ODDS AND ENDS OF BEAUTY CULTURE
Three months recently in Russia and six months in Paris taught me some
new fads in the cultivation of beauty. While you Americans are so
clever, as well as beautiful, you may not have heard of some of these.
I will, therefore, call the roll of those devices for the improvement
of beauty which are finding present favor in Europe, some of which seem
to me to have considerable scientific value.
But I ought to say that I have not myself personally used or tested all
of these rather heroic new methods. Not all medical men are agreed on
all things, especially on new things, and I advise my readers to ask
the advice of their doctors on some of these matters.
There is, for instance, what is known as the vaccination cure for
pimples. Pimples I have called “spots on the sun of beauty.” Spots,
whether on a frock or a face, are disfiguring, and it is desirable
to remove them as soon as possible. Inoculation by a special form of
vaccine is the latest method adopted by the medical profession. It has
been in many cases very successful. The only objection is that it is
still comparatively expensive.
The new theory is that pimples are caused by the presence of malefic
germs. A culture is made of these germs in beef broth. The fluid is
then rendered sterile by heating it to the boiling point. A small
vialful of this broth contains hundreds of millions of the germs. While
the germs themselves are dead, the peculiar poison generated by them
remains. The treatment is given by a hypodermic injection. This poison
is destructive to the living organisms, and in a few weeks’ treatment
obstinate cases of pimples have been completely cured by the welcome
new process.
For obstinate cases of acne some advanced physicians are utilizing
the X-ray. Blackheads are always disfiguring. Certain physicians have
adopted the principle that these micro-organisms lodge in the follicles
from which spring the small hairs that form a down on the cheeks.
These micro-organisms spread fast and cause inflammation. The X-ray is
summoned to check the spread of the inflammation. This they do without
danger to the skin. After three or four treatments the face looks as
though it were badly sunburned. This appearance remains, it seems to
the patient, discouragingly long, but the results are most gratifying
in every case I have studied. The acne has been permanently removed and
the complexion left beautifully clear.
A third scientific treatment of great aid to beauty is the removal of
scars by an injection, locally, of a healing serum, beneath the skin.
Its function is to loosen the structure, relax the drawn tissues and
smooth the surface that had been, to use an Americanism, “puckered.”
There is in this last remedy the element of risk that always obtains
when a foreign substance is injected into the circulation.
Because of this element the method has not the entire endorsement of
the medical profession.
A method that has great vogue just now is the new or modified massage
called patting. This is accepted by those who have always been
consistent enemies of massage as it is generally given. Their theory is
that massage, as many have known it, merely moves the wrinkles from one
part of the face to another. Patting, they declare, does not drag the
skin, but builds up the muscles and promotes the circulation. The name
is a well-fitting one. Patting is done very lightly with the tips of
the fingers.
The nose clamp is a new and amusing device adopted by beauties and
would-be beauties to prevent the spreading of the nostrils and to give
the nose, that would otherwise be too round, a delicate point. I have
called on my friends in the morning and have been received in their
bedrooms. They looked very charming in their night robes of delicate
batiste, embroidered and further ornamented with pink and blue bows,
not pink and blue bows on different gowns, but combined in the same
gown. Their hair carefully parted from the point of the forehead to
the back of the neck, and braided in two loose braids, either hangs
becomingly over their shoulders, one braid tied with a blue bow, the
other with a pink, to match the ribbon garniture of the night robe,
or is twisted loosely around the head. Their complexions looked fresh
and cool from their bath of cold cream, but they all looked odd, and I
shrieked with laughter at them because they wore nose clamps. One who
disliked the touch of the cold metal substituted the homely domestic
article, the clothespin. Both the clamp and the clothespin are well
protected by a lining of white silk or velvet. Absurd as these things
look, I was assured by all who wore them that they served admirably
their purpose.
Ice has come to be one of the first aids of beauty. It is used after
massage of the face and neck to harden the muscles. I find women using
it to drive away wrinkles and this seems to me scientific, for while
the shock of the first application will drive the blood from the
surface, it causes it to rebound, bringing a fine flush to the skin and
feeding the neglected and shrunken tissues.
Whatever renews the tissues eradicates wrinkles.
Many physicians are endorsing sulphur facial baths to cure acne. This
lotion is applied several times a day, they told me, with good results:
Rose water, 4 ounces; precipitate of sulphur, 1 dram; tincture of
camphor, 1 dram.
Women are beginning to realize that sagging muscles, rather than a
superabundance of flesh, are the cause of the double chin. They are
preventing, as far as possible, the falling cheek muscles and the
pendulousness of the chin muscles by hardening them with lumps of ice
held in the hand and pressed against those muscles as long as the
pressure can be endured; also by wearing chin bandages.
First the fancy, then the fad, then the flitting. This is the history
of most announced discoveries of the means to heighten beauty. They
have their little hour of discipleship; their impulsive following;
their period of vanishing. Yet beneath nearly all the beauty fads there
is a more or less well applied principle of science.
For instance, there is the rubber chin band. The band to control the
usurping flesh of the double chin was first of muslin. Then it was
improved by the use of elastic. Now it has evolved to its best state,
that of strong yet light rubber, made with a throat latch resembling
the lower part of a horse’s halter. Attached by a clasp on either side
are straps that fasten at the top of the head. The original idea of
compressing the flesh so that it would form in a smaller and becoming
mold was sound, but the later idea of using rubber appeals still more
to common knowledge. The wearing of rubber next to the skin causes
perspiration.
Therefore, the rubber band will not only hold the flesh of the
pendulous chin in place, but by causing free perspiration it will
gradually reduce its size. The rubber band, worn at night, and
frequently during the day, for a half hour or more at a time, is the
best cure for the double chin the new year has offered us.
The aged hand has been a source of much mortification and anxiety to
the woman who has left her thirties and her forties behind her. Yet
electricity, that prime aid in the rejuvenation of beauty, has come to
her aid, and now the woman who has a good many years to her credit, but
who does not care to admit that balance, goes to the beauty parlors,
settles back comfortably in a reclining chair, and renews the youth of
her hands by electrical treatment.
The operator traces over the hand again and again, round and round,
focussing most on the base of the back near the wrist a small
electrical machine attached to a light battery. The skin of Madame’s
hands begins to tingle. The blood rushes in a flood to the surface.
In a few days she notices that the ugly furrows, trenches dug by the
cruel spade of time, are being filled up. After a little longer time
they are entirely filled and present an even surface. The hand has been
plumpened.
The work of rejuvenation has been done. With occasional renewals of
this treatment, combined with much nightly feeding of the hands with a
plumpening oil or cold cream, they will keep their renewed youthfulness.
Either of the following creams I recommend for that purpose:
Spermaceti, 6 ounces; white wax, 2 ounces; oil of almonds, 16 ounces;
glycerine, 4 ounces; rosewater, 4 ounces; borax, 1 ounce; oil of rose,
20 minims; extract of jasmine, 1 ounce.
This whitens as well as plumpens the hands:
Alcohol, 3 ounces; glycerine, 2 ounces; cologne, 2 drams; boric acid, 4
grains; quince seed, 1½ drams; carbolic acid, 10 grains; glycerine of
starch, 2 ounces; oil of lavender, 20 drops; distilled water, 2 pints.
A soothing and whitening, as well as feeding, cream is this:
Cucumber essence, 1 pint; cucumber juice, 2 ounces; oil of almonds, 1
pint; olive oil, 1 ounce; white wax, 1 ounce; spermaceti, 1 ounce.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.