# The Ugly-Girl Papers/Chapter 2
### CHAPTER II.

* Care of the Hair.
* Children's Hair.
* When to Cut it.
* Ammonia Washes.
* Glycerine and Ammonia.
* Pomades.
* How to Brush the Hair.
* Cutting the Ends.
* German Method of Treating the Hair.
* Southernwood Pomade.
* Hair-Dyes.
* Dyeing the Eyebrows and Eyelashes.
* Superfluous Hair.
* Depilatories.
* Washes for the Eyelashes and Eyebrows.
St. Paul approved himself no less a connoisseur of female beauty than a censor of decorum when he wrote, "If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her." This is in no wise inconsistent with the other apostolic passage which discourages ornate hair-dressing, for abundant shining hair needs less care to arrange than a scanty crop that must be disposed to the best advantage. The woman whose magnificent chevelure reaches to her waist, thick as one's wrist when tightly bound, needs no braid nor cataract, finger-puff nor ​snow-curl, nor band of gold or amber to crown herself. Every girl ought to have such hair. Mothers should remember that such gifts of nature form a dowry which has no little weight in the incidents of a woman's life, and should cultivate assiduously the locks of their daughters. It is not best to keep them closely cut: after five years they should never be touched by scissors, save to clip the ends once a month, as hereafter explained, but should be smoothly braided in long Marguerite plaits, the most convenient style, unless the mother is ambitions of seeing her pet's hair in curls. Hardly any locks will resist good discipline, if taken in the downy stage of infancy and submitted to papillotes. It is a mistaken notion that a luxuriant growth of hair in childhood weakens the head. Nature is not in the habit of providing superfluities. The Breton women are noted for their magnificent hair, which is allowed to grow from childhood. The barbarity of the fine comb should be abolished in civilized nurseries, and a daily or ​semi-weekly wash with ammonia or soap substituted, with a thorough brushing afterward. A child's head is too tender for any rasping process; even knotted snarls should be ent rather than pulled out. Send tow-headed children into the sun as much as possible, that its rays may affect every particle of the iron in the blood, and change the flaxen colors to more agreeable shades.
When the hair has been neglected, cut it to an even length, and wash the scalp nightly with soft water into which ammonia has been poured. This may be as strong as possible at first, so that it does not burn the skin. Afterward the proportions may be three large spoonfuls of ammonia to a basin of water. Apply with a brush, stirring the hair well while the head is partially immersed. Do this at night, so that it may have a chance to dry, for nothing is so disagreeable as hair put up wet and turned musty. Wring and wipe it thoroughly, then comb and shake out the tresses in a draft of air till nearly dry, when it may be ​done up in a cotton net. Night-caps heat the head and injure hair. Ammonia is the most healthful and efficient stimulus known for the hair, and quickens its growth when nothing else will do so. A healthy system will supply oil enough for the hair if the head is kept clean. If the scalp is unnaturally dry, a mixture of half an ounce of carbonate of ammonia in a pint of sweet-oil makes the mostesteemed hair invigorator. Glycerine and ammonia make a delicate dressing for the hair, and will not soil the nicest bonnet. Pomades of all kinds are voted vulgar, and justly. The only excuse for their use is just before entering a sea bath, when a thorough oiling of the hair prevents injury from salt water. It should be speedily washed off with a dilution of ammonia.
When a growth of young hair is established, it ought to lengthen at least eight inches a year in a vigorous subject. Hair is an index of vitality. The women of the tropics, with their abounding health, have luxuriant cheve​lures. Among Spanish and South American women hair a yard long, in a coil as thick as the wrist, is the rule, and not the exception. The warmth of those latitudes favors the secretions, and stimulates every organ to its fullest development. To obtain like results, we must try to obtain the same conditions of luxuriant health. A good circulation is essential to fineness and pleasing color of the hair. The scalp must be stimulated by frequent brushing, as well as by the ammonia bath. A lady of fashion decreed one hundred strokes of the brush to be given her celebrated locks daily, and those who have tried the experiment find that it is not at all too much. Given quickly, this number occupies three minutes in bestowing, and surely this is little enough time to give a fine head of hair. Once a month the ends of the hair should be cut, to remove the forked ends, which stop its growth. The patrons of a certain New York school of high repute will remember the young daughter of an Albany gentleman, whose wonderful ​hair was the pride of the establishment. The child was about ten years old, and her heavy tresses reached literally to the floor. She was not unfrequently shown to visitors as a phenomenon, veiled in this flood of hair. On inquiry, it was found that no peculiar treatment was given it beyond cutting the ends regularly every month for years.
An old authority gives the following as the German method of treating the hair. The women of that country are known to have remarkably luxuriant locks: Once in two weeks wash the head with a quart of soft water in which a handful of bran has been boiled and a little white soap dissolved. Next rub the yolk of an egg slightly beaten into the roots of the hair; let it remain a few minutes, and wash it off thoroughly with pure water, rinsing the head well. Wipe and rub the hair dry with a towel, and comb it up from the head, parting it with the fingers. In winter do all this near the fire. Have ready some soft pomatum of beef marrow, boiled with a little ​almond or olive oil, flavored with mild perfume. Rub a small quantity of this on the skin of the head after it has been washed as above. This may be efficient, but in this age women prefer the cleanlier method of stimulating the hair without pomade.
