# The Ugly-Girl Papers/Chapter 18
### CHAPTER XVIII.

* A Letter.
* Trials of a Plain Woman.
* The Best Husband in the World.
* Burdock Wash for the Hair.
* For Children's Hair.
* Oil of Mace as a Stimulant.
* To Restore Color to the Hair.
* Sperm-oil a Powerful Hair Restorer.
* The Cheapest Hair-Dye.
* Cure for Chilblains.
* Loose Shoes the Cause of Corns.
* Pyroligneous Acid for Corns.
* Turpentine and Carbolic Acid for Soft Corns.
Among inquiries not seldom repeated is an urgent demand for a prescription to keep the hair from coming out. The following letter will be acceptable to many readers.
   "I was emphatically one of the 'ugly girls,' being of a very large figure, and inheriting thin hair; otherwise I suited myself well enough. But oh! the agonies I have suffered through my personal deficiencies. Now, with a happy home of my own and the best husband in the world, I can smile at the old distress. Yet it was no less real, and I can pity the ugly girls as nobody but one who has 'been there' can.
   "My hair began coming out when I was just in my teens, and has always been the trial of my life. I have been up ​and down the whole scale of restoratives, with all manner of recipes volunteered by sympathizing friends. Last fall, after returning from a two months' stay near Saratoga, where I had undergone a severe course of treatment for sundry physical ills, my hair came out frightfully, till I was almost without any, and nothing seemed to check it. A relative, an old lady, told me to use burdock-root tea. I tried it, and it worked like a charm. My hair has never grown as it does now, and it has absolutely ceased coming out — something that has not been the case for fifteen years. Something of this may be due, as far as growth is concerned, to a receipt given me by a friend a month or so ago. It is a family receipt, and something of a family secret. The ladies of the house, who use it, have magnificent hair, which they attribute to this receipt. It is a queer conglomerate, as you see: One pound of yellow-dock root, boiled in five pints of water till reduced to one pint; strain, and add an ounce of pulverized borax, half an ounce of coarse salt, three ounces of sweet-oil, a pint of New England rum, and the juice of three large red onions, perfumed at pleasure — (a quarter of an ounce of oil of lavender and ten grains of ambergris would be efficacious in overcoming the powerful scent of the ingredients).
   "My little girl has magnificent hair, but it troubles me by coming out this winter. As she is only five years old, I have hesitated about putting any thing on. I wish you would seme time say if it is best to doctor a child's hair, or let nature take its course. I have learned that to shampoo the head with cold water every morning is an excellent thing, ​as is an occasional thorough washing with soap-suds, not rinsing the soap out completely. I have sometimes checked the fall of hair by such means. The burdock root was also used ⟨by⟩ steeping it in boiling water till a strong tea was made and used as a wash two or three times a day, then at longer intervals."
In answer to the query in the excellent letter above, it may be said that it is always well to cure where there is disease. Simple remedies aid nature. A child's hair is too valuable to lose. One teaspoonful of ammonia to a pint of warm water makes a wash that may be used on a child's head daily with safety. It does not split the hair, as soap will do if left to dry in.
One of the most powerful stimulants and restoratives for the hair is the oil of mace. Those who want something to bring hair in again are advised to try it in preference to cantharides, which it is said to equal, if not to surpass, without the danger of the latter. A strong tincture for the hair is made by adding half an ounce of the oil of mace to a pint of deodorized alcohol. Pour a spoonful ​Page:Ugly-girl papers.djvu/200 ​Page:Ugly-girl papers.djvu/201 ​Page:Ugly-girl papers.djvu/202 ​Page:Ugly-girl papers.djvu/203