DUTIES EVERY WOMAN OWES TO HER HAIR
It is Monday, and I note that my hair does not respond readily to the
brush; that it lies lifeless under my fingers; that instead of being a
live, bushy, glowing mass, it has diminished to a wisp scarcely larger
than my two fingers. It is as though some witch in a rage had plucked
it, hair by hair, from my head as I slept.
But that has happened too often to give me alarm. Once I wept over it.
I thought that I was to become as the shiny-headed men that sit in the
first rows of the opera and stare and stare. But that was long ago.
Now I know when my hair shows these symptoms that it is dead, but only
temporarily, and that with care I can resurrect it, make it live again.
With this lifeless condition of the hair I have always found two
corresponding conditions of the scalp. The scalp is hot and dry.
Also, the brushing reveals dandruff--light, fine and profuse. It is a
condition that must be corrected.
First remove the dandruff. Hair cannot thrive when that fine, light
powder lies upon the scalp, obstructing its pores. To rid one’s self of
it the hair must be washed, not once but often. I resolve upon washing
it every day for a week. I choose the time when I have had my bath. In
the water I have dissolved half a cake of the best soap I can get. If
upon analysis it is proven to be made of spermaceti all the better. I
always have a new soap analyzed, as I do a new cold cream.
I part my hair, and, dipping a small brush the size of an ordinary
toothbrush into the water, rub the parting vigorously. I part it again,
and rub that parting, and the next, and the next, scrubbing it, as you
say in this country, strenuously with the brush dipped in soapy water.
When this has been done I empty the bowl, and in a second water, in
which the other half of the cake of soap is dissolved, I wash the hair
again, but this time rub the scalp, not with the brush, but with my
fingers. Then again and again and again, until the water is as clean as
when it runs from the faucet, I rinse the hair.
Now comes the problem of drying it. The hair that is dried in the hot
funnel becomes brittle and cracks. If it is dried by draughts of cold
air its owner contracts neuralgia. It should be dried first by a brisk
toweling. The towel should be rubbed quickly through the hair and upon
the scalp, taking the first dripping stage of moisture from each of
them. The rest of the drying should be done by the heat of the hands.
With the tips of the fingers every bit of space on the scalp should be
rubbed until dry.
As the scalp dries the hair dries, too. Last, that the hair may not
hang together in matted strands, but stand fluffily, each hair for
itself, there should be the last stage of the drying. This is the
rubbing of the hair, strand by strand, between the hands. Even this one
shampoo will prove that the hair that seemed to be dead is, after all,
very much alive.
After the drying the hair should, of course, be brushed--adequately
brushed. But there are curious ideas among women in this country as to
what is adequate brushing. American friends of mine give the hair one
hundred, even two hundred, strokes. I think this is too many. Excessive
brushing drags upon the hair and loosens its roots. Forty strokes of
the brush I believe to be quite enough. Less brushing, more massaging,
is what is needed by all heads, especially the heads on which the hair
is thinning.
After the forty strokes of the brush there should be massage. Dry
massage always. If you begin with dry fingers you will find that your
fingers soon become oily. The sebaceous glands yield their contents
quickly to the pressure of fingers, and the released oil softens the
hair and sets the tide of growth pouring into it.
It is well at this time to give the hair a sun and air bath. The hair
is precious, a splendid frame for the face, and you can afford to give
much time to saving it. Sit or stand near an open window. Let the
sunshine pour its tonic into your hair. Let the air sweep through and
about it. It will respond to the treatment as an invalid to his first
drive after a long illness.
Let the hair rest as much as possible. Decline invitations, or, if you
have accepted them, cancel the engagements. You can dispense with a few
perfunctory meetings and greetings, a cup or two of tea, rather than
with so important a part of your beauty as shining, healthful hair.
Remain in your boudoir, with your hair loosened and hanging. When it is
necessary to be visible to the world wear it in a somewhat different
way, and use fewer hairpins.
On Tuesday I would use a different and more stimulating shampoo:
Pure liquid soap, 100 grams; carbonate of potassium, 20 grams;
distilled water, 2 liters. These should be boiled until the soap is
dissolved, then let cool. When cool add from 200 to 500 grains of
tincture of vanilla or other favorite perfume.
