The Beauty of Gray Hair

If one morning, Madam, you look at yourself in the mirror and your eyes fall upon the first white hair on your head, you will most likely feel a pang of sorrow and regret in your heart, for you imagine old age has come, and you speak of that morning, saying: "On that ill-omened morning I saw the first white hair on my head!" Then you heave a burning sigh and say: "The fingertips of old age have begun to touch my hair! I have grown old and feeble." But wait — have done with this empty talk, for gray strikes young girls just as it strikes the elderly, and how many are the causes of graying! It may come as the result of an illness or a nervous shock (which in the colloquial we call a "fright"), or it may come by way of heredity, for some people naturally turn gray before others. There is therefore no cause for alarm and panic, and it is not right to consider gray hair proof that the body has lost any of its vitality — except in the case of old age, naturally; but most cases of graying do not mean that the body has lost its vitality and strength.

If your brow is smooth and radiant, but crowned with hair into which some silver color has crept, you ought not to create wrinkles in that radiant brow by worrying over the matter. Those white hairs may make you look a year or two older than you are, but on the whole they give you an air of distinction which the wise woman knows how to turn to account and profit by.

And do not suppose, Madam, that we forbid you to take what measures are possible to keep the gray from spreading through the whole of your hair. But we advise you to let your first look be at your health, and to attend to it, for gray hair often appears after an illness, or after a spell of exhausting work or heavy worry, so that the condition of the hair may be taken as a good gauge of the general state of health. Go, then, to your doctor and ask him for a good tonic, and remember that there are certain vitamin compounds that can halt graying; if you ask your doctor, he will tell you quite enough about them.

Let your second look be at the condition of the scalp, for one of the most important things in halting grayness is to massage the scalp well with certain tonics made especially for stopping gray hair. The massage should be carried out with the fingertips of both hands, the fingers moving in a circular motion so that the scalp itself moves under the movement of the fingers, for this is the best way to set the blood circulating in the skin — and that is the whole object of the massage.

Grayness often appears in the wake of a roughening of the scalp and the appearance of "dandruff." The treatment for dandruff is to massage the scalp vigorously with a good extract of juniper oil — of the pine family — known as tar oil, so that the oil seeps down to the roots of the hair; then wash your head with a special soap made from pine-juniper oil, and brush your hair hard, evening and morning, with a stiff-bristled brush.

But when the hair has turned gray for certain, we advise you to leave it as it is. How many women advanced in years have spoiled the dignity of their appearance by dyeing their white hair! And, regrettably, they very often choose to dye it a red in which there is no trace of beauty, with ruinous results for their looks. No, Madam, do not dye your hair; the best thing you can do, when the gray multiplies in it, is to wear clothes that go with its color. Choose your hair oil with care, brush your hair until it shines, then arrange it in an elegant, attractive style, for gray hair needs more care in dressing, and elaborate, artful stylings become it. Those loose, simple stylings that suit the hair of a blonde girl do not become it, for such stylings make the hair look tousled and untidy. There are kinds of hair soap made especially for gray hair, which improve its color and give it a lovely sheen and a life it did not have; use them, and choose from among them those whose color inclines to a pale blue.

And if your face is sallow, use the special compresses for the face to bring freshness into the skin. And if the skin of your face is dry and parched, use a good paste to soften and smooth it.