In olden time, the hair was said to be produced by “a vapour or
excrement of the brain.” In the more exact language of science it is
described as a horny appendage of the skin. The skin is shown to be
composed of two layers--the outer termed the cuticle, the inner the
cutis. The cuticle is an insensible transparent membrane covering the
whole surface of the body; the portion exposed to the air consists
of flattened cells or scales which are continually being renewed;
while on the inner surface, in contact with the cutis, is a soft
mucous substance, in which are situate the pigment cells giving the
characteristic colour peculiar to race and climate. The cutis is
composed of the layer of minute papillæ, the principal seat of the
sense of touch, covering an intricate arrangement of fibrous tissue,
which receives the delicate ramifications of the nerves and arteries.
The sheath from which the hair protrudes above the skin is formed by
a tubular depression of the cuticle which reaches below the cutis to
the subjacent fat and cellular tissue; the lower end of the sheath
is shaped like a pouch, and contains the pulp from which the bulb
and shaft of the hair are formed in successive portions--the most
recent pushing forward that previously formed. The bulbs are larger
in young than in old hairs, and are implanted obliquely in respect to
the cuticle. The shaft of the hair being formed by an aggregation of
parts, has been likened to a pile of thimbles one resting within the
other; this overlapping of the outer coating of scales gives rise to
that roughness which we feel on passing the fingers along a hair from
the point to the bulb, though apparently perfectly smooth when held
in the opposite direction. The colouring matter of the hair is seen in
the pulp, and is distributed between the cells composing the shaft. In
form the hair may be described as a flattened cylinder, not, however,
hollow or filled with a kind of pith as is usually supposed; but solid
throughout and formed of a homogeneous mass of a cellular texture. From
the extreme minuteness of its structure, and the mystery which shrouds
all vital processes, it is still a question as to whether the shaft
of the hair is permeable by fluids derived from the blood. The old
notion of a circulation within the hair like the sap in vegetables is
disregarded; but it is contended that absorption does take place, and
that fluids are transmitted to the extreme point of the hair. In proof
of this we are referred to the sudden change of colour which the hair
undergoes in extraordinary cases of mental emotion, as instanced in the
sufferings of Marie Antoinette, whose hair was found to have turned
grey with grief. It is assumed that the altered condition of the blood
acting chemically upon the fluids of the hair destroys the colour. If
this be granted, we must look for minor changes in the colour of the
hair with every ordinary change in the normal condition of the blood.
And we are told this does actually take place; that in health the hair
is glossy, brilliant, and rich in hue; in ill health dry, faded, blank,
and withered. But if this be so, and the connection between the blood
and fluids of the hair be thus intimate, how comes it that partial
changes of colour--this paleness of hue, and loss of brilliancy; and
on the other hand, increased depth of colour consequent on renewed
health--are not common phenomena and familiar to every one? Doubtless,
we have still much to learn of the secrets of Nature, and there is yet
something wanting to complete the revelations of the microscope, and
the teachings of physiologists respecting the hair.
The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are the only portions
of the skin unfurnished with hairs. Their length and thickness varies
considerably, from the softest down which is scarcely visible, to the
long hair of the scalp and beard. The estimated thickness of a hair
of the head is one-tenth of a line. Observations seem to show that
flaxen is the finest, and black the coarsest hair. In females the hair
of the head ordinarily measures from twenty to thirty inches, but in
some instances it attains a much greater length; and mention is made
of ladies whose hair has been two yards long and reached to the ground
when they stood erect. The beard has been known to grow to the enormous
length of nine feet: the portrait of a carpenter with a beard of this
length, is preserved at Eidam; when at work he was obliged to pack it
up in a bag. We are told the Burgomeister Hans Steiningen was thrown
down and killed by treading on his long beard on the staircase leading
to the council-chamber of Brunn. The long beard of John Mayo, a painter
in Germany, is matter of history; he used to untie it in the presence
of Charles V., who laughed heartily on seeing it blown about in the
faces of the courtiers. Busbequius saw at Constantinople a janissary
with such a quantity of hair on his head that a musket-ball would not
penetrate it: we suspect there was some legerdemain in this case, and
that the celebrated wizard was anticipated in his gun trick by some two
hundred years or more. Some commentators have endeavoured to determine
the weight of Absalom’s long and beautiful hair, but they differ widely
in their computation; we are told that when its inconvenient length
compelled him at times to cut it off it was found to weigh 200 shekels,
which Geddes estimates at 112 ounces, and Clarke at 7-1/2 ounces--a
conclusion in which nothing is concluded. Seven to eight ounces is held
to be about the average weight of a lady’s tresses. With those who
shave the beard its growth is said to be at the rate of six and a half
inches per annum, so that in forty years a man must have cut off rather
more than twenty feet of beard.
