The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-07
Some Points Not Very Gsner-
ally Known About Its Growth
and Care.
a Noted Medical Authority Dis
courses OF the Hairs on
the Head.
why Women Ia Not Get Hald, for
which Disease There II No Cure
Kinky Hair.

.IOU Mky uOt DID AWARE sunS 1A1 NIL >
human being, like the nails, Ia simply a
modification Of the scarf-skin or epjder-
mis- said a noted medical authority to a
Washington Star reporter. ''Such, how
ever, is the case. Everyone ia interested in
the hair 40 a physical adornment, and it
ought not to be uninteresting to learn just
how IL grows.
1.-THE root Of each individual hair il
planted in a little sac in the skin-the lat
tor shaped like a longish vase with a nar-
row neck and fiaring slightly At the rim.
From this vase the hair grows, as a flower
does out Of a Aower-pot. The vase is COM
posed of an inner and outer coat and at the
very bottom Of it is the germ or seed OF the
hair. In fact, the seed is Embedded in the
bottom of the vase.
''The germ itself is incloged and clasped
by what is called the bulb OF the hair.
From the bulb which is pea~r-shaped. with
the big end upward, rises the root of tho
hair, from which sprouts the stalk. One
hundred thousand of such stalks on your
head or mine make a fair average scalp cov-
ering. In other words, the average person
has about that many hairs on his or her
head.
80 each hair, you see, is like a plant
growing from and depending for sustenance
not desire it you jerk it out of the socket,
and it seems mysterious to you that another
hair should invariably appear in its place.
Indeed, it seems as if it rather agreed with
the health of a hair to be pulled 'out from
time to time.
1.-THE reason for this is very simple. Pull
out q healthy hair, and upon viewing under
a microscope you will find that the lower
extremity is a g%elatinous lump, somewhat
ragged. This is the root with a portion Of
the inner coat Of tho vase above mentioned
clinRing to it. If the root is taken out why
does the plant grow again? Simply because
the germ or seed at the bottom Of the vase
remains undisturbed and Immediately pro-
ceeds to produce a new root and hair stalk.
There ia only one way of destroying q hair
that science has thus far discovered,
namely, to introduce an electric needle into
the vase, thrust it down to the bottom and
kill the germ. The operation Is a costly
one to have properly performed. but what
woman who can afford the expense will hes
itate at it to get rid Of q moustache or OBJ
jectionable hairs upon her armsI Why,
money is no object whatever in such a CAGE.
Women often find that their hair comes
out readily in the process of combing. n
yet they do not grow bald. This is because
the hairs that SO easily drop out of the scalp
have lost vitality, perhaps because the roots
have been called upon to support too long
stems. Hence the roots snrivel and the
hairs slip out Of their vases. But the germs
remain, to reproduce new hairs, and SO
badness does not result. But If atrophy or
lack of nourishment attacks the very germs
of the hairs themselves they die n the
victim of the complaint, which is apt to be
more or less hereditary, becomes bald. For
such badness quacks advertise remedies,
but you can see for yourself how impossible
- so <hok That's 0I1oOad nnpnG ahnr11 ornnn.
plish any result. The seeds OF the hairs are
dead and can never produce the plants
again.
I'm old age the pigment supplied by ma
cure to the hair is apt to fail. and the
growth loses it's color, becoming first gray
process of this transformation it assumes
for a while a Rreenish tint, which is far
from beautiful. However, there is nothing
~handsomer than white hair. Far from
making a woman look older, it gives years
Of youth to her appearance, softening Incl
d%entally all the lines of her face. The old
man who, to seem young, dyes bis beard
black as a shoe brush makes himself simply
a CHASTITY object.
"What makes a negro's hair kink? That
is easily explained. The straight hair is
round-cylindricnl. / would say; but curly
hair is made SO by the fact that its tube is
fiatter. Negro hair is fattened in places
and distorted throughout its length; there
fore it kinks.
"The curling tongs, by means of their
heat, contract one side of each hair, and it
consequently curls toward that side. Sue
is the philosophy of the instrument'so opera
ton. Necessarily this heat frequently ap-
piled Injuries the hair, dissipates the oily
matter essential to its health, renders the
plant dry and damages its growth more or
less permanently.
AT the narrowest part of the vase from
which the hair grows one or more Oil glands
enter the vase for the purpose of keeping
the hair oily and healthy. Sometimes it
happens that the oil thus secreted forms a
clot in the vase and hardens. Nature then
tries to get rid of this clot, as of any other
foreign body, and the result is what If
called a 'pimple.' There is inflammation
and either the clot is absorbed OF it is OK.
PEELED. What is commonly termed a black.
hend' is a small particle of dirt gathered or
the surface Of the oil clot in a hair sac. A
watch key pressed npon the spot is likely tc
force out the clot n thus prevent % PIN.
pie or the clot nay be loosened by the
careful introduction of a needle and Their
squeezed out.
Each hair sac or vase is supplied with
muscles, which, being caused to act by Ger.
tain eruptions, may occasion u rising oil
the hair, as from fear. 1t is believed now,
consistently with the views of many of the
best medical authorities, that it is entirely
possible-that a PERSONS hair may bs turned
white within a few hours by fear or other
wise, through chemical combined with cap.
Hilary action"