TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 12

TALKS ON HEALTH.

The Right Way to Treat the Hai.. (By A FAMILY DOCTOR.) The condition of the hair is dependent on the condition of the general health. In many cases the principal object of the physician is to improve the patient’s health in the confident anticipation that the condition of the hair will also improve. Take as an instance a grave illness such as typhoid fever. The whole system is profoundly depressed; nothing is working right; appetite, digestive apparatus, heart and lungs are all temporarily out of order. And what happens to the poor aid hair of the head? It falls out in handfuls. Then as the patient gets better a fresh crop of new, strong hair appears until, the health completely restored, the hair is luxuriant as before. Treatment Good and Bad. The application cf lotions and ointments is not by any means always necessary. An anaemic girl should treat her hair only through her general system. Of course, the hair must always be well brushed and washed at certain intervals, but it must not be forgotten that there are two ways of treating the hair—one by direct attention to the scalp, and the other through the medium of the blood that nourishes the roots. Do not be impatient; even if the treatment is highly successful, it will take some weeks before the good effect is fully shown. A hair once grown is unalterable; the blood does not run up the hair as the sap runs up a tree. The Inevitable. Singeing the hair is'useless.; the treatment of hair is the treatment cf the scalp; to burn a bit of hair three or four inches away from the scalp cannot possibly do any'good. There comes a time when you must accept the inevitable; when once the root from which the hair grows is dead, no power on earth will resuscitate the defunct hair. You cannot grow a hyacinth unless there is a bulb to grow it from. Baldness, especially when it runs in the family, may occur very early in life, and it is often very difficult to overcome. Do not be deluded into thinking that a bald scalp can be covered with a luxuriant growth of hair. Superfluous Hairs. A word on the subject of superfluous hair on the face. Thousands of men prefer to be clean-shaven, and spend much time and money on shaving every day. If there were any simple method of removing the hair from the face it would be adopted by men with stubby beards who have to shave every morning and again in the evening if they are going out to dinner. Let us, then, bravely face the fact that there is no royal road to a smooth and peach-like skin; it is a difficult and unsatisfactory subject to tackle. The Young Girls’ Case. May I say thfs? You are too sensitive about the hair on your face, young lady. You think everyone is laughing at you, but you are wrong; you really must forget about those few hairs on the chin. So long as you have a sweet temper and pretty manners and a charming disposition you need not worry. You must distinguish between the hair itself and the hair-root. You can pick the daisies off your lawn and never exterminate them unless you destroy the roots. The applications that are called depilatories remove the hair for the moment, but allow it to grow again from the root. Treatment with an electric needle destroys the root. The electric needle has to be applied to each single hair; it is very useful for dealing with a few large, isolated hairs; it is useless for soft down. Don’t Shave. Dark hairs may be made less conspicuous by bleaching them with a lotion containing hydrogen peroxide; this is a sensible plan for dark hairs on the backs of the arms; it is harmless. Shaving for ladies I mention with caution and hesitation; do not buy a razor after reading this article and then blame me for the result. It may be there are cases where the hair is so thick and so ugly that shaving is the only method of dealing with it; but I take no responsibility unless I have had the opportunity of examining the skin for myself first. N-rays will remove the hair; it is a method much used in curing ring-worm; the hair grows again. To sum up: Try to forget the imaginary disfigurement; no harm in trying bleaching lotion; electrolysis only to be tried on recommendation of a true friend and a wise one; shave on your own responsibility.