In the natural course, when the hair has attained a certain growth,
it is thrown off, and its place supplied by a new growth formed from
the pulp within the hair follicle. This process is continually going
on, and is analogous to the shedding of the coat in quadrupeds, or the
moulting of birds at certain seasons. The German physiologists, whose
arduous and persevering labours in scientific research have never been
excelled, have investigated with rare industry the minutest details
respecting the growth of the hair; and one of them has accomplished
the task of counting the number of hairs in heads of four different
colours. In a blond one he found 140,000 hairs; in a brown, 109,440; in
a black, 102,962; and in a red one, 88,740. Erasmus Wilson states that
the superficial surface of the scalp may be taken at 120 inches, he
averages the number of hairs per inch at 1000, which gives 120,000 for
the entire head. It will be seen from the greater fineness of the blond
hairs that the number is greater than those of red or black hair, and
that red is the coarsest. The silken fineness of some shades of light
hair is very remarkable, even the poets are evidently put to their
wits end adequately to express its extreme fineness and beauty,--it
is likened to the golden beams of day--and who has not seen the light
playing upon it, and streaming rays and sparkles of lustrous beauty
given out, as it were, from a diffused wave of sunshine--
“And on her hair a glory, like a saint.”
It is not clearly shown to what we must attribute the disposition to
curl, which some hair naturally possesses. Some have thought that it
was owing in a great measure to the presence of a considerable amount
of oily matter in the shaft of the hair, which hinders the animal
matter from attracting moisture which would have a tendency, it is
said, to straighten the hair. But the more probable and more general
opinion is that it mainly arises from the flatness of the hair. Now
this flattening is sometimes very considerable, and the diameter of the
hair two-thirds broader in one direction than in the other. The hair
of the beard and whiskers exhibits the peculiarity most distinctly.
In proportion to its size, the strength of a hair is very remarkable;
one from a boy supported a weight of 7,812 grains; another from a man,
14,285 grains. The elasticity of the hair is very apparent, a hair
10 inches long has been stretched to 13 inches; and a hair stretched
one-fifth of its entire length returns, with but trifling excess, to
its first dimensions.
The chemical analysis of human hair, as given by Liebig, shows that
its constituents are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur.
Fair hair contains most sulphur and oxygen, and the least carbon and
hydrogen; black hair the most carbon and hydrogen, and the least
sulphur and oxygen. The hair of the beard contains more carbon and less
sulphur than the hair of the head. The presence of sulphur occasions
the peculiar odour of burnt hair, but we question the fact, as stated
by some authors, that red hair is perceptibly redolent of brimstone. By
experiments, Vauquelin obtained from black hair a whitish and a greyish
oil; the whitish oil was also present in red hair, but the place of
the greyish green oil was supplied by an oil; the colour of blood.
Hair is one of the most indestructible of animal substances, even less
perishable than the bones; this arises from the small quantity of water
it contains, its chief bulk being made up of various salts of lime,
iron, and manganese. In mummies more than two thousand years old the
hair has been found unaltered, as may be seen in our own and other
public museums. In the Abbey Church of Romsey, the hair of a female
apparently of the time of the Normans was found perfectly entire on
opening a coffin in 1839. It is in plaits 18-inches long, and preserved
in a glass case, lying upon the same block of oak which has been its
pillow for centuries. And somewhat recently, when the tombs of Gustavus
Vasa and his Queen Gunilla, in the Cathedral at Upsal, were explored to
gratify the longings of some worthy antiquaries; the hair of the Queen,
which according to the popular annals was of extraordinary beauty,
still remained--when ought else of earthly beauty had perished in the
grave.
Hair is a non-conductor of electricity, and every one is familiar with
the experiment illustrating electrical repulsion, which causes
“The knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.”
