Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/294

 confidence. We shall, therefore, speak of hair-dyes as the only means of service in concealing gray hair.

The means for giving a temporary dark shade to the hair are burnt cork, frankincense black, hard pomatum, and leaden combs. None of these are either neat, durable, or satisfactory in color. For stage purposes, private theatricals, masquerades, and so forth, the hard pomatum is the best.

The dyes are intended to give a natural color which will be reasonably permanent. A great deal of ingenuity has been expended in searching for some chemical preparation which will strike a rich color promptly, without staining the skin, or injuring the hair or the general health. The search has been unsuccessful. No such compound has been found.

We shall not go over the long catalogue of mineral and vegetable materials that are now used for the purpose, but confine ourselves to what we consider from our own observation, which has been extensive enough to justify us in having an opinion on the subject, to be the best.

This is, first, nitrate of silver. This yields, when properly diluted and skilfully applied, rich, natural shades, from a light brown to a jet black. The objections to it are that it stains the skin, that it has been known to be absorbed into the system, and lead to that blueness of the whole surface which we have mentioned, and that if applied too strong, too often, or awkwardly, it