever saw. My neck and shoulders looked like a
wood pile that had tumbled over itself. I was all sharp corners. I
heard of this new deep breathing and I tried it. Most of it I did on
the platforms of the “L” trains. Winter and summer I rode downtown
from Harlem to work, and instead of sitting in the car I stood on the
platform. At first it made me tired, but after I got used to it I began
to look forward to feeling the clear, cool air rush through my lungs.
Now it’s the best treat of the day. Maybe I would have got lazy and not
kept it up, but I saw the flesh beginning to pad all the corners of my
neck and shoulders. My chest lost its caved-in look. You just bet that
deep breathing pays.”
Deep breathing does pay. It pays a large dividend in health and beauty.
But next in importance comes massage. Give me an excellent masseuse and
I could dispense with a doctor, except in some tremendous emergency.
Thin shoulders can be plumped and fat shoulders can be reduced by
massage.
If they are thin a light massage, using a rotary movement of the palms
of the hands, applying olive oil copiously, will gradually plumpen
them. If they are fat the massage should be much deeper and more
vigorous. The masseuse should knead as near the bone as possible.
For this massage a cream may be applied to feed the tissues. Here is a
good one:
Oil of sweet almonds, 20 grams; lanolin, 30 grams; tannin, ½ gram.
Yet another cream that is an excellent builder of flesh is this, so
commonly in use in Europe as to be almost a household article:
Lard, 50 grams; alcohol (95 per cent.), 10 grams; oil of rosemary, 6
drops; oil of bergamot or orange, 6 drops.
If the shoulders are fat the massage should be much deeper and more
vigorous. The masseuse should get as near to the bone as possible. She
should use neither oils nor cream, but instead some astringent lotion,
as, for instance, this:
Rosewater, 12 ounces; tincture of benzoin, 1 ounce; tannic acid, 20
grains; elder flower water, 4 ounces.
Shoulders should be white. Normally they are, and if not the general
health should be looked to as a corrective. Are the shoulders yellow?
Probably their owner is bilious and requires a change from a heavy meat
and sweets diet to a lighter one in which cereals and green vegetables
and salads predominate. The system should be irrigated by much
water drinking. Try to remember that the amount of food for a day’s
sustenance has been estimated in the proportion of five parts to seven
parts water. Are her shoulders marred by pimples or acne? Again she
should look to her diet, eating less rich food. A thorough scrubbing of
the shoulders with warm water and pure soap once a day, followed by a
rub-down with alcohol, should be sufficient to keep them prettily white
if the diet is a correct one.
If the shoulders have been tanned or freckled by much sea bathing or
lolling on the burning sands, they will be improved by applications
twice a day of this old-fashioned remedy:
Horseradish root, 1 ounce; borax, 2 drams. Pour over these one pint of
boiling water. Apply with a sponge.
Also apply distilled water and the juice of a lemon or peroxide of
hydrogen, mixed in equal parts.
The effects of a half dozen applications of these should be quickly
apparent.
Arms, like shoulders, must possess symmetry. That is, they must seem to
be of the body, included in the original plan instead of being hastily
added as an afterthought. They must be in perfect proportion. The size
of the arm depends wholly upon the size of the body.
In Paris recently a pretty little Russian, Miss Amelia Rose, won the
prize for having a perfect arm. In Paris, where beauty is the chief
divinity, the awarding of the prize to one not of the French nation
was a momentous matter. Everyone wanted to know the proportions of
the arm. The Russian beauty’s height was five feet five inches. Her
arms conformed to the canons of statuary. The upper arm was one-third
shorter than the forearm. The circumference of the upper arm was
thirteen inches; of the forearm nine inches, and of the wrist six
inches.
The beautiful arm looks as though it were made for ornament, not for
use. No muscle is unduly prominent. It should be as soft and smooth as
white velvet. If the arm is too fat its size can be reduced by massage
with the wringing motion. The masseuse should manipulate the arm
exactly as though she were wringing out clothes before hanging them out
to dry.
To develop the arm there are many exercises. Small dumbbells, weighing
half a pound, can be swung to great advantage. Also to develop at once
the muscles of shoulders and arms this is valuable. Stretch the arms
horizontally from the body until the muscles are tense. Then slowly
raise them above the head, trying to keep the muscles rigid. Clench
the fists and, stretching the arms horizontally at the sides, raise
and lower the arms. This develops the biceps. Clench the fists and
turn them slowly about on the wrists to make the wrists supple. Light
massage with olive oil supplements the exercises.
I know a girl who otherwise had a charming figure, but whose arms were
distressingly thin. It took two years of attention to them to make
those arms attractive, but she succeeded.
The means were a change of diet to more nourishing and muscle-building
food, a half hour twice a day with dumbbells, and daily massage with
cold cream or olive oil. The results were soft, well rounded, pinkly
white arms that charmed everyone who saw them.
An exercise that develops the arms and the back and bust as well is
this: Holding the arms at the sides, inhale deeply. Clench the fists.
