Perhaps one of the most pernicious compounds used for the hair at the present day is that which is sold in the shops as a depilatory. It is usually a mixture of quicklime and arsenic, and is wrongly used and recommended at this time by many physicians to remove hairy moles and an excessive growth of hair upon ladies' faces. Its application excites inflammation of the skin; and, while it removes the hair from the surface for a time, it often leaves a scar, or makes the part rough, congested, and deformed.
In the meantime, the hair will grow after a short period stronger, coarser, and changed in color, which will even more disfigure the person's countenance. With the present scientific knowledge of the application of electrolysis, hairs can be removed from the face of ladies or children, or in any improper situation, in the most harmless manner without using such obnoxious and injurious compounds as depilatories.
In conclusion, let me add that, if the hair becomes altered in texture, or falls out gradually or suddenly, or changes in color, a disease of the hair, either locally or generally, has set in, and the hair, and perhaps the constitution, now needs, as in any other disease, the constant care of the physician.
A general remedy for this or that hair disease that may develop will not answer, as hair diseases, like other affections, have no one remedy which will overcome wasting, thinning, or loss of color. Patients reasoning upon this belief, frequently apply to me for a remedy to restore their hair to its full vigor or give them back its color. I always reply that I have no such remedy.
The general health, as well as the scalp and hairs, must be examined carefully, particularly the latter, with the lens and microscope. All changes must be watched, and the treatment varied from time to time according to the indications.
No one remedy can, therefore, under any circumstances, suit, as the remedy used to-day may be changed at the next or succeeding visit. No remedy for the hair will be necessary if the foregoing advice be followed which I have just narrated, and which is the result of some seven years of labor and experience.
The proper consideration and putting into practice of these suggestions will most certainly secure to the rising generation fewer bald heads and more luxuriant hair than is possessed at the present day.