A handful of this shampoo in a bowl of warm water will cleanse the
hair of any dust it may have accumulated since Monday. The hair is now
thoroughly clean. The next step is to stimulate it. For this purpose
use the camomile mixture, made as follows:
Two handfuls of camomile; two quarts of water. Boil until the mixture
is as black as after-dinner coffee. Usually fifteen minutes are quite
enough. Pour it into two more quarts of cold water and place in a
gallon jar.
Massage the scalp with it after the shampoo. This is a favorite
preparation in France. There no grease nor oil is used on the hair.
To encourage the hair to grow an application of a good quinine mixture
is a great aid. During the afternoon of the second day that I go into
seclusion for my hair’s sake I massage the scalp lightly with such a
tonic. Or I apply it before going to bed. Many of the quinine mixtures
sold in the drug stores I have used with good effect, after having had
them analyzed by chemists.
Here is a preparation which a friend becoming bald used to secure a
splendid new lot of hair. Were I in so serious a state I might also use
it:
Precipitated sulphur, 10 grams; alcohol (95 per cent.), 10 grams;
distilled water, 50 grams; rosewater, 50 grams.
And here is another which, were my case radical, I would use:
Alcohol (95 per cent.), 100 grams; acetone, 100 grams; oil of cade,
10 grams; precipitated sulphur, 20 grams; pyrogallic acid, 2 grams;
chrysophanic acid, 20 centigrams; bichloride of mercury, 40 centigrams.
On Wednesday I would do that which ordinarily I should do but twice
or three times a year--I would singe the ends of my hair. Then again
I would shampoo it with the preparation for which I gave the first
recipe, and would again give it the tonic of air and sun bath.
And again I would use the camomile, but if one prefers to have the aid
of the druggist here is a preparation that is much used in London with
great satisfaction. I shall give it in the English measure:
Resorcine, 1 dram; chloral hydrate, 3 drams; sweet almond oil, 1 dram;
chloroform, 6 drams; eau de cologne, 6 ounces.
On Thursday, if my hair is not showing great improvement, I may vary my
shampoo. Here is an excellent cleansing one:
Extract of witch hazel, 1 pint; eau de cologne, 8 ounces; chloroform, 3
drams.
On Friday and Saturday I would repeat this shampoo, the massage and the
sun and air bath.
By Sunday, with every morning a shampoo, a massage of the scalp for
fifteen minutes--not long enough to irritate the nerves--and the
sun and air baths and the repose, one’s hair should be excellently
vigorous. If the rigorous treatment should have caused it to be too
straight I would encourage it to curl by the application of rosewater
and gum arabic in these quantities:
Gum arabic, 100 grams; rosewater, 400 grams.
Always in brushing the hair the strokes should be backward, straight
back, instead of to the sides, for in that way the hair is aided to
grow low on the forehead, which is a most desirable mark of beauty.
Before retiring I always braid my hair in two loose braids. I never use
curling irons when I can avoid it. Use them cautiously. Better not at
all, especially if your hair have a natural wave.
If your hair persistently continues to fall out, it is probably
because of a generally lowered tone of your health. I should then
resort to iron or arsenic hypodermic injections under the direction
of a physician. When I have suffered from nervous exhaustion I have
always taken this treatment at a physician’s prescription. I have found
the iron particularly upbuilding. I would receive an injection every
day for ten days, then rest three or four days, then begin again for
another ten days until seven weeks have gone. Always at the end of
that time I have felt rejuvenated.
And after my complexion my hair was the first to improve. Never attempt
this without medical direction, I repeat. The injections of iron I
preferred to taking it internally, thereby saving the teeth from the
bad effects of the iron. Also the administering of medicines in this
way prevents an unpleasant disturbance of the stomach.
If there be an unconquerable objection to the injections a physician
will prescribe cod liver oil, or tablets containing quinine and
phosphorus that are a tonic to the system.
If the hair be prematurely gray I should first take a general treatment
for the system, hoping that the gray hair would fall out and a crop
of natural color appear. Or if I could gain my own consent to dye my
hair, I should go to a druggist’s and ask for a safe solution of henna.
This is the one hair dye which I can recommend. It is harmless, but its
range of usefulness is limited for it only dyes the hair red. It is
prepared like this:
Henna leaves, 1 ounce; boiling water, 2 pints; henna powder, 1 ounce.
Place the henna leaves in a stone jar. Pour over them the water. Allow
the liquid to stand undisturbed for twelve hours. Then strain and heat
until it reaches the boiling point. To the liquid add the henna powder.
