Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 29.

Health and Temperance.

Lost Her Hair.

Many a person has had cause to regret using hair dyes and invigorators. Many of those advertised as such are positively injurious. If one is anxious to improve the growth of the hair, the best way to do it is to assist nature by keeping the scalp in a healthy, vigorous condition by frequent brushings with a bristle, not a wire, brush, and an occasional bathing of the head in castile soap and water.

An acquaintance of the writer had the following peculiar experience from trying a hair wash in her youth.

The young girl had an abundant growth of light brownish hair; but, to her regret, it lacked luster. She one day chanced to call on a friend who had fine, glossy hair.

“What beautiful hair you have!” she exclaimed, looking admiringly at her friend’s shining tresses.

“Yes, it’s pretty good, what there is of it,” was the reply, “but I wish it were thick like yours.”

“Oh dear, I have hair enough, but it’s dead-looking! I’d give anything if it were only dark and glossy like yours. Do you put anything on your hair to make it so nice?”

“Not often,” said the friend. “Once in a while I put on Dashe’s ‘Invigorator.’ It’s very nice, I think.”

Soon after the young woman took her leave. On her way home she purchased a bottle of Dashe’s “Invigorator.”

That night, just before going to bed, she made an application of the new remedy, and for a week she kept up this nightly application, wetting her hair and brushing it in.

To her delight, her hair began to grow darker and, she thought, more glossy. She also observed that her brush and comb gathered more hair than formerly when she used them.

Feeling of her hair one day, she discovered a bald spot, about the size of a silver quarter of a dollar, on the back of her head.

This was the beginning of trouble. Her hair fell out of itself, or with a touch, after this. Bald places came here and there, and in less than six weeks the top of her head was quite bare.

This was a sorrowful time for the unfortunate girl. Her father laughed, and indulged in a good deal of bantering at her expense; and for a time insisted on her going to school daily. He considered it a just punishment for her not letting well enough alone.

But when she became quite bald, save for the fringe of hair around her head, she left off going to school, and would not see any one who called. She was filled with grief and chagrin.

A lace cap was made, and in this, for two months, the poor girl appeared before her family. Her father thought her hair would soon grow out again, but it didn’t. He at length bought her a wig, which she was obliged to wear for two years. By that time a short growth of perfectly white hair covered her head.

Sixteen years later there was no change. Her hair is still white and about an inch in length. It has never grown longer. It was a hard experience; and naturally she is a bitter enemy of all hair dyes and invigorators.—Youth’s Companion.