511. Personal beauty is the gift of nature, but its preservation depends much on the care of its possessor. Beauty may also be cultivated and enhanced; even plainness may be improved, and the defects that sickness, accidents, and age impress on the human features and form, may be greatly remedied by simple means, and attention to a few important rules.
The first requisite for the preservation and improvement of personal beauty is _good temper_. The teachings of the New Testament, if you follow its precepts, will insure you this grace. The second requirement is _good health_. The most important rules for its preservation and recovery are given in this chapter. The third requisite comprises attention to neatness, and that general care of the person which the rules and receipts we here subjoin, will aid in making complete.
512. _Of the Hair._--It is a great mistake to plait the hair of children under eleven or twelve years of age. The process of plaiting more or less strains the hairs in their roots by pulling them tight; tends to deprive them of their requisite supply of nutriment; and checks their growth. The hair of girls should be cut rather short, and allowed to curl freely. When they are about eleven or twelve, the hair should be twisted into a coil, not too tight, nor tied at the end with thin thread, but with a piece of riband.
513. _Do not Shave the Head._--Shaving the head is always injurious to the hair, the bulbs being frequently destroyed by the process; and washing frequently with an alkaline preparation, such as soap and water, is decidedly objectionable, for that, as well as sea-water, is very apt to change the color of the hair.
514. _To purify and beautify the Hair._--An excellent means of keeping the hair sweet, clean, glossy, and curly, is to brush it with a rather hard brush dipped by the surface only in eau de Portugal ("Portugal water"). In order to have it fresh and of fine quality, take a pint of orange flower water, a pint of rose water, and half a pint of myrtle water. To these put a quarter of an ounce of distilled spirit of musk, and an ounce of spirit of ambergris. Shake the whole well together, and the water will be ready for use. Only a small quantity should be made at a time, as it does not keep long, except in moderate weather, being apt to spoil either with cold or heat.