Stir thoroughly and strain once more. The hair must be thoroughly clean
when it is applied, so the best time to apply it is immediately after a
shampoo.
But do not place too much reliance upon the henna. Look to the state
of your general health and be sure to keep the scalp cool, clean and
moist. If this is done the next crop of hair--for we raise new hair
every three years, you know--may come in the former natural color and
the former unwelcome gray may disappear before the new crop. Use a good
hair tonic to bring about that condition of the scalp. This is one
that has been long and successfully used:
Glycerine, 2 ounces; alcohol, 1 pint; sulphate of quinine, 1 dram; oil
of cloves, ½ dram; oil of lemon, 4 ounces; oil of bergamot, 1 ounce.
This, too, deserves recommendation:
Castor oil, 1 gill; alcohol, 3 pints; tincture of cantharides, ½ ounce;
borax, 2 ounces; water, 2 ounces; oil of lavender, 1½ ounces. Shake
well before using.
The wholesome woman has thick, lustrous, clean hair. I am sorry to say
that it is necessary to use this last commonplace adjective. But some
women there are who neglect the hair until it does not deserve to be so
described.
“She has such clean hair,” a man said to me of an American girl who is
much admired. When I saw the girl I knew his appraisement was just. Her
hair was clean. It was thick, light brown and slightly curling hair,
just the sort that a careless person might neglect, saying, as I have
heard women say, “Mine is the kind of hair that takes care of itself.”
But this girl’s hair was as clean as her radiant young face. One
received the impression that her hair, as all the rest of her person,
had as close neighbor the bath.
And so it is. Her hair being light, she washes it at least once a week
in borax water, made by dissolving an ounce of borax in a quart of warm
water.
Borax is somewhat drying, and if she finds her scalp growing too dry
she massages the scalp twelve hours before the shampoo with this:
Oil of sweet almonds, 45 grams; essence of rosemary, 45 grams; oil of
mace, ½ gram.
If the wholesome woman find her hair growing prematurely gray, and this
she is not at all liable to do, for gray hair is a sign of anæmia, and
from this the healthy woman rarely suffers, she makes her life more
than ever wholesome. She lives out of doors the more. She takes more
regular sleep and more nourishing food. She is more than ever punctual
and thorough as to her exercise. And having done all these she may
assist nature with this remedy, which her less wholesome sister has
used with success, to arrest the turning gray of her hair:
Good claret, 30 grams; sulphate of iron, ½ gram. To use the cook’s
parlance, “Bring these to a boil.” Keep in a well corked jar in a cold
place and wash the hair with it after each shampoo. If necessary it can
be used two or three times a week. Permit the mixture to dry on the
hair.
Here is another wash that has proved successful when the hair was
turning gray:
Sulphur, 2 ounces; bay rum, 8 ounces.
Sulphur to a degree strengthens the pigment--that is, the natural
coloring matter of the hair. Use the sulphur in lumps, for it will not
adhere to the scalp as will sulphur in the powder state.
If the case be beyond such relief a French dressing, which those who
use it disdain to call a dye, is used by brunettes whose hair has
turned prematurely gray:
White wax, 2 ounces; olive oil, 5 ounces; burnt cork (powdered fine),
1 ounce. The white wax and oil should be melted together over a slow
fire. Add the burnt cork and mix well. The mixture should be applied to
the hair as a pomade, and thoroughly brushed in.
Here is a good corrective for falling hair:
Oil of sweet almonds, 2 ounces; alcohol, 2 gills; aqua ammonia, 2
ounces; good whiskey or rum, 4 ounces; gum camphor, ¼ ounce. Shake
thoroughly each time before using and rub thoroughly into the scalp.
Massage your scalp well, so that you can feel the skin of the scalp
move.
For a scalp that is too oily use borax or bicarbonate of soda in the
weekly shampoo. A blonde of my acquaintance believes that the juice of
one lemon used in the last rinsing water after a shampoo adds to the
brilliance of her hair while also drying it enough to make it “fluffy.”
Allow your hair to be straight, if Nature planned it so. Find some
becoming method of wearing it straight. If the ends have become broken
and the hair is thin and uneven set about raising a new and stronger
crop. But first prepare the soil for the new crop by cleansing your
scalp with frequent shampoos, one every other day if necessary,
and by using on it a good oil. Olive oil is an admirable agent for
loosening and feeding a heat-dried scalp. Have the ends singed or
clipped. Massage the scalp every day, unless it is too tender to endure
massage that often. Irritating the nerves, which protest against
such treatment, does far more harm than good. A few applications of
electricity by a physician familiar with your case should stimulate the
anæmic scalp.
