The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-06-24
HERE Is no denying the fact
Z that badness IL Increasing at

an alarming rare among tne
American people. The public
IL appreciates the situation and IL
making a mighty effort to save
It's hair, but the logical result of round
of visits 10 hair and scalp specialists
would be the utter encouragement Of the
patient and his melancholy determine ton
TO grow bald without a struggle One
should go 10 a specialist. put oneself in
his hands and believe I'm him with a
mighty faith The victim will at least
have peace OF mind. He won't have that
If he begins making general inquiries.
The old-fashioned scalp doctor wasn't
an appalling individual, but recently there
have arisen a host OF scalp and hair spe-
ciaIists who are so scientific that they
make whatever hair their patients have
stand up. They don't rub quinine into
ones scalp or massage ones head with
vaseiine or tell one to give the hair one
hundred strokes three times a day with
stinf brush and stop shampooing H. Not
they. They have charts covered with
vivid pictures OF what appear TO be cutie
fish and sea serpents and soft shell crabs
hanging upon their walls. and they get
out large microscopes with which TO ex-
anime the patients scalp and hair. and
they assure him that he has fungi and
microbes and vegetable spores clinging to
his hair Then they point out different
ones among the cutie FISH and sea ser-
penis. and tell him those are the particu-
lar styles of bacteria he affects, and when
he goes away he feels unfit for decent
society and refrains with difficulty from
fleeing from his fellow men and shouting
't'ncleanl uncIean:"
but though up-to-date scalp treatment
Is trihe portentous, there Is hope that
now when genuine scientific knowledge
ard experience IL being brought to bear
upon the hair problem the onrushing Of
badness may be stopped. The causes OF
the increasing badness are incident 10
civilization, and chief and foremost among
them are a diseased condition OF nerves
and circulation and excessive hat-wearing
Innumerabie other details help along the
work. Frequent shampooing with alkaii
soap or with borax or some other drying
and Injurious preparation has done great
harm. So has the average hair tonic.
Hharp-toothed combs and excessively stiff
brushes have broken the scarf skin and
caused Inflammation and disease Of the
under or real skin, which IL extremely
sensitive. Wire hairpins and scarf hat
pins have had tho same effect and have
started disease centers. tnclean brushes,
combs. etc. have transmitted disease
germs OF various forms. The leather hat
band is a great purvoyor OF bacteria, too.
Altogether the cohorts of badness seem
to be lying In wait for unhappy mortality
on every side, and It's brave man who
successfully and persistentIy lodges them.
A scalp specialist who has devoted
twenty years to close study OF his sub
jeot and has won the attention of the
medical world by his original experiments
and discoveries, says that all successful
scalp treatment In the futurs must be
based on the recognition OF the microbe
theory. Tho microb- which attacks the
hair follIcles IL, under the microscope OF
this specialist, mn exceedingly ugly beast,
and his reproductive powers are, so SAYS
the doctor. nothing short of marvellous
When n man who has been laboring under
the impression that he had mild case
Of dandrufr sees this beast. and Is told
that II fs rioting In hundreds through his
locks. his frst impression n that the only
decent thing for him 20 do Is TO cremate
himself. but he mustn't mind few hun
drcd microbes. They can he routed.
Catarrhal Inflammation of the hair fol-
licies," said the specialist. is the most
common OF scalp diseases Nine-tenths Of
gray hair IN usually "A result of It. There's
no doubt that II Ia due to a microbe which
attacks the sebaccous glands. This causes
dandrufr and itching Then the hair be-
gins 10 fall out, and that shows that the
microbe has left the scba ceous glands and
has bnrrowed into the hair follicle There
u causes Inflammation and ioosens the
hair root and goes on To another follicle,
Meanwhile II raises an army OF children,
and they all go 10 work In the same wav.
The wrecked follicles left behind the con
qnerinx host MI up with n fungus growth
and even when new hair sprouts IL Is
poorly nourished and diseased. All tho