If any ladies are as fond of stirring up cosmetics and washes as were the wife and daughters of the Vicar of Wakefield, they may try these highly recommended recipes:
The following is said to be an excellent curling fluid: Put two pounds of common soap cut small into three pints of spirits of wine, and melt together, stirring with a clean piece of wood; add essence of ambergris, citron, and neroli, about a quarter of an ounce of each.
Rowland's Macassar Oil for the hair: Take a quarter of an ounce of the chippings of alkanet root, tie this in a bit of coarse muslin, and suspend it in a jar containing eight ounces of sweet-oil for a week, covering from the dust. Add to this sixty drops of the tincture of cantharides, ten drops of oil of rose, neroli and ​lemon each sixty drops. Let these stand three weeks closely corked, and you will have one of the most powerful stimulants for the growth of the hair ever known.
Take a pound and a half of southernwood and boil it, slightly bruised, in a quart of old olive-oil, with half a pint of port-wine or spirit. When thoroughly boiled, strain the oil carefully through a linen cloth. Repeat the operation three times with fresh southernwood, and add two ounces of bear's grease or fresh lard. Apply twice a week to the hair, and brush it in well.
Where a hair-dye is deemed essential, the deplorable want may be met by this recipe, which has the merit of being less harmful than most of the nostrums in use: Boil equal parts of vinegar, lemon-juice, and powdered litharge for half an hour, over a slow fire, in a porcelain-lined vessel. Wet the hair with this decoction, and in a short time it will turn black.
Lola Montez gives a hair-dye which is said ​to be instantaneous, and as harmless as any mineral dye used. It is made from gallic acid, ten grains; acetic acid, one ounce; tincture of sesquichloride of iron, one ounce. Dissolve the gallic acid in the sesquichloride, and add the acetic acid. Wash the hair with soap and water, and apply the dye by dipping a fine comb in it and drawing through the hair so as to color the roots thoroughly. Let it dry; oil and brush.
White lashes and eyebrows are so disagreeably suggestive that one can not blame their possessor for disguising them by a harmless device. A decoction of walnut-juice should be made in the season, and kept in a bottle for use the year round. It is to be applied with a small hair pencil to the brows and lashes, turning them to a rich brown, which harmonizes with fair hair. It may be applied to the edge of the hair about the face and neck, when that is paler than the rest. Let me repeat. that the best remedy for ill-used tresses is strict care; glossy, vitalized tresses, kept in or​der by constant brushing, assume by degrees a better color. It is a mistake to soak red hair with oil in the hope of making it darker; it should be kept wavy and light as possible, to show off the rich lights and shadows with which it abounds. The sun has a good effect on obnoxious shades, of hair if it is otherwise well attended to, and red or white locks should be worn in floating masses, waved by fine plaiting at night, or by crimping-pins, which do not injure hair unless worn too tight. Pale hair shows a want of iron in the system, and this is to be supplied by a free use of beef-steaks, soups, pure beef gravies, and red wines. Saltwater bathing strengthens the system, and acts favorably on the hair. As to color, hardly any shade is unlovely when luxuriant and in a lively condition. It is only when diseased or uncared for that any color appears disagreeable. Sandy hair, when well brushed and kept glossy with the natural oil of the scalp, changes to a warm golden tinge. I have seen a most obnoxious head of this color so changed by a ​few years' care that it became the admiration of the owner's friends, and could hardly be recognized as the withered, fiery locks once worn.
Superfluous hair is as troublesome to those who have it as baldness is to others. There is no way to remove it but by dilute acids or caustics, patiently applied time after time, as the hair makes its appearance. The mildest depilatories known are parsley water, acacia-juice, and the gum of ivy. It is said that nut-oil will prevent the hair from growing. The juice of the milk-thistle, mixed with oil, according to medical authority, prevents the hair from growing too low on the forehead, or straggling on the nape of the neck. As Willis says, Nature often slights this part of her masterpiece. Muriatic acid, very slightly reduced, applied with a sable pencil, will destroy the hair; and, to prevent its growing, the part may be often bathed with strong camphor or clear ammonia. The latter will serve as a depilatory, but causes great pain, and must be ​quickly washed off. The depilatories sold in the shops are strong caustics, and leave the skin very hard and unpleasant. Bathe the upper lip, or other feature afflicted with superfinons hair, with ammonia or camphor, as strong as can be borne, and the hair will die out in a few weeks. Moles, with long hairs in them, should be touched with lunar caustic repeatedly. A large, dark mole on a lady's neck was reduced to an unnoticeable white spot, but the nitrate of silver caused a sore for a week in place of the mole. Care should be taken to brush the back hair upward from childhood, to prevent the disfiguring growth of weak, loose hairs on the neck. Fine clean wood-ashes, mixed with a little water to form a paste, makes a tolerable depilatory for weak hair, without any pain. Strong pearlash washes also kill out poor hair.
A clever scientific man suggested that the growth of hair might be hastened by frequently applying electric currents to it, or bathing it in electrical water. Similar experiments ​have been made on vital tissues with remarkable success. But this theory must be left for further development.
The eyelashes may be improved by delicately cutting off their forked and gossamer points, and anointing with a salve of two drachms of ointment of nitric oxide of mercury and one drachm of lard. Mix the lard and ointment well, and anoint the edges of the eyelids night and morning, washing after each time with warm milk and water. This, it is said, will restore the lashes when lost by disease. The effect of black lashes is to deepen the color of gray eyes. They may be darkened for theatricals by taking the black of frankincense, resin, and mastic burned together. This will not come off with perspiration.