A few years ago there were almost no good hair tonics. Now there are
many. Almost any tonic containing a liberal amount of quinine is a good
hairgrower. Here is one much used in Paris:
Oil of almonds, 6 ounces; oil of rosemary, 2 drams; oil of mace, 60
drops.
An excellent tonic for the scalp is:
Alcohol, ½ pint; oil of mace, ¼ ounce.
One that has many advocates is this:
Fluid extract of jaborandi, ½ ounce; glycerine, 1 ounce; sulphate of
quinine, 10 grains; cologne, 2 ounces; rosewater, 10 ounces; bay rum, 2
ounces.
The wash that has tonic properties in addition to being an excellent
cleanser is made as follows:
Precipitated sulphur, 10 grams; alcohol (95 per cent.), 10 grams;
distilled water, 50 grams; rosewater, 50 grams. Apply it to the scalp
as all other tonics are applied with the tips of the fingers or a soft
brush, for instance, an old tooth brush.
This tonic will keep the scalp cool, clean and moist and help prevent
the hair falling out:
Tincture of cantharides (alcoholic), 1 ounce; spirits of rosemary, 1½
ounces; rose water, 3 ounces; aromatic vinegar, 1½ ounces.
Parisiennes have recently been washing their hair in gasoline. Not
because they believe that it will cause the hair to grow, but for the
same purpose that it is used upon a spotted garment--to cleanse the
garment and remove the spots. Also gasoline makes the hair soft and
silken of texture, I am told.
I have myself used gasoline a few times on my hair, but always try to
keep it away from the scalp as much as possible. I cannot believe that
gasoline is good for the scalp.
I take the gasoline shampoo somewhat as I do the water bath for the
hair. I wash it in a bowl of the gasoline, pour out the first bowlful
and wash it through another, then another, until the last bowlful is
entirely clean. Let as little gasoline as possible get to the scalp.
But the shampoo is always taken on the morning of a clear day. Never do
I have it done while there is a light or fire in the room. If I did,
there would be no more Lina Cavalieri. Gasoline is most inflammable and
one cannot be too careful when using it.
Never use vaseline on the hair, never, never. It is not harmful. It is
merely useless. It no more makes the hair grow than would sprinkling
flour over the face make it grow. It is derived from a mineral, and
nothing of mineral origin causes the hair to grow. I never use grease
on the hair. After the shampoo, once a week, I use the camomile lotion
I have already described, rubbing it in carefully with the points
of the fingers, and on no account permitting it to touch the face,
because it will make the face yellow. This cleanses the hair and tones
the scalp, promoting circulation.
Hair to be really beautiful should not lie in heavy, sticky bands, but
should stand out hair by hair, as separate as the down of a little
chicken. To acquire this use ten drops of ammonia sprinkled in the
camomile. It must be added after the mixture has boiled and cooled,
otherwise the ammonia will evaporate.
This is the favorite preparation now used in France. No beauty nor
fashionable woman ever uses oil upon her hair. By keeping it frequently
massaged and thoroughly brushed she permits it to develop its own oil.
The Egyptian women have the most beautiful hair in the world. This they
owe to henna. Sprinkle enough henna in the water to make it the color
of coffee. Part the hair in little strands and, with a small handbrush
dipped into it, rub the scalp.
The hair, so beautiful at its best, so disappointing and even
disfiguring at its worst, has many foes. The greatest of these is
the extreme heat of midsummer. Under the midsummer sun’s rays the
hair’s rich hue is liable to fade. The country roads powder their dust
finely upon it. The heat parches the scalp or causes it to perspire
excessively, and each of these evils, separately considered, seems
worse than the other. Their results are the same, and the hair rapidly
grows thinner.
If you are spending your vacation at the seashore beware of the action
of the salt water upon your hair. If your hair has been splashed in
the surf rinse it thoroughly with fresh water as soon as you leave the
beach. Be sure that no particles of sea salt adhere to it, for salt, so
healing and tonic for most of the body, is the contrary for the hair.