Some persons possess the power of giving considerable motion to the
scalp, and in moments of excitement do so involuntarily with some
curious results--as was witnessed by Haydon at one of the readings
given by Mrs. Siddons. The artist sat behind an old gentleman with
his hair tied in a queue, which suddenly rose like a knocker, and
continued the most lively movements during an interval of intense and
breathless attention on the part of the audience. A good ghost-story
will sometimes electrify a youngster, and convert the curled darling
into a regular Brutus. In the “May of life,” e’er he had “supped full
with horrors,” Macbeth himself had felt such innocent fears:
“The time has been, my senses would have cool’d
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir
As life were in’t.”
But does the hair grow after death? Most persons who have not reflected
a little on the question, answer readily in the affirmative. The
contraction of the cuticle after death, which causes an apparent
lengthening of the beard, has by many been mistaken for a new growth of
hair. But there are strange instances on record, where, on entering the
charnel house, a coffin has been found to be completely covered with an
extraordinary growth of hair-like filaments issuing from chinks in the
wood or metal, and trailing in every direction to a distance of some
feet. Such a phenomenon is truly wonderful, account for it what way
you will. The common solution of the difficulty supposes the hair to
have grown to this enormous length, and to have been nourished in some
way by organic elements resulting from decomposition. We need not stop
to refute this. The opinion which inclines to its being of vegetable
growth is likely enough to find favour with those who have seen the
remarkable and beautiful parasites which clothe with their fantastic
draperies the recesses of mines and caverns. But this we will leave to
learned professors to settle among themselves.
The colouring principle in the hair and skin is held to be of a like
nature. Light hair usually accompanies a fair complexion, and black
hair a dark one; and every gradation from fair to dark is generally
marked by a corresponding alteration in the tint of the hair. The
colour of the skin and hair being one of the physical characters which
serve to distinguish the several races of mankind, we may divide them
into two great groups: the fair-haired and the dark-haired races. The
dark-haired race occupies by far the greater portion of the globe; the
light-haired race being restricted comparatively to a few settlements,
chiefly in Europe, and more especially its northern region. These
fair-haired races of the North, in their bold descents upon the
British coasts and subsequent immigrations, drove the dark-haired
Celts and Cymri from the plains back upon their mountain strongholds,
and completely dispossessed the indigenous tribes of their territory.
From the intermixture of race we derive that obvious variety in the
different shades of hair which characterizes the mixed population
of this country--a diversity which contributes not a little to the
remarkable beauty of the women of Great Britain--while the intermixture
of race has doubtless stamped that daring and energy upon the people
which have made these isles the Palladium of Liberty and the envy of
the world. We notice some marked peculiarities among certain tribes
in respect to the colour and character of the hair. The Mongols and
Northern Asiatics, for instance, are scantily furnished with hair and
beard; the Kurilians, on the contrary, are said to be the most hairy
race of people in the world. Their beards hang upon their breasts, and
arms, neck and back are covered with hair. Some of the Esquimaux have
so much beard upon the face that it is difficult to make out their
features. The Incas of South America, with long thick hair, very soft
and straight, have only a few scanty hairs for a beard. The North
American Indians have straight lank hair. The African Negroes, woolly
hair, which, it is needless to say, is very different from wool, being
merely hair in a peculiar state of crispness. The colouring matter
in the hair of the Negro is in much greater quantity than in the
European. Sometimes this woolly hair is met with of great length; a
tribe of Negroes on the Gold Coast have woolly hair fully half a yard
long, which is usually black, but red hair is not uncommon. The Papuas
of New Guinea have long black frizzled hair growing in tufts in the
most strange but admired disorder, which makes their heads appear of
enormous size. The Cafusos in the Brazils, known to have sprung from
the native Americans and the Negroes from Africa, have their hair
excessively long, half woolly and curly at the ends, rising eighteen
inches or more perpendicularly from the scalp, forming a very ugly and
ridiculous kind of wig: the wearers are obliged to stoop as they go in
and out of their huts, and the mass of hair is so entangled that it is
impossible to comb it. The Chinese have very little beard, although
extremely anxious to make the most of it. Some tribes are at great
pains to eradicate the beard, and a tribe of Indians on the Coppermine
River not only pluck out the beard, but pull out the hairs from the
head, thus realizing the condition of the Myconians, who, says Pliny,
have naturally no hair at all. Generally speaking, the coloured races
are most wanting in beard, and the white races most liberally furnished
therewith. In the Albino, the hair is of the palest flaxen or a dull
whitish hue, and the colouring matter altogether wanting; the skin
partakes of the same deadly paleness, and the pupils of the eyes are
of a pink colour. Albinoes cannot endure a strong light; when exposed
to the light, the eyelids are half closed and continually blinking. In
disposition, the Albinoes are gentle and not deficient in intellect.
