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Hair that is blonde or ruddy,
as well as gray hair, may be washed with Castile soap jelly plus
a quarter-teaspoonful of borax. Always comb and brush thoroughly,
with finger-tip massage. After shampooing is the best time for
scalp massage, hair pulling and skin loosening.
DRY SHAMPOO AND SCALP MASSAGE
The scalp and hair should be
cleansed between shampoos. For this purpose the "dry shampoo"
is necessary. It is actually a form of scalp massage. Preparations
of orris, corn meal and other dry shampoo powders are not recommended.
They stick, and it is hard to get them out of the hair. A vigorous
rubbing of the scalp after the hair has been parted, using a
small piece of muslin over the tip of the finger, is best. Hot
and cold applications are good, with or without shampoo, especially
if the hair is falling. Remember that the hair should not be
"hot-air" dried. The hot-air cone used for the purpose
in hairdressing establishments destroys the hair. Human hair
should always be dried by hand.
Scalp massage makes the hair
grow and prevents many hair troubles. A five-minute finger-tip
massage, night and morning, is the one ounce of prevention worth
a pound of cure. The electrical massage by a professional (after
a shampoo), the violet ray, and the rubber-disk vibrator are
all excellent for the hair. They strengthen and stimulate.
HAIR TONICS
Massage is the first and best
hair tonic. Though a good scalp lotion may stimulate circulation,
massage always does so more directly. In general it will be wise
to remember that tonics are meant for specific purposes of cure
for hair disorders, rather than for common use. A little refined
beef marrow rubbed gently into the hair roots is a good natural
tonic (though an old-fashioned one) and together with plenty
of fresh air and sunshine, does more for the hair than all the
compounded tonics and "restorers" marketed. Every woman
can keep her hair in good condition if she chooses to. If she
cannot give it attention in the morning she should do so at night.
HAIR TROUBLES
Most hair troubles could be
prevented in the start by ordinary good care of the hair, and
the maintenance of the state of general good health. Of course,
various diseases affect the hair: fever dries it out and makes
it fall; syphilis and other sex diseases poison and destroy it.
Some skin diseases have the same effect. In general, if you are
healthy, broadly speaking, your hair will be healthy too.
Dandruff—What we have to
deal with in dandruff is a horny layer cast off by the scalp.
This layer thickens, closes the pores, diminishes the hair's
oil supply, and prevents the perspiration glands from getting
rid of waste. Soon the hair loses tone and color, and is covered
with whitish powder. Then it starts to itch and fall. In an advanced
state of the disease, the hair falls out, and blood crusts form
on the scalp as a result of scratching. Digestive disorders,
toxic elements in the blood or local irritation may cause dandruff,
and it is communicable.
Daily care of the scalp, massage
and brushing, if persisted in when the disorder first appears,
are very beneficial. The crude oil massage of the scalp, not
the hair, is excellent and often effects a cure. A massage every
night, using olive oil, together with repeated shampoos, also
helps to do away with dandruff. Although pomades in general should
be avoided, a pomade with a precipitated sulphur base, mixed
with glycerine, rose-water, lanolin, and soap, or a sulphur ointment
or cream kills the dandruff germ.
There is an "oily dandruff,"
also, though the disease is most commonly a dry scalp one. Shampoo
with tincture of Green soap should cure this type of the disease
in about a week's time. If you have dandruff, observe a regular
diet, and stick as much as possible to milk and fresh fruit.
Falling Hair—An acid condition
of the blood encourages the hair to fall. Correct it and you
will have removed the cause of your complaint. The use of the
violet ray and the vibrator, which hold down the tendency to
an oily scalp, is also valuable for hair treatment in this connection.
So, too, are hot and cold applications.
HAIR DISEASES WHICH SHOULD
NOT OCCUR
Favus, the development of yellow
scalp crusts, accompanied by severe itching, bald spots and a
musty odor, is a dirt disease, hence inexcusable in a woman,
unless as a result of infection. To remove it the scalp must
be soaked in olive oil for a few days, carbolic acid being mixed
with it in a weak solution, the hair pulled out of the most infected
areas, the crusts removed, and the whole scalp shampooed with
an antiseptic soap.
Ringworm is usually a gift of
those evil things, the "common property" comb and brush,
or the patent hair clipper. Rubbing with sulphur ointment, washing
with bichloride soap, or painting with iodine, to precede the
application of a cleansing ointment, is the treatment. It is
dangerous since it may result in baldness.
Head lice (which may be cured
by saturating the hair with kerosene or crude petroleum at night,
wrapping in a towel to retain fumes, and following by antiseptic
soap shampoo) is a most disgusting trouble, and unless communicated
cannot occur except as a result of neglect and uncleanliness.
The possibility of contagion constitutes the menace of all three
of these diseases. |
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