Keep your scalp in such condition that two words, “Cool” and “Clean,”
will always describe it. If the scalp be cool and clean the hair will
be beautiful. If the scalp be not cool and clean the hair will speedily
reveal that fact. How to keep it so during the summer is a problem that
every woman must be careful to solve according to her surroundings and
facilities. But somehow she must attain that end if she would preserve
the beauty of her hair.
Keep it free from dust. To do so it must be frequently shampooed--twice
as often, I should say, as in the winter. If, for instance, it is your
habit to wash your hair every two weeks in winter, try washing it every
week in summer. If it has required a weekly shampoo in winter you will
undoubtedly find it necessary to wash it twice a week in midsummer. But
you must judge that yourself, keeping before you the two words “Cool”
and “Clean,” which should always be your guides. When the dust from the
hair soils the fingers and brush it is time for a shampoo even though
for a time the hair must be washed every day. The observant one will
notice that so soon as the hair is unclean it falls out.
Also, she will observe that an itching scalp precedes almost
immediately the falling out of the hair. With these object lessons in
cleanliness she should resolve to be vigilant. Spare the shampoo and
spoil the hair.
A good shampoo, especially for an itching scalp, contains beside the
usual borax for softening the water, and the castile soap for cleansing
the scalp these:
White of 2 eggs; juice of 2 lemons. Apply by rubbing the whites of the
eggs thoroughly into the scalp with the tips of the fingers. After this
application moisten the scalp thoroughly with the lemon juice diluted
in one quart of cool water.
For the usual shampoo under ordinary circumstances the essentials are:
Warm water, 2 quarts; castile soap (shaven), ½ cake; borax, 1
teaspoonful.
I have heard women say: “I washed my hair yesterday and to-day it is
as bad as ever.” If that is true it is your own fault. You did not
give it a thorough shampoo. For a thorough shampoo care and nicety are
necessary.
First prepare the water for a head bath by pouring into the stationary
wash stand, or the portable washbowl or basin, the soap shavings. Over
these pour a quart of hot water. With hands or a long handled spoon
stir until the soap has dissolved and the substance has become mere
lather. Part the hair, which I assume has previously been well combed,
from the top of the middle of the forehead to the back of the neck.
Make similar partings at the sides, and transverse partings here and
there, as many as possible. With the finger tips, or with a soft, old
nail brush, scrub the scalp with this lather. In this way go over the
scalp several times, until it tingles under your very touch, and the
skin is loosened from the scalp beneath. When a fine glow convinces you
that this part of the task is well done attack your hair.
Dip your hands into the lather and taking the hair between them, wash
it thoroughly but carefully with light touch as you would a fine
handkerchief. When this has been thoroughly done empty the bowl and
wash the hair through a second water. If, to use the hair dresser’s
expression, the “water runs clear” you will know that the hair is
thoroughly washed. If the water is dark, showing that the lather has
not thoroughly removed the dust apply more lather. Then again wash it
in cool water. The rinsing is best done with a spray. It should be
continued until the water pouring off the hair is as clean as when it
flows from the hydrant. The clearness of the rinsing water is the only
criterion of whether the hair is clean. The rinsing water should be
gradually cooled, but it should never be cold. It is my opinion that
cold water is too severe a shock to the scalp.
Dry the hair as carefully as you have washed it. Never dry with a hot
air funnel, nor at a radiator nor fireplace nor stove. The intense
heat makes the hair brittle. A good brisk toweling is a method always
available. If you haven’t time to dry the hair by toweling wait for the
shampoo until you have time.
If you can sun dry it so much the better. Seated at an open window
shake the moisture out of the hair and as it slowly dries massage
the scalp with the fingers. The process of drying will be aided and
neuralgia prevented by vigorous massage of the scalp.
This is an excellent time for the hair’s daily airing. The hair needs
ventilation as well as your room, your lingerie, or your bed linen.
Every day it should be shaken out and allowed to blow about in the
wind. A balcony of a summer cottage is admirable for this purpose.
I know an English beauty who always gives her hair its airing as she
sits under an old apple tree in the back yard of her father’s home.
A friend of mine shakes her hair down and, sitting on the deck of
her husband’s yacht, lets the wind play hide and seek in it every
afternoon. Another friend returning by steamship from her vacation trip
to Maine sat up aloft and tumbling her hair about her shoulders let the
wind whip it at will.
