Baldness - Victorian Health and Medicine

BALDNESS. The proximate cause of the falling off of the hair is an insufficiency of nourishment in the pores of that part of the skin where the hair has been accustomed to grow. This will be the more clearly understood, when it is known that each hair has a separate existence in a tubular form, which, in order to sustain its vitality, imbibes a certain amount of moisture given out by the pores of the skin; when this sustenance is from any cause withheld, the hair withers and falls away, in the same manner that the stem of a plant, when deprived of its sap, droops and decays.

Baldness is ordinarily accepted as one of the natural indications of approaching age; but when it occurs in the early stages of life, it is then unnatural, and assumes the form of a disease. Sometimes it shows itself by a general falling off of the hair, while at other times the diminution is partial, and confined to round or irregular patches. Under these circumstances, the disorder is more frequently the result of a want of mere local vigour, than the consequence of constitutional decline; and the remedy mainly depends upon stimulating applications energetically and unremittingly employed.

General baldness is preceded by an unusual loosening of the hair, which, upon combing or brushing, comes off in large quantities. In order to arrest this, persons who have short hair, should immerse the head in cold water morning and night, dry the hair thoroughly, and then brush the scalp until a warm glow is produced. With females, however, who wear the hair long, this mode of proceeding is almost impracticable, on account of the difficulty experienced in drying the hair; it is better, therefore, in these cases to brush the scalp until redness and a warm glow are produced, and then rub in among the roots of the hair a lotion compounded as follows:

Eau-de-cologne, two ounces; tincture of cantharides, two drachms; oil of lavender, and rosemary, of each ten drops.

Apply this to the head once or twice daily, until the growth of the hair is restored. But if the scalp become sore, the treatment must be discontinued for a time, or practised at less frequent intervals.

When the baldness occurs in patches, the skin should be well brushed with a soft tooth-brush which has been dipped in distilled vinegar, and afterwards brushed in the manner previously pointed out. Both these modes of treatment are prescribed by Dr. Erasmus Wilson, who has for many years made the diseases of the skin and the hair his peculiar study.

Persons afflicted with baldness should scrupulously avoid having recourse to the many advertised specifics for restoring the hair; for in many instances these nostrums not only fail to effect the remedy they pretend to, but also produce injurious results by the application of deleterious ingredients, which corrode the pores and irritate the scalp. See HAIR, PRESERVATION OF, and SCALLED HEAD.

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