Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1909-04-21
HATS, HEADS AND HAIR.
The. Fisst Pronounced Innocent Of
Separating the Other Two.

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The. First Pronounced Innocent Of
Separating the Other Two.
The rules of health for the hair
20 far as we know them are brief.
Brush the hair thoroughly at least
once day, but let the scalp alone.
Let The brushing be thorough and
preferably with two brushes, which
you may use as if you were curry
ing race horse to get him into
show condition. e.,
Keep the hair thoroughly clean
in this way and the scalp will large
ly take care of itself. Wash the
hair as often as may be needed for
cleanliness, which, as a rule, for men
will be once week and for women
about half as often.
Avoid using too strong soaps,
strong alkalies, such as ammonia
and soda, and too hot water, as all
of these take out too much of the
natural lubricant or oil of the hair
and leave it dry and harsh. AS
rule it is well to dry clean the scalp
az much as possible, and it is sur
prising how clean the hair and
scalp can be kept just by thorough
and regular brushing and currying
alone.
The most important detail about
the washing of the hair is that it
should be rubbed or brushed until
thoroughly dry. If this is done in
the short hair of men there is no
objection to wetting it daily or even
two or three times a day if desired.
The risk in leaving it not perfectly
dry is that the natural oil of the
hair when mixed with water rapid
ly decomposcs or ferments.
This condition both irritates the
scalp and furnishes a fine culture
medium for germs, which thereupon
promptly sweep in and give rise to
the commonest form of dandruff.
Particularly Objectionable is the
habit of wetting or Sticking the hair
in order to comb it and avoiding
the use of the brush altogether.
The inteligently used brush is the
best known hair tonic, but when
the vigor Of the hair is beginning to
fail even this may be carried to an
extreme and become injurious.
While it is well to keep the scalp
dry and well ventilated and exposed
to both light and air, there does not
appear to be any valid ground for
the belief that going bareheaded,
particularly in the sun, in any way
promotes the vigor of the hair.
DR.. Woods Hutchinson says in
the Cosmopolitan that $50 far as
we know anything about the inten-
tons of nature it was never meant
that the human head should be ex-
posed to the direct rays of the sun.
Experts are unanimous in declaring
that excessive exposure of already
thinning hair to the direct rays of
the sun will actually accelerate the
process.
81 have seen a great many bald
heads exposed to the no hat cure"
be said, "but l have not seen any
crop, except blisteE, produced
thereon,
''The bulbs of the roots Of the
hair 90 down completely through
the skin and into the fatty layer
which lies between it and the skull,
and the thing that to the expert eye
is really significant of the prospect
as to progress or cure in particu-
lar case is not the condition or color
or cleanliness of the scalp, but the
thickness or thinness Of this fatty |
layer which underlieS it.
$50 long as this is present and
the scalp is freely movable over the
skull there is hope of restoring a
reasonable growth of hair, but when
this has been absorbed and the
shiny scalp sticks as closely to the
skull as the cover on a+baseball the
outlook is practically hopeless"