Form the habit of always letting your hair down when you sit alone in
your room. This half hour or hour’s airing gives the hair exercise as
well. When a hair hangs by its roots it is gaining the strength it
loses while the hair is being supported upon the head by pins.
If the treatment of the hair has passed the stage of prevention and
reached that of cure, dry, falling hair can be helped by this variant
of the shampoo I have described:
Castile soap, ½ cake; borax (powdered), 4 teaspoonfuls; bay rum, 1
ounce; Italian pink, 20 drops; warm water, 1 quart.
A dry shampoo available for blondes, but which would leave unbecoming
traces in dark hair, is:
Cornmeal, 2 ounces; orris root (powdered), 1 ounce. This shaken well
into the hair and brushed out carries much of the dust with it, as does
French chalk when brushed upon and off a soiled frock. This I commend
in an emergency, but only then, for it does not clean the scalp as does
the liquid shampoo.
Another shampoo that has been successfully used to check the falling of
hair contains:
Borax, 2 tablespoonfuls; salts of tartar, 2 drams; almond oil, 2
ounces; Italian pink, 12 drops.
For dry hair this tonic is one of the best:
Sweet almond oil, 3 ounces; oil of rosemary, 1 ounce; oil of bergamot,
10 drops.
If dandruff afflict you in midsummer look first to your brushes. If you
have neglected to keep them scrupulously clean begin to do so. Dip them
whenever the least soiled into:
Hot water, 1 quart; violet ammonia, 1 ounce.
Place the brushes on the window sill to dry. Turn the brushes upon
their sides so that they will dry quickly, and the bristles will remain
firm.
Brush the hair thoroughly night and morning. Use a blunt edged, large
toothed comb. Do not scrape the scalp. Make your diet during this time
chiefly of fruit and vegetables. Apply also this lotion:
Borax, 3 tablespoonfuls; rosemary (best), 3 ounces; steep in one quart
of boiling water. When cold add ½ ounce of glycerine and 30 drops of
cologne.
If the hair be moist use one tablespoonful of borax in a shampoo two or
three times a week.
While in your room give the hair plenty of rest and exercise. Both are
provided by brushing the hair and letting it hang loose as long as
possible in the sun and air baths. Usually the hair needs in summer at
least one shampoo a week, unless the hair be extraordinarily dry. One
of the best shampoos is made very simply:
Shaved castile soap, 1 ounce; hot water, 1 quart.
For a dry shampoo this is good for moist scalps:
Alcohol (95 per cent.), 1 quart; table salt, 1 ounce; quinine, 1-6
ounce.
If you pass your holiday at the seashore you will welcome a formula
that will keep the hair in curl. Here is one of the best I know:
Gum arabic, ½ ounce; carbonate of potash, ½ ounce; glycerine, ½ ounce;
rosewater, 1 pint; Portugal extract, 2 ounces.
Fortunate are you, indeed, if you come back from your summer outing
with hair thick and lustrous, and scalp cool and loose skinned as when
you left. But even if you have achieved this, your hair is certain to
be faded, for the sun’s rays while stimulating to the scalp, diminish
the richness of the hue of the hair.
The probability is that the scalp has been dried by the heat and dust.
Massage with cocoanut oil or the following tonic:
Sweet almond oil, 3 ounces; oil of cinnamon, 30 drops; oil of rosemary,
1 ounce.
Let me tell you of an experience which taught me much about the hair.
I was invited to an informal house party. Arriving at an early hour
in the morning I was met in the hall by my charming hostess. She was
as lovely as ever, but there was something odd about her, something
unusual.
She laughed at the puzzled look in my face. “You are bewildered,” she
said. “I look different, but you do not know how. It is this. I am
resting my hair.”
“Wonderful woman!” I cried. “It is the great American common sense.”
Then I saw that her lovely blond hair, short, as is all curling hair,
rested about her shoulders in a golden shower. It was parted in the
middle. She had always worn it in a pompadour or some modification of
the pompadour. Now it was parted in the middle, and combed as smoothly
as its rebellious luxuriance would permit away from that part, and flat
upon the top of the head. Glistening from its recent brushing it hung
about her shoulders, fresh combed, fresh brushed, and with the faintest
odor of a cleansing tonic hanging about it. It had no ribbon about it.
No hairpin confined it. It was free. It was resting after the nine
months’ toil of a fashionable season.
