TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 11 September 1937, Page 5

TALKS ON HEALTH

15V A FAMILY DOC'TOK

SUPERFLUOUS HAIR Some of you arc much 100 sensitive ;iboul this defect.. 1 quite agree that all women ought to make themselves look as nice as possible. It is a bad sign when a girl is quite indifferent as to her appearance; but there must be a reasonable limit to all things. Mypersensilivenoss becomes almost a disease in i I self, and you must not imagine because you have a few hairs on your face that everyone is laughing at you and making fun of you behind your back. It may be a little comfort to some of you to know that the hair is not nearly so apparent as you think

after a close and minute scrutiny with i your face almost against the looking-' glass. j DON'T USE DRUGS

I Whatever else you do to remove the *■ hairs, do not go in for internal reme- ’ dies: it is useless and most ridiculous to swallow medicine for superfluous ' ; hair on the face. If you imagine that ; the drug is going to oblige you by 5 | picking the hairs off your face and | making them fall off you are very i 1 much mistaken. Besides, if the drug . | would make the hair come out it would 1 : also take it off the head, and everyone l; of your eyelashes would fall out. What :; a sight you would look then! Your I i eyebrows would disappear, and you I I would look anything but a respectable 1 ! and wholesome young lady of the | twentieth century. DESTROY THE ROOTS I In dealing with the removal of the ! hair from the face you should bear in 1 mind the difference between the hair : and the roots. You may pluck the i daisies from your lawn as often as you 1 like, but unless you dig up the roots you will never get rid of the daisies. II is the same with hairs—mere pluck- . ing out of the hairs or destroying them (with some depilatory is useless if you j leave the roots or hair follicles. The hair will grow again immediately if ’the root is left alive —hair grows very : fast. So that we must have nothing to ! dc with applications which destroy the ! hair and leave the roots alive. Such j preparations have to be used over and ! over again, and the sensitive skin cannot stand it. I cannot recommend the ! use of X-rays for the removal of hair 1 from the face. If the rays are used in moderate doses the hair always returns lin a very short time, and if a strong dose is used there is danger of causing a burn which is dreadfully disfiguring. I ELECTROLYSIS ! ; Electrolysis consists of pressing a needle through which an electric curj rent is passed right down to the hairroot or follicle. This thoroughly destroys the root for ever, and a permanent cure of the disfigurement is brought about. Electrolysis is useless for the treatment of fine down, or even thick hair; it is impossible to attack every single hair on a downy chin. It would lake years to acomplish the task, and the skin would be so scarred by the hundreds of minute puncturewounds that the final result would give no satisfaction. Electrolysis is most useful in cases where there are only a few scattered, coarse hairs. A BLEACHING PROCESS If the superfluous hair is dark you can make it considerably less conspicuous by applying hydrogen peroxide to it. This preparation bleaches the clary | hair. It is a very useful method of dealing with hair on the face and on the back of the arms. It is quite harmless. The darker the hair the better the results will he. The hydrogen peroxide can he bought in small quanti-

| tins at a time, and should he kept seicurely corked. LADIES WHO SHAVE I The question of shaving is mentioned after great hesitation. Some ladies find I shaving the best way out of the trouble, i'l'he objection to this process is that d is said to .stimulate the growth and make the hairs coarser still. 1 lhmk | this is so in many cases, but certainly not in itll. Personally, 1 do not recommend you to shave. This method is undoubtedly suitable to a certain kind of case, but it cannot be guaranteed to suit every woman who has a few hairs on the face. Shaving is cheap; electrolysis is expensive. NOT EASY TO GET RID OE Superfluous hair is by no means an I easy thing to get rid of. Beware that you do not spend your money on *''n’thless quack medicines and remedies. First of all make up your mind whether the hair is worth troubbng about and whether it would not bo far wiser to give up thinking or bothering about it. If you feel that the superfluous hair is really annoying and inconvenient to have on the face, then settle whether the hair is to be classed as down nr as definite, welldeveloped hair. If it is only down, try peroxide. If there arc only a few hairs —few but thick —electrolysis is the best and only satisfactory remedy. If it is very thick, and more like a man’s moustache, you may consider the question of shaving, but bear in mind that I take no responsibility. TRAIN SICKNESS Children arc not naturally good travellers. Excitement should be avoided as far as possible, and the proper amount of rest should be obtained. A little simple dosing before the journey may prove effectual. Liquid magnesia may be given for a few days before the journey is due, and the food during that period should be as simple as possible. On the great day of departure a good breakfast should be supplied. and the child should not be allowed to consume promiscuously biscuits, fruit and sweets on the journey. For the mid-day meal wholesome sandwiches or something of the kind might be followed by sponge cakes with milk i and water to drink while an apple and banana or orange might follow. The : dosing and regulation of food may pre-; vent train sickness; but the child must. obtain proper rest and should not be allowed to stand about in a rocking > train or look constantly out of the window, for by that means eye strain is induced. DON’T COUGH Just try to give up smoking for one month and see how it suits you. You lose your irritating cough; that your

Ihruat feels more comfortable, and that I your head feels clearer. At. the end of the month you must reckon up what you have saved. It is an experiment well worth trying; cigarettes are dear and nasty nowadays; you will heal, the other football team if you have cast your cigarettes aside. If is the strain of (he last five minutes that wins and loses football matches. ABOUT SUPPERS I,ale suppers of anything that takes a long lime to digest are injurious, for the simple reason that when they are eaten the digestion of the eater must lie at work during the greater part of the night, although he or she may be fast asleep. During sleep every organ of the body should be at rest as far as possible; the digestive organs cannot rest if given a pork cl op or a tough steak to work upon, for the digestion of such things lakes five hours, or even more. ON FEEDING INVALIDS In feeding an invalid, remember milk is more nourishing than beef tea, but beef tea is the better stimulant. In making beef tea, soak the finely-cut beef in the cold water for half an hour before boiling it, so as to get as much as possible of the nourishment of the beef in liquid form.