This peculiar variety was first noticed among the blacks, and obtained
the name of _white negroes_. But Albinoes, it is known, are not
confined to any particular race or country. In some Africans, patches
of white hair are seen covering portions of the head, and in those
parts the skin is invariably white.
That the colour of the hair in certain races has undergone a
considerable change in the course of time is apparent from what
is known to have taken place in Britain. The ancient Germans were
universally characterized by red hair and blue eyes, and what is termed
a strongly marked zanthous constitution; but, Niebuhr says, the Germans
are now far from being a light-haired race; and Chevalier Bunsen
remarks that he has often looked in vain for the golden or auburn locks
and light cærulean eyes of the old Germans among their descendants,
but in Scandinavia he found the colour of the hair and eyes precisely
those described by Tacitus. From this it is inferred that the altered
conditions of life, brought about by civilization, have produced a
change in the physical character of the people. Such change, however,
is confined within very narrow limits; in the hair it is but a mere
shade of colour or variation in its crispness. Under the microscope,
the definite form of the human hair is most exact and uniform; so
much so, that Mr. Queckett was enabled by this test to confirm the
conjectures of the Archæological Society, in a very scientific manner,
respecting some portions of skin taken from church doors in Essex, and
from Worcester Cathedral. Tradition said, pirates and persons guilty
of sacrilege in old time were flayed, and their skins nailed to the
church door. Mr. Queckett was to determine if the relics confided to
his charge, and which looked exactly like scraps of old parchment, were
really portions of the human body. A few hairs were discovered adhering
to the skin and this decided the point--it was unmistakeably human hair
and human skin--and the Archæologists were made happy by the discovery.
Would that we could send the smallest fragment of one of those skins
with but a solitary hair upon it--which Hanno hung up in the Temple
of Juno--to Mr. Q., with the publishers’ compliments, that he might
ascertain the true character of the hairy people the old Carthaginian
fell in with on his route.
The colour of the hair is also an indication of temperament: black
hair is usually accompanied by a bilious temperament; fair and auburn,
with the sanguine and sanguine-nervous; and very light hair, with a
temperament mild and lymphatic.
Will any one undertake to say what was the precise colour of the golden
hair so vaunted of by the great poets of antiquity? One of our living
poets, the author of “The Bride of Rimini,” has brought the light of
genius and his fine taste and scholarship to the task, and the matter
is yet doubtful. Some have not hesitated to decide that it was red,
fiery red, and nothing short of red; and sneered at the ancients for
affecting to be connoisseurs in these things. Some have contended
that it was auburn, which is a glorious colour, and seems naturally
associated with smiles and the rich imagery of poets. In the well-known
ode of Anacreon, where he speaks of the beauty of his mistress as a fit
subject for the painter’s art, it is difficult to say what colour we
must choose. Some prefer to think dark jetty locks were intended, such,
possibly, as Byron has given to one of his beauties:
“The glossy darkness of that clustering hair,
Which shades, yet shows a forehead more than fair.”
Ben Jonson--no mean authority--blends with the jetty locks threads of
fine gold:
“Gold upon a ground of black.”
If a mere stripling might handle the bow of Ulysses, we would venture
to select the colour which Tennyson has bestowed upon a pretty little
portrait:
“Her eyes a bashful azure, and her hair
In gloss and hue the chesnut, when the shell
Divides threefold to show the fruit within.”
But why be beholden to poets, who, after all, are but the interpreters
of nature? Does not Scotland to this day own many a fair complexion,
and tresses which Venice cannot match for sunny splendour; and are not
the dark, flowing locks of the Lancashire witches working as secret
charms as ever enthralled the courteous knights of old? It is certain
that, in regard to the hair, the ancients had no monopoly of beauty.
Concerning grey hair, we may remark that the term is a misnomer applied
to single hairs; for the greyness merely arises from the commingling
of white and dark hairs. When the secretion of the colouring matter in
the pulp ceases, all succeeding growth from the bulb is colourless.
