HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22492, 29 January 1943, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

DANDRUFF DANGERS (Prepared and issued by the Health Department). Healthy hair can spring only from a healthy scalp, and a healthy scalp is not hard to achieve if you are prepared to take a little trouble. Tire normal adult usually takes the trouble, but the younger generation is usually far too busy doing other things to worry about such little things as hair care. So the parents have to do it for them. A particularly common complaint, and one that plainly indicates lack of scalp cleanliness, is dandruff. In a healthy, properly-cared for scalp dandruff cannot show up; the little fungus (wrongly styled bottle or flash bacillus) that burrows into the hair follicles and causes the dandruff scales, finds it hard to exist. To combat dandruff regular washing of the scalp is essential in the first instance. A mixture of equal parts of kerosene and olive oil at one time was a highly-recommended lotion, but these days olive oil is practically off the market, and kerosene is not easy to obtain. As an alternative, an inexpensive ointment or lotion containing 3 per cent of sulphur and 3 per cent of salicylic acid is suggested. In cases of mild dandruff it is necessary to use the mixture only occasionally, but in more severe cases it may be necessary to rub it into the scalp after every washing, say twice a week. Besides being a hall mark of carelessness and untidiness, dandruff, unchecked, can lead to chronic or severe scalp trouble called seborrhoea. and, of course, it is well-known as a contributory cause of baldness.