GRAY HAIR
Categories:
Beauty
"The only thing to do with gray hair is to admire it." This is
true. Nothing so sets off an aged face like the crown of silver. To color
it is a great mistake. There is absolutely no cure for it; the one thing
we can do is to make it a beauty. Gray hair is due to the exhaustion of
the pigment or coloring cells of the hair, supposed to be occasioned by
the lack of a regular supply of blood.
For the progressive wh
tening of the hair due to the advance of age,
curative agents are rarely of any avail, especially if the trouble is
hereditary. Not that gray hair and baldness are handed down from father to
son, but that the peculiarities of constitution which produce them are
inherent in both. Nervousness, neuralgia, a low physical condition, aid
the falling and blanching of the hair, and the victim should build up the
general system. Preparations of iron and sulphur, taken internally, are
supposed to supply certain elements of growth and pigment-forming power to
the hair.
A solution of iron for external application to the hair, calls for two
drams each of citrate of iron and tincture of nux vomica, and one and
one-half ounces each of cocoanut oil and bay rum. It may be mentioned
here, that faithfulness in treatment means even more than the tonic
applied. To gain any real benefit, one must be persistent in application.
Hair often turns gray "in streaks" to the chagrin of the victim. Or it
whitens above the forehead and temples and remains dark at the back.
Nothing can be done for this.
Gray hair should be kept scrupulously clean, and requires more frequent
washing than hair that holds its color. A very little blueing in the
rinsing water gives a purer, clearer white. For this use indigo, not the
usual washing fluid which is made of Prussian blue. Five cents worth of
indigo will last a lifetime.