Every one feels some little anxiety about grey hairs. To the moralist
they are Death’s blossoms--the solemn warning to adjust the mantle e’er
we fall. With some, grey hairs will even intrude upon the pleasures
of youth; with others, they are but as the ripening of the corn--when
wisdom gathers her full harvest against the time of declining strength;
again, in others, they wait upon old age, like a wreath of snow on the
brow of winter; and some enjoy life to its fullest span, and there is
no sign of “the sere and yellow leaf:” so various are the conditions
of life which produce the change of constitution which accompanies
grey hairs. It is amusing to notice the special theory which each one
contrives to account for the presence of these tell-tales. “Ah!” said
Louis XII., as he looked in the mirror, somewhat astonished at the
number of grey hairs, “these are owing to the long speeches I have
listened to, those especially of M. le----, have ruined my hair.” It
was mere folly for the Teian bard to tell the girls how prettily the
white hairs of age contrast with the rich tresses of youth, like roses
and lilies in a chaplet, or milk upon roses; for at his time of life,
the old Sybarite ought to have known better. We remember to have felt
deeply for the unfortunate bridegroom, when we first read the tragical
story, in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, of the gentleman, “who, at
his marriage, when about forty years old, had a dark head of hair;
but, on his return from his wedding trip, had become so completely
snow white, even to his eyebrows, that his friends almost doubted his
identity.” Even the curled Anthony must needs make excuses to the fair
Egyptian for his grey hairs:
“What, girl? though grey
Do something mingle with our younger brown;
Yet ha’ we a brain that nourishes our nerves,
And can get goal for goal of youth.”
How sudden grief and consuming care will blanch the hair is known to
all. Memory recalls the lone prisoner in the castle of Chillon, and the
lofty queen who passed from a throne to a prison and the scaffold,
to teach heroes how to face death. And by these truthful signs, these
silver hairs, may oftentimes be traced the story of a broken heart--of
hope too long deferred--of fallen ambition--of blighted affection,
or of man’s ingratitude. What more sacred than these secret sorrows;
who would seek to pry into them with idle questionings? The leaf is
withered, for the worm is at the heart of the tree:
“This white top writeth mine oldé years;
Mine heart is also mouldered as mine hairs.”
But hope and sunshine gather about the grey hairs ripe for immortality:
“Thy silver locks, once auburn bright,
Are still more lovely in my sight
Than golden beams of orient light,
MY MARY.”
We have hitherto regarded the hair as a thing of beauty and the
crowning ornament of man’s structure. We have now to consider the
diseases to which it is subject; and first we will speak of Baldness.
Where partial baldness arises from debility of the system, the growth
of hair usually follows on restoration to health, and accidental
baldness may generally be removed by the ordinary applications. But
the baldness of a more permanent character, which results from the
obliteration of the hair-follicles, seldom admits of a perfect remedy.
In such cases the skin is smooth and glossy, as is duly noted by
Chaucer, in his portrait of the monk:
“His head was bald, and shone as any glass.”
This is the alopecia of pathologists, so called because it was said
foxes were especially subject to baldness; or, as some think to
express, by way of irony, that cunning and duplicity may be looked for
in bald men. The ridicule and contempt which the ancients heaped upon
these unfortunate individuals is very obvious. Among the Hebrews the
term bald-pate was an insult and a reproach. The origin of this appears
to have been that baldness was held to be the sign of a corrupt youth
and a dissolute life. And when physiologists are asked to certify to
the falsehood of such calumnies, they answer in riddles like the Sphinx.
“Turpe pecus mutilum, turpis sine gramine campus
Et sine fronde frutex, et sine crine caput.”
The ancients were so proud of their curls and flowing locks, the
physical beauty of manhood, and the charms of their female deities,
earthly and celestial, that, for the sake of antithesis it may be,
they hurled their sarcasms and their sneers with a savage vengeance
or ignoble pity upon their bald-pated victims in a style which modern
politeness declines to imitate. It is surprising that Cæsar should
have shown such sensitiveness about his baldness as to have sought
permission of the Senate to wear his laurel crown at pleasure.
The privilege was granted, and the laurels shaded the bald pate.
Fortunately women are so very rarely bald that we may consider them
exempt from this infliction. Apuleius, in his Melesiacs, says, that
Venus herself, if she were bald, though surrounded by the Graces
and the Loves, could not be pleasing even to her husband, Vulcan.
Herodotus remarked that few Egyptians were bald; and eunuchs, who
have much subcutaneous fat about the scalp, are free from baldness.
