Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/293

 during an illness. After her recovery a new growth appeared, thick and curly, but of the same silvery hue.

Whatever the cause, extent, or manner of the grayness may be, the practical question is, how to conceal it, if concealment is desired. There are some faces which appear more pleasing with silvery locks, and at a certain age (we will not venture to give figures) it is uncomely to simulate the tresses of youth, when the ravages of years are too plainly visible on the features and the form. In premature grayness no good reason can be offered against hiding the disfigurement.

Can the natural color be restored by diet or by drugs? Many writers and many charlatans aver that it can. The latter are ready to hand out some secret fluid "which is not a dye," the former speak of food rich in carbon and iron, tonic medicines, and such other chemical elements as analysis reveals in dark hair.

We believe that none of these means will with certainty arrest the tendency to grayness, and still less will they bring the color to that which is already blanched. The general experience is that grayness is not a consequence of physical debility, or of an insufficient diet. Nor can any external application materially darken the hair, except as it acts either as a paint or a dye. All claims to the contrary are of little value, and when vehemently urged, cause us to suspect the nostrum which puts them forth as unworthy of