Grey hair info

• Grief, worry, shock, malnutrition.
• Heredity.
• The grey lock and its cause.
• Safe and unsafe hair dyes.

There is an old adage to the effect that the glory of a young man is in his strength, and the beauty of the old man shines in his grey hair. This may be true, but it affords little satisfaction for men or women approaching middle life, who watch the encroach of the graying hair with a sickening realization of the fact that the noonday of life for them has been passed, and that the tide of the years is hurrying them towards the Land of the Slanting Shadows.

Were it possible to dye the hair without it being obvious that it is dyed, it might perhaps be excusable to resort to colouring the hair a little nearer to the heart's desire. But it is rarely possible to stain the hair so that the crows' feet around the eyes and the little sagging wrinkles in the cheek do not show, anyhow. Further than this there is very grave danger of being poisoned by the sugar of lead, cyanide of potassium, nitrate of silver, and other poisonous materials that usually form the base of hair dyes. Also, very serious diseases of the scalp may result from the irritation of these poisons, and even complete loss of hair may follow in certain instances.

Medical authorities maintain, however, that a perfectly safe hair dye can be made by adding ten parts of the juice of black walnut shells to ninety parts of sixty per cent alcohol. This mixture should be allowed to stand for ten days and then filtered.

Some also recommend the use of sage and sulphur. There are a number of these preparations on the market, which at least have the advantage of being quite harmless.

Where grey hair takes on a peculiar yellowish tinge, which is a sort of nondescript betwixt-and-between, some very excellent results have been secured by a weekly rinsing of the head after the shampoo with a solution of purple ink.

The ink should be used exactly as bluing is used in rinsing clothes, a small quantity being mixed with the water in the rinsing basin and the hair thoroughly saturated with this solution, the excess of which is then dried off.

I have known of several instances in which excessive greying of the hair has been prevented by this means, and a beautiful iron-grey colour maintained for years and years.

Some people get excellent results by the use of sage tea, made by steeping a tablespoonful of sage leaves in a cup of water. This is to be applied by dampening the fingers in the sage tea and rubbing the solution thoroughly into the hair, taking care that the hair near the scalp is especially well treated.

What causes grey hair

When the cause of grey hair is recognized, and the reasons for the loss of its pigment are understood, the preventive will suggest itself. First, of course, is the necessity for maintaining sound physical health—for ill-health and grey hair are twin brothers of middle age. Worry must be avoided wherever possible, for this induces oiliness, and the nutrition of the follicles is affected. This is probably due to an over circulation of the blood in the scalp, which causes the over activity of the oil glands.

Anxiety, fear, melancholy thoughts, Chronic headaches or pain from neuralgia —any condition that produces a drain on the nervous energy—helps the hair towards greyness. Broken rest, insomnia, restlessness, heavy business cares, overwork and nerve strain may hasten the process of whitening.

Fevers, and wasting diseases—such as tuberculosis, anemia and malnutrition—are frequent causes for grey hair.

It may run in families

The tendency towards grey hair seems me of the easiest things to inherit. If your mother or father became grey early n life, it is more than likely that you will to likewise. A mother who had grey hair a thirty-five would be quite likely to pass his tendency on to her daughter. And it you'd be foolish and futile to waste time and energy in lamenting so natural and inevitable an incident.

Hair that turns white in a single night

Hardly a person but can recall one or more instances of friends or relatives to whom great grief or sorrow has come who became grey in an incredibly short time. There are cases on record, however, of those who turned grey in a night. Dr. Pavey relates the case of a soldier who was taken prisoner, deprived of his uniform, and, entirely nude, was surrounded by his captors and questioned. He began to tremble violently and showed great terror and despair—indeed, he seemed actually stupefied by fear. In the space of scarcely half an hour his coal black hair had turned uniformly gray over his entire head.

Dr. Lebar of Paris reports a case of a soldier, age thirty-three, who, having been blown into the air by a mine explosion, next day had locks of white hair on the left side of the head. The de-coloration of the hair was complete from end to end, the long and short hairs being affected alike.

There are any number of cases in medical literature proving that terror, for some unknown reason, wrings the pigment out of the hair, causing greyness. In one interesting case, mentioned by Dr. Heinicke, the hair turned grey over the left side of the scalp periodically, under psychic exaltation, lasted for a few hours or days, and then resumed its normal colour.

What can be done for grey hair

As a rule, in an individual of an age to whom grey hair would be natural, nothing can be done to permanently restore the colour of the hair outside of those methods that will help you to regain and retain youthful vitality and spirits. It is, of course, obvious that if the condition is due to neuralgia, headache, pains of any kind, worry, anxiety, or bodily illness, the removal of the cause of the trouble will certainly affect beneficially the colour of the hair.

Much can be done to improve the condition of the scalp and thereby to better the nutrition of the hair. First, the scalp must be kept scrupulously clean; regular shampoos, with pure soap and water will be found helpful. Excessive dryness may be treated in some cases by the use of olive oil or lanoline. The general health as stated must in every case be improved. Nervousness and insomnia must be corrected.

It is quite possible that when we know more about the functions of the so-called ductless glands, and about the mysteries of the sympathetic nervous system, we will understand more clearly certain fundamental causes for grey hair.

In this connection I may say that I have frequently noted the close relationship between grey hair and chalky teeth. Those who are troubled with very soft, easily destroyed teeth seem doomed to become prematurely grey. Inasmuch as hair, teeth and finger nails have the same origin, it is quite likely that certain physical underlying causes which affect one may affect all.