It may be some consolation to bachelors to know, that according to
Pliny man in a state of single blessedness is never bald. Caligula and
Nero are numbered among the bald, and kings have been honored with
the title. Baldness has even found panegyrists. Synesius, bishop of
Syrene, in the fifteenth century, wrote in praise of it; and Hucbald,
a Benedictine monk, made it the subject of a curious poem, which he
very appropriately dedicated to Charles the Bald. But these perverse
eulogists were ecclesiastics who reckoned the beauty of the hair and
its enticements part of the vanities of this wicked world it would be
well to get rid of. Happily the hair escaped their treacherous shears.
It is possible, however, to have too much of a good thing; and the
excessive growth of hair where least wanted is numbered among the ills
which flesh is heir to. No one in these days would think the King of
Persia’s porter, seen by Tavernier, deserved a double pension because
he could tie his moustaches behind his neck; for something very like
this may be seen any afternoon in Hyde Park; there is a fashion in such
things, and Nature is by no means niggardly in her gifts to man. But
what is meant by an extraneous growth of hair is very different from
this, and by no means ornamental. We allude to cases where the whole
body has been covered by a growth of long hair. Some miserable Fakirs,
in India, have been seen clothed with hair several inches long. About
1650, a hairy child was shown as a sight, and the strange phenomenon is
thus accounted for in an old play:
“’Tis thought the hairy child that’s shewn about,
Came by the mother’s thinking on the picture
Of St. John Baptist in his camel’s coat.”
But the most frightful instances are those of bearded women. “I
like not when a ’oman has a great peard,” says Sir Hugh; and the
old naturalists are at some pains to assure us that woman is not
barbigerous, for which a very sufficient reason has been given:
“Nature, regardful of the babbling race,
Planted no beard upon a woman’s face;
Not MAPPIN’S razors, though the very best,
Could shave a chin which never is at rest.”
One of the best known examples of this repulsive class, (Trifaldi,
the afflicted Duenna not excepted), is that of Barbara Urselin, born
at Augsburg, and shown in Ratcliffe Highway, in 1668; her portrait
may be seen in Granger’s Biography, and Evelyn takes note of her in
his Journal. Her face and hands were all over hairy, the hair on her
forehead and eyebrows combed upwards, she had a long spreading beard,
the hair of which hung loose and flowing like the hair of the head. A
fellow of the name of Van Beck married the frightful creature to carry
about as a show. Charles XII. had in his army a female grenadier, who
had both the beard and the courage of a man. She was taken prisoner at
the battle of Pultowa, and carried to St. Petersburg, where she was
presented to the Czar; her beard measured a yard and a half. In 1852,
a young woman, a native of Switzerland, with beard and whiskers four
inches long, could find no clergyman to marry her to the object of
her affections, until provided with a certificate from Charing Cross
Hospital. Many other authentic cases are on record, but the subject is
not inviting.
In rare instances, the colour of the hair undergoes a strange
metamorphosis from red to black, or it may be from brown to blue or
green, and sometimes it has been seen spotted like the leopard’s skin.
Instances are known in which it became so sensitive that the slightest
touch caused exquisite pain. Sometimes the hair splits at the point,
and becomes forked. There is also, the very rare disease--plica
Polonica--originating, no doubt, in filth and neglect, in which the
hair becomes inextricably tangled and matted together by a glutinous
fluid from the roots, and the hairs when cut are said to bleed. In
the Museum of the College of Surgeons, the hair of a cat may be
seen exhibiting all the peculiarities of this singular disease. The
elf-locks of the old chieftains which Scott describes:--
“His plaited hair in elf locks spread
Around his bare and matted head--”
and the locks which Queen Mab and the Fairies are accused of weaving
“in foul sluttish hairs,” are no doubt symptoms of the same diseased
and monstrous plaiting.
That the hair is any standard of physical strength is one of those
popular notions which rest on no sufficient data. Samson’s strength
was the direct gift of God--
“God when he gave me strength, to show withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my hair.”
Nisus’ life was held by the singular tenure of one golden or purple
hair, which grew on the top of his head; this was plucked by the hand
of his unnatural daughter and his life fell a sacrifice to her craft:
so runs the tale. We cannot say if hearts are still held in fief by the
gift of a lock of hair, or if lovers in this stern iron-age recognize
the old traditions in their love affairs; but broad lands were conveyed
in other days by as slight a bond. The Earl of Warren, in the reign of
Henry III., confirmed to the church of S. Pancras, at Lewes, certain
land, rent, and tithe, of which he gave seisin _per Capillos capitis
sui et fratis sui Radulfi_; and the hair of the parties was cut off by
the Bishop of Winchester before the high altar.