“Every morning,” she said, “it has had a thorough combing and slight
brushing. Every night a slight combing and thorough brushing. The first
week I gave it a shampoo every day. I continued until the last trace of
dandruff was gone. A sun-dried shampoo, of course. Every other sort,
except the toweling, I consider barbarous and destructive to the hair.
Every afternoon when the sun shone in my bedroom window I have let
down my hair and sat where the breeze and sunshine came through the
open window. Sitting there I have taken my hair between my palms and,
strand by strand, have rubbed it lightly until every hair has had its
burnishing. When this was done I shook it out loosely between my thumb
and forefingers so that the wind and sun could reach every part of the
hair and scalp.”
My friend’s hair had made almost instant response to the treatment.
From being dead hair it had become live as a galvanic battery. From
being dull and faded it had become rich and glistening. All over
her scalp was the fine first fuzz of a new crop of hair. And the old
galvanized hair had grown an inch longer in one month.
She had experimented with various lotions or dry shampoos. This she
found the greatest cleanser and tonic for her hair:
Peruvian bark (powdered), 3 ounces; rum, 1 pint.
Another aid to this summer rest of the hair was a new brush. She showed
it to me. It was a plain wooden backed hair brush, with the bristles
set well into the back in groups. The bristles in these groups were
irregular, in order that they might reach all parts of the head, the
long ones penetrating the hair where it was thickest, the short ones
sufficing for the parts where it was thinnest.
She adjured vaseline, as I have advised my readers to do. It is a
mineral oil and cannot cause the hair to grow. Instead, she rubs olive
oil or beef marrow well into the roots of the hair at night, softening
the scalp and fertilizing a dry area.
Also she varied these treatments with this which, being a woman of wide
reading, she had copied from The Lancet:
Alcohol (95 per cent.), 4 ounces; quinine, 15 grains; castor oil, ⅛
ounce.
Careful to massage the head gently every night after its brushing, she
kept the scalp loose. When it was hot she cooled it by applications of
cracked ice in an ice cap. She shunned the tempting fine tooth comb,
that removes dandruff, it is true, but perpetrates atrocities upon the
scalp as painful and disfiguring as scratches upon the face. Once a
month she had her hair singed, before a shampoo.
Her greatest concession to the conventions was the slipping over her
shining, well curried mane a net of exactly the same shade, which she
wore at dinner, “a token of respect for the soup and butter, merely,”
she explained.
One hundred strokes every evening before retiring are necessary if the
hair be of vigorous constitution. If delicate there is danger of its
being torn from the roots by too strong strokes of the brush and too
many of these and the number of strokes can be considerably lessened.
Brushing removes the dust, but is not sufficient stimulant for the
scalp, which needs, beside brushing, massage. The most beautiful hair
I know is that of a young woman who gives her scalp a thorough massage
three times a week with a good hair tonic. This, her favorite tonic,
I publish here for the use of such of my readers as are blondes. It
contains one ingredient, bicarbonate of soda, whose tendency is to make
the hair a lighter shade. Therefore, I do not use it myself nor would I
recommend it for any other brunette:
Borax, 1 ounce; bicarbonate of soda, ½ ounce; camphor, 1 dram;
glycerine, ½ ounce; rosewater, 1 quart; alcohol, 2 ounces. The camphor
should be dissolved in the alcohol. The soda, glycerine, rosewater and
alcohol should be mixed and well shaken in another bottle. Then pour
this mixture into the solution of camphor. Apply with the finger tips,
or a soft brush, parting the hair and rubbing the tonic thoroughly into
the scalp, until it makes response by a healthful tingling.
A former method of scalp massage was to rub it haphazard with the
tips of the fingers. From Europe has come a later and more scientific
method. It consists in treating the scalp as though it were composed
of circular terraces, treating each terrace at a time separately by
pressing the cushions of the fingers firmly upon the scalp all the way
round the terrace, beginning with that which is the first or the outer
and working toward the center. This pressure achieves that for which
massage of the scalp was invented. It loosens the skin from the scalp,
permitting free circulation about the roots of the hair.
For a brunette my preference is for this:
Sulphate of quinine, 20 grains; fluid extract of jaborandi, 1 ounce;
glycerine, 2 ounces; cologne, 4 ounces; bay rum, 4 ounces; rosewater,
20 ounces.
The above is excellent also for hair that is too dry. For moist hair I
advise a dry shampoo or tonic treatment of this:
Eau de cologne, 4 ounces; borax, ½ ounce; tincture of cochineal, ½
ounce.
