FALSE HAIR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 229, 16 January 1877, Page 2

FALSE HAIR.

The doctors have entered their protest against the new Titus fashion of wearing the hair. The celebrated Percy, surgeon in the armies of the Republic and the First Empire, relates that when the soldiers were ordered to part with their long hair for the Roman close clip, the hospitals became as suddenly filled with patients. Long hair has ever been considered as a sign of distinction and rank, and thus perhaps suggestive of strength. Without going back to the time of Samson and Absalom, both victims in a different manner to their hair, the Gauls and the Franks attached great importance to flowing locks, and these would doubtless be in vogue to-day, only for the wounded head of Francis 1., the diseased scalp of Louis XIV., which necessitated a bag wig, and the men of the Reign of Terror, whose ringlets became a detestation. Doctors recommended the wearing of the hair long, provided there be time for caring for it; if not, cut it, but so as not to impart to the wearer the look of a lion, a tiger, or a goat. Similarly, ladies ougat not to disguise their features. Tiie hair has no roots in the sense that a plant lias ; it springs from a secretion in the cell, in the folds of the skin, of the head for example, and thus forms the bulb or stein. TVhen this cell is full it pushes forward a point, that hardens on contact with the air, and that can be seen in the case of the chin the next day after shaving ; into tins cell or sac open numerous neighboring glancis, that coloring secretion and a fatty matter that impart suppleness and gloss to the hair, and which when insufficient, a little pomatum benefits. The hair itselr is a tube, containing marrow or pith, and coated with a bark or epidermis : the end of the hair is very pointed. The nails are but a kind of hair tissue. "With v. 7 omen the hair is longer than with men, avid the sun would seem not to be a stranger to the colour, as black is peculiar to people within the tropics, and blonde to those 01 more temperate zones.