A moderate amount of sunlight is helpful.
For mild dandruff, you can use a lotion which your druggist may have in stock
or your physician can prescribe: Mercuric bichloride 0.26 gram Euresol 8.0 cc
Spirit of formic acid 30.0 cc Castor oil 8.0 cc Alcohol sufficient to make 240
cc Apply the lotion two or three times a week, rubbing it into the scalp. For
persistent dandruff, an ointment can be used, either Pragmatar, which is made
by Smith, Kline & French Co., or one your druggist can compound: Sulfur 2
grams Salicylic acid 2 grams Water 10 grams Aquaphor sufficient to make 30
grams Massage a small amount of either ointment into the scalp at night and remove
the following morning by shampooing and rinsing. Use only a small amount so the
ointment will not cling to the hair and be difficult to remove.
Oily dandruff can be more difficult to
clear up. Apply a pure oil such as olive oil a short time before shampooing, to
help loosen scales. Add " drop or two (no more) of ammonia to the rinse
water, and rub a little vegetable or mineral oil into the scalp afterward.
Again, it is important to use great care to prevent re-infecting yourself with
your comb and brush; cleanse them thoroughly and often. And be sure any beauty
parlor or barber shop you visit uses only sterilized combs and brushes. Almost
every type of dandruff, including the severe type accompanied by itching,
crusting, or inflammation (seborrheic dermatitis), will improve when treated
with a selenium sulfide preparation (Selsun). You will need a prescription from
your physician to obtain it. Alboline, Sebulix, Silicare, and Silicote are
useful non-greasy preparations, but no preparation we know of actually cures
dandruff. The main value of an effective preparation is that it keeps the
dandruff under control and makes you wash and brush your hair regularly. Some
people like to finish up with a plain shampoo after using a medicated
preparation.
Gray Hair Pigment, of course, determines
hair color. And hair grays because, for some reason still not understood
completely, air spaces form in the hair shaft replacing pigment-usually in
middle age, though it may happen prematurely. Graying, despite the stories you
may hear, does not happen overnight, although illness has been known to cause
rapid onset of gray- ing. As yet, there is no solid evidence that vitamins or
anything else can prevent graying or restore original color to hair which has
turned gray.
Hair Bleaching Hair can be bleached by
ordinary hydrogen peroxide to which a drop of ammonia has been added. Sodium
perborate bleaches can be harmful. And all bleaching, in fact, tends to alter
hair texture. It is to be expected that new hairs, and new portions of hair
round the roots, will grow in with the original color. The Skin, Hair, and
Nails / 183 Hair Dyes Hair can also be tinted or dyed.