Some blondes whom I know use the following methods to keep their hair
light:
Washing soda, 2 tablespoonfuls; water, 1 quart. Dissolve the soda in
the water and give the hair a thorough shampoo with the mixture once a
week if needed, less often if necessary. The susceptibility of the hair
to treatment determines the number of the treatments.
A half dozen drops of ammonia in shampoo should keep the hair light.
Also one teaspoonful of peroxide of hydrogen in one quart of water will
lighten without injuring the hair.
Bear in mind that whatever makes the hair dry makes it brittle, and
use any preparation discreetly, studying the effect of one or two
applications on the hair.
Remember that headache is one of the greatest foes of the hair. When my
scalp is feverish I sometimes apply a rubber cap filled with cracked
ice for a half an hour or longer, until the congestion is removed.
Never retire without brushing your hair. The hair is a dust trap, and
no dainty woman would retire without removing the day’s accumulation
of dust. The brush tells its own story of the day’s catch of dust, if
you take the trouble to examine it. After brushing the hair, loosen the
skin from the scalp by slow, firm massage, pressing the skin toward the
crown.
This is the best time to apply a hair tonic. A good hair tonic is made
of:
Oil of mace, 2 grams; essence of rosemary, 60 grams; oil of sweet
almonds, 30 grams.
I have found that, while I may protect my skin, my eyes, my hands
somewhat from the winds of winter, my hair always suffers from it. The
wind I found dried the oil in it, making it harsh and brittle. Ordinary
massage and brushing I did not find as useful as in the summer. I tried
many remedies for the dry condition of the scalp, which, of course,
produced dry hair. At last I hit upon this, which I rubbed well into
the roots of the hair before retiring on the night before my shampooing
day:
Lanolin, 1 ounce; sulphur, ¼ ounce.
Let me explain, I did not rub this haphazard upon the scalp. I have
seen women dab a hair scalp emollient so carelessly upon the scalp,
here and there, that they might quite as well have left it undone and
employed their time for better purposes. I did this as thoroughly as, I
think, everything we undertake should be done.
First, I combed the hair thoroughly, doing it slowly, beginning
about an inch from the ends, holding the long hair near the roots so
that rough combing might not pull it out. Then I brushed it slowly,
beginning at the roots and brushing downward with long, slow strokes to
the very end. I parted the hair into fifty strands, combing it smoothly
away from each little parting.
Then, with fingers dipped into the mixture of lanolin and sulphur, I
began at the hair line and, with firm, long strokes, the effect of
which was to loosen the skin from the scalp, I rubbed the mixture
well into the roots. From the hair line I followed the partings to
the crown, from which it radiated. This done, and thoroughly done, I
unbraided my hair and combed and brushed it once more, and allowed it
to hang loose for an hour or more, exercising and ventilating it, until
I retired, when it was braided and tied into two large, loose braids
and tied at the end with narrow ribbons. I never use either elastic or
thread to fasten the ends of the hair, for I think it breaks the hairs,
making the ends uneven.
The next morning I have a shampoo. Ordinarily I use a lather of white
castile soap and warm water. But in winter, noting the drying effects
of the cold winds upon my hair, I try to use a shampoo which will aid
in making the hair soft and lustrous, doing for the time the work of
the natural oils, which seem to have suspended operations:
Yolks of 2 eggs; warm water, 1 quart.
I part the hair into fifty strands, as I have described, the night
before, and into each of the partings and particularly around the hair
line, which a woman cannot afford to neglect, I rub the tips of the
fingers with the yolks of the eggs, using the tips of the first two
fingers. When this has been thoroughly done I rinse the hair and scalp
in warm water. After the hair has “been through the first water,” I
turn upon the scalp a spray from a small hose, one of the small-size
sprays now made for shampooing. This distributes the water better, and
the force is not so great as when it is poured from a pitcher in the
old-fashioned “home” way.
The full force of city water must never be used upon the tender scalp.
The little sprays are cheap and a good investment. The shower from the
spray can be gradually cooled, but I do not believe in extremes of
temperature for the hair any more than I do for the complexion. I never
use either cold or hot water for a shampoo, nor cold water for rinsing.
Warm to cool water is a sufficient gradation that soothes the nerves of
the scalp, while dashes of hot and cold water overstimulate and shock
them.