The hair, from its imperishable nature, constitutes a material link
between the living and the dead; it survives in form and beauty as when
it graced the brows of the living; unchanged in death, it shares in
the lasting homage which we gladly pay to the memory of the brave and
the good. Who can regard with indifference the sacred relics preserved
at Penshurst--the locks of hair of Sir Philip and Algernon Sidney?
Leigh Hunt has other like-treasured memorials, of which an account has
been given to the public by an American author. The locks are those of
Milton, Keats, Shelley, Charles Lamb, Dr. Johnson, Swift; and the poet
may well feel proud to own them.
From what has been said respecting the growth of the hair, it will be
perceived that there are some special points to be attended to, if we
would keep it in perfect order. As the hair rises from the bulb above
the cuticle, it carries with it a thin pellicle, which adheres for a
time to the shaft, and afterwards falls off in minute scales, and forms
a kind of scurf in the hair. Now, this is simply a natural process,
and not to be mistaken for a diseased state of the skin; the scales of
detached film merely require to be removed with the brush and comb.
Very different, however, are the scales on the skin of the head, which,
at times, form a loose dandriff, filling the hair with a most unsightly
scurf. This is a serious evil, and requires patient and careful
treatment to get rid of thoroughly; and nothing can be less likely to
effect a remedy than the use of very hard brushes, which, by irritating
the scalp, tend to aggravate the symptoms. Anything which unnaturally
irritates the skin of the head will originate dandriff; when the
functions of the excretory pores and sebaceous glands are interrupted,
the skin becomes dry, and the cuticle may be said partially to perish;
the dead particles are then thrown off by cuticular exfoliation. Above
all, extreme cleanliness, constant and habitual attention to the purity
of the skin, are the best curatives, and the only safeguard against the
occurence of this very simple, but troublesome and obstinate disease of
the cuticle. The most disagreeable circumstance to be noted in this
complaint is, that those who should enjoy perfect immunity from the
annoyance,--those
“Who have but fed on the roses, and lain in the lilies of life”--
by the use of stimulant pomatums, improper hair-brushes, and badly made
combs, but chiefly the use of abominable nostrums--not unfrequently
entail upon themselves the very evils which are commonly produced by
the opposite means, neglect and inattention to the state of the hair.
The hair requires but a moderate supply of pommade; but this, to be of
any real benefit, must be compounded _secundem artem_, and adapted to
the purpose. Oils and pomatums which merely collect dust are not to
be tolerated, and are frequently had recourse to merely to disguise
the neglect which suffers the hair to become rough from being in
ill-condition. Whenever proper attention is given to the hair, the most
satisfactory results are usually obtained; and without bestowing such
an amount of care, it is impossible to realize the beautiful softness
and lustre which any lady’s tresses may be made to assume. It cost the
poet little to bring together
“Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn;”
but we promise none but very ordinary tresses to such as will not, both
night and morn, with brush and comb, and suitable preparation, detach
every particle of dust from the hair. And to those who can appreciate
the beautiful, and would gratify a more refined feeling than mere
personal vanity, the disposition of the hair affords an admirable
opportunity of setting off, by the graces of art, “the beauty of a
woman’s face”--
“Angels are painted fair, to look like you.”
All the canons of criticism are summed up in the perfections of female
beauty. What greater ornament to perfect beauty that luxuriant hair? We
will conclude our advice to the fair with some old verses of Richard
Lovelace, which express, with the freedom of a poet, a truth that might
take the form of an aphorism, that the beauty of the hair consists in
its flowing outline, its flexibility, and varying tints--the effect of
light reflected from its glossy surface:
“Amarantha, sweet and fair,
Oh, braid no more that shining hair!
Let it fly, as unconfin’d
As its calm ravisher, the wind;
Who hath left his darling, th’ east,
To wanton o’er that spicy nest.
Every tress must be confest,
But neatly tangled, at the best;
Like a clue of golden thread
Most excellently ravelled.
Do not, then, wind up the light
In ribands, and o’ercloud in night,
Like the sun’s in early ray;
But shake your head, and scatter day!”
THE END.
Read & Co., Printers, Johnson’s-court, Fleet-street.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words
have been retained as in the original.