Hair

In the April number of Hygeia (medical magazine written for laymen), one Herman Goodman made the following points relative to hair:

There are approximately 100,000 hairs in the normal scalp.

After all fevers, the hairs fall. This loss begins close to 90 days after the height of the fever.

It takes a hair about six weeks to grow one inch. On the crown and back of the head the hair can grow 40 to 50 inches and be not unusual.

Contrary to general belief, cutting hair does not improve its growing qualities. The years when hair grows most quickly are between 35 and 60. The thickest hairs laid side by side, number 150 to the inch; silky hairs laid side by side, are 500 to the inch.

Contrary to general belief, there is no hollow tube running the length of the hair. Therefore, singeing is foolishness.

One should not grow nervous upon finding a hair on the coat collar. Normally, in the healthiest of persons, a hair grows old, is lost, and a new hair takes its place.

Persons living in the city should wash their hair about once in two weeks. Castile soap, warm water, olive oil are useful.

Dry the hair with a warm turkish towel; pat it--do not rub it.

Use a wide-tooth comb; fine-tooth combs pull the hair out. Hairbrush bristles should be only moderately stiff.

The treatment of hair is just as much a part of medicine as that of other organs; barbers, drug clerks, hairdressers have no secret insight into the problem.

Charles Nestle, originator of the famed Nestle wave, addressed the American Master Hairdressers' Association at the Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan. Said he: "A few more years of the bobbed hair craze and the shingled belles and women will be as bald as men. The reason men become bald is because their hair is cut so often and so short. Each hair is supported by a muscle; as the hair grows heavier, the muscle grows proportionately stronger. But when the hair is cut, the muscle is deprived of its normal exercise, loses its function, the hair falls out. The most beautiful hair is that which is allowed to grow unhampered. As long as the barbers rule the waves, woman's hair will never be her crowning glory."