Bend the elbows. Bring the fists to the shoulders, moving only the
lower arms. With the fists resting at the shoulders raise the elbows
to a straight line with the shoulders. Move the fists down slowly
until they fit close into the armpits. Move the fists slowly around
to the back, crossing them, and then lowering the arms to their first
position. Keep the muscles tense while so doing. This is a famous
resistance exercise.
If the texture of the skin on the arms is coarse, a dry rub every day
with a soft flesh brush should open the pores, whose long collecting
accretions have made the skin rough. This treatment will make the skin
tender. If it seems sensitive apply a good cold cream every morning and
evening. After the morning application powder may be added. The arms
may be dusted with a pure powder. One of the best cold creams for the
purpose is this:
Oil of sweet almonds, 50 grams; white wax, 10 grams; spermaceti or
sperm oil, 10 grams; rosewater, 20 grams; tincture of benzoin, 5 grams;
tincture of amber, 2 grams.
While reducing her arms, or before she has succeeded in so doing, the
stout woman should not wear sleeves shorter than the elbow length. Her
upper arm is gross and she should veil it until she has reduced it to
lovelier proportions.
To keep my hands smooth and white I wash them à la Cavalieri. First in
soapy water, through many waters until they are spotless as my linen.
Then I dry them, but only partly, by the heat of the hands themselves,
not with a towel. Then I bathe them again in this mixture:
One ounce glycerine; three ounces rosewater; ten drops lemon juice.
This should be well shaken when being mixed, and also every time it is
used.
Cold-roughened hands must be treated with special care at night. That
is the time to give them their complete toilet. It is well for them if
it has not been necessary to wash them often during the day. They must,
of course, be kept clean. But better avoid soiling them during the day
than wash them too often.
Buy a large pair of rubber gloves, at least three or four sizes larger
than the kid gloves you are in the habit of wearing. After washing
the hands in warm water, softened with a few drops of ammonia, say a
half dozen drops to a quart of water, and a good, pure soap, as white
castile or one of the tar soaps, bathe the hands in cooler water and,
before drying them, rub thoroughly over them:
Glycerine, 1 ounce; rosewater, 1 ounce. Then draw on the rubber gloves.
If the hands be much darkened or reddened this will whiten as well as
soften them:
Glycerine, 1 ounce; lemon juice, 1 ounce.
In extreme cases a paste worn for two or three nights under the
rubber gloves will facilitate the work of making the hands once more
presentable. This is a good paste:
Almond meal, 1 ounce; tincture of benzoin, 10 drops; honey, ½ ounce.
In similar fashion when hands have been reddened and blistered by the
sun wear a pair of loose gloves at night, first covering the hands with
this mixture:
Honey, 2 ounces; glycerine, 1 ounce; barley flour, 8 ounces; whites of
two eggs.
Or the following lotion rubbed into the hands well will answer the same
purpose:
Cologne, 2 ounces; lemon juice, 2 ounces; liquid honey, 2 ounces.
Much is asked, and much from time to time answered, about the care of
the arms, yet an attractive arm may be hopelessly marred by an ugly
elbow. Resolve that your arms are only as pretty as your elbows, and
set to work upon them.
First examine them closely and while you examine them keep in mind
the standard for a lovely elbow. To be lovely it should be little in
evidence, so little, in fact, that it seems to be merely an appearing
and disappearing feature--so to speak--a dimple playing peekaboo.
Instead of this what do you probably see? A sharp, bony corner, or a
mass of unsightly wrinkles, in either case darker than the surrounding
flesh. Almost certainly the skin covering it is dark and rough, “a
patch of goose-flesh” a young girl complained when dressing for a dance.
Now what is to be done?
Try first to rid the elbows of their disfiguring redness or darker
color. Rub them every night before retiring with a half grape fruit.
This is better than a lemon because the elbow can settle into it and
work about it. If you place the halves of grape fruit on a table and
rest your elbows in them you can read or chat or meditate and leave the
elbows to their bleaching for an indefinite time. Repeat this every
night until you notice an improvement in their color.
But do not be satisfied with this progress. Scrub the elbows daily with
warm water and a bleaching soap. One of the peroxide soaps would be
useful. Or use castile soap with water, into which you have sprinkled a
few drops of peroxide of hydrogen or of ammonia.
An ingenious girl I know bound slices of lemon on her elbows every
night before going to bed. While this is not as quickly efficacious as
the grape fruit it is cheaper.
When this gradual whitening of the elbows has been accomplished take
the next step in their beautifying, which is smoothing them. If they
are very rough, scrub them with a pumice stone that has been dipped
into warm water. Rub the roughened spots gently with this, and slowly,
lest you irritate the skin. Then apply cold cream or olive oil to
allay even any tendency to irritation. Or if they are only slightly
roughened, rubbing them round and round with fingers that have been
spread with cocoanut oil is enough, if long continued, to soften them.
If the elbows are very sharp massaging the flesh about them with palms
well greased with mutton tallow should in time nourish them into
roundness.