FALLING OF THE HAIR, AND BALDNESS.

Hitherto we have spoken of the hair in health. We shall now review its most common diseases, and give their home treatment.

The scalp is subject to most of the affections which attack other portions of the skin, and also to some which are peculiar to itself. Some of them are unusu ally obstinate, and most of them are less easily treated on account of the covering of hair and the feeble circulation on the top of the head.

More common than any single one of these diseases is a gradual falling or thinning of the hair, without visible cause. It occurs usually between the ages of twenty and thirty, and in women more frequently than in men. Sometimes it commences during pregnancy, or in the late summer. The hair is reproduced very slowly, and has a dry, withered look, the partings become more and more visible, and finally there is an unmistakable tendency to a bald spot on the crown.

Such a state of things causes well-founded alarm, and one 66 hair-restorer" after another, mentioned in the newspapers and on bill-posters, is tried, and tried in vain. The young lady becomes distressed at the prospect of baldness, and is ready to take advantage of any means that will restore the glossy locks of Let us see what we can do to assist her.

yore.

This thinning of the hair arises from some definite

CAUSES OF BALDNESS.

291

cause-be sure of that; and be sure that if the cause is removed the hair will regain its vigor. The cause may lie in the condition of the scalp itself, or, so intimate is the sympathy of all parts of this body of ours, it may depend upon the disturbed action of some remote internal organ.

It may seem strange to say that dyspepsia is a frequent cause of loss of hair-yet this is undoubtedly true, and no tonics or restorers will do a particle of good until the dyspepsia is cured. Complaints peculiar to the sex are another fertile cause, and general debility brought about by watching, overwork, bad air, or irregular habits, is likewise often to blame. These general disorders must be remedied by a timely course of medicine, the blood must be purified, the secretions regulated, the skin brought into healthy action, and then we can with great confidence go to work on the head itself.

If the scalp is very carefully examined with a lens, it will usually be found in such cases not so healthy as it looks at first sight. There will appear some dryness, or scurfiness, or irritability; the roots of the hairs will be found reddened and spongy; the surface will feel hot; some odor other than natural will be perceived. It may be that while all seems sound to the naked eye, the microscope will at once reveal a wide-spread local disease.

Supposing the scurfiness to be slight, and no erup

tion present, the treatment must be commenced by a gentle wash in tepid water with Castile or sulphur soap. No harsh soap must be used, and secret or rancid applications must be avoided. The head once cleaned, it should for a fortnight be oiled night and morning with a small quantity of the following mixture, which should be brushed into the skin with a soft tooth-brush:

Take

Of pure glycerine
Lime-water

three drachms;
four ounces.

This will bring the skin into a more healthy condition, and prepare it for the advantageous use of a stimulating wash, which it is not well to employ at the outset. There are hundreds of these washes or hair tonics advertised, very few of which deserve any praise. The prices charged for them are high, the materials are often dangerous, and of inferior quality. In place of them, we shall give several receipts for approved tonics which we have used in our own practice with satisfaction, and which can be obtained from any apothecary.

After two weeks the above mentioned formula can be used with the addition of half an ounce of tincture of cantharides, and later with one ounce of the tincture. The brushing should be more persistent, enough to bring a slight redness to the surface. Or the following lotion may be employed:

This should not be used more frequently than every

other day. The following may be applied morning and evening:

Strong decoction of Peruvian bark

Brandy

Glycerine

half a pint;

wineglassful.

tablespoonful.

We have also seen the following "home recipe" do

The Rev. John Wesley used to recommend in threatened baldness to rub the scalp with the freshly-cut surface of a raw onion. As this is quite an active stimulant, the advice is unquestionably sound, though the application is certainly not elegant. Water in which mustard has been boiled, the juice of horseradish, the spirits of garden thyme and rosemary, and many similar articles have local popularity as hair tonics.

They all depend for their virtues on the power they have to stimulate the scalp. Probably the lotions we have given above are better than any of them.

A very effectual stimulant, and one we especially recommend on account of the ease and neatness with which ladies with long hair can have it applied, and the excellent effects it has, is electricity, or its modification, galvanism. A current of moderate force should be passed through the scalp for fifteen or twenty minutes daily. This excites the action of the bloodvessels, and restores the nervous force to the part. It may be regarded, when judiciously and regularly applied, as at once the most efficient and the neatest hair tonic known, where local debility is the trouble. Nor does its use interfere with the other means which we have suggested.

Finally, shaving the head may be resorted to. This, as we have previously said, is not approved by many, and there are no doubt numerous cases where it would be ill advised. Nor can it be expected to have marked results, unless other means are also employed. The shaving should be performed once a week for at least three months, in order to obtain its full effect, and in the meantime the scalp should be stimulated daily by electricity, the cold bath, frictions with strong liniments, or brushing. When all these are attended to, as well as the general health, there is a very good chance that one or the other will prove efficacious, and the hair be materially strengthened.

Even when baldness has actually appeared, the case is not always desperate. If the victim has patience,