Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/323

 allow them to lay as much as possible in their natural folds; it should not twist the hairs tightly, nor separate them in a great many bands, but fold them loosely, and allow them to be well aired; it should not keep the hairs in one position, especially if that be an unnatural one, for any great length of time; it should never impart to the features an ignoble or fatuous expression; it should not imitate one of the lower varieties of our race, and still less should it resemble the disposition of the hair on any of the inferior animals; it should aim at simplicity, not require much network or artifices to keep it in position, not heat the head, nor strain the hairs, nor be of much weight; it should neither oblige the wearer to expose the half-protected or quite uncovered scalp to the sun and blasts, nor yet by its thickness prevent the ventilation and unobstructed passage of secretions necessary to the health of the hair-bulb. In short, as the English balladist sings:—

"Hair loosely flowing, robes as free, Such sweet neglect more pleaseth me, Than all the trickeries of art Which strike the eye, but not the heart."

There is nothing new in these views. "The characteristics of beautiful hair," says a distinguished writer on the subject, "have ever been what they are now. The simple natural arrangement of the hair has the same charms for us that the ancients conceded it. None but the artists of the Middle Ages could perceive